Second Club Championship Round 1 Pairings

Below are the pairings for round one of our club championship, beginning promptly at 7pm Thursday, October 26th, 2023. Please call Mark Drury at 650-400-6393 if you are unable to play for any reason and try to arrive no later than 6:50pm to check in. Regards,

Mark Drury

Bd#ResWhite#ResBlack
11ALEX CHIN17KORNEL CSERNAI
218HAMDANIL RASYID2PRANAV JINDAL
33RAMKUMAR JEYARAMAN19DHRITEE DESAI
420ANTON BOBKOV4TOBIN BENNION
55JIALIN WU21BANKS BENNION
623HAYDEN SCOTT BRONGERSMA6LIAM LIU
77CESAR TAMONDONG24FADI ARODAKI
825P JEFFREY UNGAR8JOSEN SINGH KALRA
99JEFFREY D MCGINNIS26UMAR RASYID
1027PAUL HARTEL10DAVID ZHAO
1111MICHAEL LESLIE SHERRARD28MICHAEL DARR
1229PARAMDEEP SINGH12SAMUEL AGDAMAG
1313NIKITA GRINKIN30SIDDHARTH KALRA
1432GREGORY GAUTHIER14TAEWOO KIM
1515CHASE WANG33JEFFERSON MATEO
1634HUGO PU16LASHA LAKIRBAIA
 22½ATUL DHINGRA  BYE
 31½AMOGH RAO  BYE

COVID Continues

I tested positive again for COVID late last night so I won’t be at the club Thursday and our championship will now be delayed an additional two weeks, given I was already planning to be out of town October 19th. The new start date is October 26th, then continuing the weeks of November 2nd, 9th, 16th and 30th (the 23rd is Thanksgiving, no chess). This change may or may not work for some of you who have registered or added your name to our wait list so please let me know if you wish to withdraw or take a bye on one of the indicated days. You may also review the details of this event, as well as update/cancel your registration or add yourself to the wait list here: https://menloparkchess.club/…/second-menlo-park-chess…/.

This Thursday and October 19th will be casual, blitz, bughouse and ladder chess game evenings–please bring your own equipment if you plan to attend: https://menloparkchess.club/events/. I hope you see many of you on October 26th! Regards,

Mark Drury

I, COVID (Club Championship Delayed)

Well, after three and a half years of deftly avoiding the infernal virus my wife and I tested positive for COVID Tuesday afternoon. Kim feels worse than I do and may have gotten it earlier (my symptoms are like a bad cold with body aches but will likely worsen). This clearly throws a wrench in the club championship which was supposed to begin Thursday but I’m hoping I’ll test negative well before October 12th and perhaps we can begin then (I’m reasonably certain I wasn’t contagious last Thursday). This again highlights the need for another tournament director in the club, when my absences would be a non-issue. I know a few members are interested in directing so perhaps we can make this happen early next year.

You are still welcome to stop by the club Thursday, of course, but you’ll need to bring your own equipment and set up the room for play (and return the tables to the center of the room before you leave). I’m very sorry for the delay but I’m certain everyone understands, and I hope to see many of you at the club next week! Regards,

Mark Drury

Club Championship Playoff Results

Our club championship blitz playoff for the 2nd-3rd overall, Under-1500 and Under-1000 prizes took place this past Wednesday in our skittles room and, after all the flags fell, Pranav Jindal took 2nd with 2.5/3 points, Andy Shih secured 3rd with 1.5 points and Cesar Tamondong and Aaron Cho tied for 4th-5th with 1 point apiece (Pranav and Andy are pictured together, below).

The U1500 group was all tied after the first round robin with each player securing the needed 1 point, but Peter Roumeliotis prevailed in the second go-round, winning the first two games against Roshan Mahanth and Anton Bobkov. Oisin Harrington wasn’t able to join us for the U1000 playoff so Banks Bennion and Benjamin Sergeant played a best-of-three blitz match, one wherein Banks’ savvy use of the clock and excellent play got the better of Benjamin over two games (Peter and Banks are also pictured below with their winnings).

