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
