Category: blitz

Last Thursday we were treated to Frisco’s excellent lecture on the games and character of the late Daniel Naroditsky, whose passing deeply affected the many members of our club who knew him. I never met Daniel but everything I’ve heard and read about him makes clear the magnitude of the loss his untimely death is for the world-wide chess community. There was a celebration of his life and legacy (one of many, I’m sure) in San Mateo this past Sunday and I hope more than a few of you were able to attend and share what Daniel meant to you and to those who knew him and his work.

After the lecture we held another 7-round Swiss blitz affair with G//5+0, a time control we don’t use all that often and one which left a number of people pining away for any increment or delay, self included. Pranav Jindal was upset in the first round by perennial threat Venugopal Mani before righting the ship and notching six straight victories for sole first place, including a final-round victory against the ever more formidable Austin Chen. Austin tied for second with Alex Chin at 5.0 points while returning player William Mandrusov and junior Caleb Leong shared 4th place at 4.5. Full results are in the attached image, thank you to everyone who played in this event and congratulations to our winners!

This Thursday night, after our lecture, we will once again assay Alaric Stein’s A4c variant, our third such event with this format and it proved very popular the first two times we gave it a try. The event is free and unrated (no need to register in advance) and more information may be found here:

https://menloparkchess.club/event/a4c-variant-tournament-3/

Please let me know if you have any questions and I hope to see many of you at the club tomorrow night. Regards,

Mark Drury

Twenty-four people joined us for our Impromptu Blitz #48 last week, another 7-round G/4+2 affair which produced no real surprises where the final results were concerned. Alex Chin claimed another sole first place with 6.0 out of 7, with his only loss a tough game against Breakwell Loyalka, a name we’re seeing far more of in these summaries. Hayden Brongersma and first-time club visitor and Bay Area chess stalwart Cailen Melville tied for second at 5.5, while Breakwell was alone in fourth at 5.0 followed by a raft of strong if vexed players at 4.0. I suppose after 48 iterations of these blitz tournaments it’s time to lose the “Impromptu” title and I’m thinking of ways to change the format to make it more league-like, with results over several weeks or months leading to prizes and the like—more to come about that soon. Full results are in the attached image and thank you to everyone who joined us for this tournament.

We still have some spots available in our double-round quick-rated quads or small Swisses which begin this Thursday. Note that there will be no on-site registration for this event, given I need to set up the groups ahead of time, so if you wish to play please register today, if at all possible (if you didn’t receive email from the club address today stating you are registered for the event you are not currently in the tournament):

Autumn Double-Round Quick-Rated Quads, Rounds 1-2

I’m once again sharing the results of last week’s impromptu blitz tournament a little late but we enjoyed another great turnout, with several first-time visitors rounding out the 26-player field for six rounds of G/5+0. There were a number of upsets in this event but seeing Hayden Brongersma and Pranav Jindal share first at 5.0 out of 6 is no surprise these days, while junior Hugo Pu had an excellent showing at 4.5 points for sole third, ahead of some very strong players. The full results are in the attached image and thank you to everyone who played in this event!

I would also like to thank Alex Chin once again for sharing his very nice Smith-Morra Gambit tournament win with us while Frisco was otherwise engaged at a Valkyries game. As someone who plays the Sicilian and who regularly loses to the Smith-Morra it was both a pleasure and a pain to watch Alex’s crushing position unfold during his lecture. If any others among our membership would like to share a game with the club please let me know and we can work you in to the lecture rotation at some point.

Tonight we’ll have another lecture at 6:30pm followed by the promised Freestyle Chess/Chess960 event with a draft (details here). I haven’t yet settled on a time control or number of rounds so the first few people at the club this evening will make that call for me. I hope to see many of you tonight! Regards,

Mark Drury

We enjoyed another good turnout for last night’s lecture (thanks, Frisco!) and G/5+0 blitz tournament of six rounds and, suffice to say, many of us floundered without the benefit of a delay or increment (though most seemed to like the time control). After six long rounds, then, Hayden Brongersma and Alex Chin stood alone atop the wall chart, the lone “blemish” in either’s score a shared draw in round 4. Sanat Singhal took sole third with 4.5 points and clipped me on the way to that score in an interesting From’s Gambit, one which could have gone either way. It was also great to see Alaric Stein again last night, who shared fourth with Pranav, Cameron and Alex. Full results are in the attached image and thank you to everyone who joined us for this event.

Note that the club will NOT meet next week, August 28th, given the Arrillaga Center will be closed then, but we will hold another casual evening with a lecture and blitz tournament the following week, September 4th. We will also postpone our quick-rated event to later in September or early October and will instead run a number of variant tournaments next month–more details about that will be shared soon. Regards,

Mark Drury

I’m finally getting round to sharing the results from last week’s 7-round, G/3;d3 blitz tournament, one which featured a number of upsets and dramatic time scrambles, not least of which was Josen Kalra’s scintillating effort against Pranav Jindal in round 4, though Pranav recovered nicely to win the event with 6 out of 7 points. Josen and perennial wall-chart-topper Hayden Brongersma tied for second at 5 points while Yash Shah and Austin Chen split 4th place with 4.5 points. For my part, my angry Bird’s Opening got the better of three strong junior players, players who normally have no trouble dispatching me in these blitz events, so I’m pondering retirement from competitive blitz play at the club while I’m ahead (the probability of my ever again besting the same three players in the same evening is very near zero, frankly). Congratulations to our winners, full results are in the attached image and thank you to everyone who joined us last week.

Tonight we’ll do pretty much the same, with a lecture beginning at 6:30pm followed by another free, unrated blitz tournament round 7pm, though we’ll opt for a different time control—much as people appear to like G/3;d3 it’s getting a little stale. I hope to see many of you at the club this evening! Regards,

Mark Drury

We had another good turnout at the club last week with several first-time visitors joining us for the lecture and free blitz tournament. After seven rounds of G/3;d3 schadenfreude Hayden Brongersma stood alone atop the wall chart with a perfect 7-0 score, followed a point behind by Pranav Jindal in sole second, while we dropped down to 4.5 points to pick up the four-way tie for third between Gabe Sanchez, Josen Kalra and juniors Austin Chen and Surya Raghav. Two other young players, Cameron Troy and Max Cheung, also had excellent results in this event, foretelling the inevitable changing of the chess guard, as it were. Full results are in the attached image and thank you to everyone who joined us for this fun, free tournament.

At present we have just eight people registered for our August quick-rated quads so I plan to postpone that event some number of weeks, perhaps into early  September (the 4th or 11th). We could proceed if we get 4-8 more registrations this week so I’ll make the final call tomorrow, Wednesday, and I apologize for the uncertainty round our schedule. Note that if we do proceed with the rated event we’ll also have a skittles room open for those who wish to play casual games or even a concurrent, unrated blitz event. As always, please let me know if you have any questions and I hope to see many of you at the club this week.

Mark Drury