Congratulations to all of our playoff contestants and winners and, again, thank you to everyone who played in this event–please let me know if you have any feedback, good or bad, which will help make future tournaments better. Regards,

Mark Drury

Club Championship Final Standings

Wednesday’s final round of our club championship offered up yet more exciting chess and a number of time scrambles which impacted the standings, and when all was said and done unrated Adithya Karavadi (pictured below on the left) stood alone atop the wall chart with 4.5 out of 5 points. Adithya’s first provisional rating will likely be Expert level when this event is rated, which should occur no later than Monday or Tuesday. Five people tied for second place with 4 points: Pranav Jindal, Aaron Cho, Andy Shih, Daniel Francis and Cesar Tamondong. Well done, all of you!

Roshan Mahanth, Anton Bobkov and Peter Roumeliotis tied for the Under-1500 prize with 3 points apiece, while the Under-1000 prize also saw a 3-way tie between Oisin Harrington, Benjamin Sergeant and Banks Bennion, all at 2 points. The ties will be settled over the board next week with some friendly G/5+0 blitz to determine who takes home the remaining premium club set and board prizes, a spectacle which may alone merit attendance this coming Wednesday.

Congratulations to Adithya and a huge thank you to everyone who played in or stopped by to spectate our first club championship–hopefully we’ll hold the same event same time next year! Regards,

Mark Drury

Club Championship Round 4 Results

We again had some very exciting games come down to the final seconds of the time control in round 4 of our club championship–improbable draws were salvaged and tough-fought seeming wins lost in the proceedings and it was a great deal of fun to be a spectator rather than a player in many cases.

Below are the round 5 pairings for tomorrow night (final round of the tournament) as well as the championship standings thus far. As a reminder, if we have ties for the 1st-3rd (2nd-3rd is really the only possibility), U1500 or U1000 prizes we’ll hold a blitz chess playoff the following week (G/5+0, number of games determined by number of players). Please let me know if you have any questions and I look forward to more exciting games during the final round on November 9th! Regards,

Mark Drury

Club Championship Round 3 Results

We had an excellent round 3 with a number of very exciting games! As we get deeper into the tournament the pairings are evening out somewhat and many of Wednesday’s games again came down to the final few minutes of the time control. More than a few of the games merit review by everyone in the club and I’ll share those after I get everything added to our Lichess study.

I’ve included two attachments with this post: one showing the round 3 results and the tentative round 4 pairings and another showing ratings changes based on the USCF formula as calculated by the SwissSys software. I have not validated this ratings report but I’m guessing it’s reasonably or wholly correct, given US Chess endorses SwissSys. I decided to share the parings early (on Facebook) because they offer so many good matchups that I’m hoping we get no additional bye requests for the round. Given a few people asked last night, I’d also like to remind everyone that this is a 5-round event, so this Wednesday is not the final round.

Please let me know if you have any questions and thank you again to everyone who is playing in this tournament–it’s been a great deal of fun thus far! Regards,

Mark Drury

Club Championship Round 1 Results

No fewer than 40 aspirants to the mantle “Menlo Park Chess Club Champion” took part in round one of our tournament Wednesday evening and, despite it being the first round of a single-section Swiss event, when contests are typically more lopsided, there were a good many close games which came down to the final minutes or seconds of the G/60 d/5 time control.

Truth be told, we had more people who wished to play in this event than we were able to accommodate, given we had access to just the Cypress and skittles rooms for tournament play—the Oak Room, into which we typically overflow, was occupied by another group early in the evening. Yet another reason to register online early for our more popular events.

I have the pairings for round 2 and will share those no later than Monday, and will also complete the Lichess study with round 1 games over the weekend, perhaps as early as Friday. Thank you again to everyone who joined us for round one of this event!

— Mark Drury