Category: chess960

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Freestyle Chess with Draft #2 Results

Well, the inevitable happened last week when ten-year-old Austin Chen (I think he’s but ten) tied for first place with Breakwell Loyalka in our five-round Freestyle Chess with Draft tournament, one with a relatively short (for the variant) G/5;d3 time control. Austin and Breakwell played some nice games en route to their 4.5 out of 5 scores, with Austin grinding down both me and Sanat Singhal in what were likely drawn rook and pawn endgames while Breakwell won a wild final-round game against WFM Olivia Smith. Olivia, Hugo Pu and Raghav Ramesh tied for third with 3.5 points. The full results are in the attached image and thank you to everyone who joined us for this fun variant tournament.

This Thursday we’ll hold yet another casual evening with a lecture at 6:30pm followed by a free, unrated blitz tournament round 7pm. Also, we will proceed with our autumn quick-rated quads beginning September 25th so if you wish to play and have not yet registered for that event please do so asap here. Regards,

Mark Drury

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Alex Chin Lecture & Blitz Tournament Tomorrow Night

Just a brief message to let everyone know the double-round, quick rated quads will not begin this week, as planned, but will go ahead on September 25th per the updated events page here: https://menloparkchess.club/events/ — please register for that event soon if you plan to play. This week, with Frisco needing to attend the Valkyries game at Chase Center, Alex Chin has stepped up to regale us with one of his recent, interesting tournament games, so please plan to be at the club round 6:30pm to enjoy Alex’s lecture and game analysis (and thank you, Alex, for offering to fill Frisco’s very large shoes this week!).

After Alex’s lecture we’ll hold another blitz tournament round 7pm, as ever, but note that the following week, September 11th, will include both a lecture and a Freestyle Chess (Chess960) Draft Tournament, something which has been popular in the past. No need to register ahead of time for that event but do try to be at the club by 6:30pm for the lecture and so we can play freestyle round 7pm.

I hope to see many of you at the club this week and next! Regards,

Mark Drury

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Freestyle #1 w/Draft Results

We had our first Freestyle Chess/Chess960 event in some time this past Thursday and decided to make it a draft event, where 26 players took turns placing pieces on the back rank to effectively choose their own shared starting position. The time control was G/5;d3 and play proceeded a little slower than expected, constraining us to just four total rounds when all was said and done. That was sufficient to arrive at a single winner with a score of 4 out of 4 points, however, and it may come as little surprise to learn that winner was once again Pranav Jindal. No fewer than five players tied for second with 3 points: Zelin Fang, Hayden Brongersma, Evan Sobel, Hugo Pu and Sushant Shankar, yet another strong showing from our junior players, who seem to be getting markedly better with each passing week. Full results are in the attached image and thank you to everyone who joined us for this interesting and important chess “variant”!

#PlayerRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Total
1Pranav JindalB 13W 4B 3W 2
1.02.03.04.04.0
2Zelin FangB 20W 5B 10B 1
1.02.03.03.03.0
3Hayden BrongersmaB 22W 12W 1B 7
1.02.02.03.03.0
4Evan SobelW 24B 1W 20B 15
1.01.02.03.03.0
5Hugo PuW 18B 2W 23B 11
1.01.02.03.03.0
6Sushant ShankarB 15W 22B 18W 10
0.01.02.03.03.0
7Frisco Del RosarioW 14B 11W 8W 3
1.01.52.52.52.5
8Josen KalraW 21B 17B 7W 16
1.01.51.52.52.5
9Mark Drurybyebyebyebye
0.51.01.52.02.0
10Venugopal ManiB 23W 15W 2B 6
1.02.02.02.02.0
11Austin ChenB 25W 7B 16W 5
1.01.52.02.02.0
12Jeff McGinnisW 27B 3W 15B 20
1.01.01.02.02.0
13Cameron TroyW 1B 18W 26B 23
0.00.01.02.02.0
14Vinayak VikramB 7W 23B 24W 22
0.00.01.02.02.0
15Michael FineW 6B 10B 12W 4
1.01.02.02.02.0
16Di LinW 17B 24W 11B 8
0.01.01.51.51.5
17Sam BB 16W 8—-—-
1.01.5U1.5U1.51.5
18Brian ChenB 5W 13W 6B 21
0.01.01.01.51.5
19Lucas Charrette—-—-W 21B 26
U0.0U0.00.51.51.5
20Michael SherrardW 2B 27B 4W 12
0.01.01.01.01.0
21Asher SekharB 8W 25B 19W 18
0.00.00.51.01.0
22Alfred DavisW 3B 6W 27B 14
0.00.01.01.01.0
23Carolyn TravisW 10B 14B 5W 13
0.01.01.01.01.0
24Lucian LiuB 4W 16W 14B 27
0.00.00.01.01.0
25Sean LangleyW 11B 21—-—-
0.01.0U1.0U1.01.0
26Allen Liu—-byeB 13W 19
U0.00.50.50.50.5
27Arjun ThathooB 12W 20B 22W 24
0.00.00.00.00.0