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”!
| # | Player | Rd 1 | Rd 2 | Rd 3 | Rd 4 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pranav Jindal | B 13 | W 4 | B 3 | W 2 | |
| 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | ||
| 2 | Zelin Fang | B 20 | W 5 | B 10 | B 1 | |
| 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | ||
| 3 | Hayden Brongersma | B 22 | W 12 | W 1 | B 7 | |
| 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | ||
| 4 | Evan Sobel | W 24 | B 1 | W 20 | B 15 | |
| 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | ||
| 5 | Hugo Pu | W 18 | B 2 | W 23 | B 11 | |
| 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | ||
| 6 | Sushant Shankar | B 15 | W 22 | B 18 | W 10 | |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | ||
| 7 | Frisco Del Rosario | W 14 | B 11 | W 8 | W 3 | |
| 1.0 | 1.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | ||
| 8 | Josen Kalra | W 21 | B 17 | B 7 | W 16 | |
| 1.0 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | ||
| 9 | Mark Drury | bye | bye | bye | bye | |
| 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 10 | Venugopal Mani | B 23 | W 15 | W 2 | B 6 | |
| 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 11 | Austin Chen | B 25 | W 7 | B 16 | W 5 | |
| 1.0 | 1.5 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 12 | Jeff McGinnis | W 27 | B 3 | W 15 | B 20 | |
| 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 13 | Cameron Troy | W 1 | B 18 | W 26 | B 23 | |
| 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 14 | Vinayak Vikram | B 7 | W 23 | B 24 | W 22 | |
| 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 15 | Michael Fine | W 6 | B 10 | B 12 | W 4 | |
| 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 16 | Di Lin | W 17 | B 24 | W 11 | B 8 | |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | ||
| 17 | Sam B | B 16 | W 8 | —- | —- | |
| 1.0 | 1.5 | U1.5 | U1.5 | 1.5 | ||
| 18 | Brian Chen | B 5 | W 13 | W 6 | B 21 | |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 1.5 | ||
| 19 | Lucas Charrette | —- | —- | W 21 | B 26 | |
| U0.0 | U0.0 | 0.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | ||
| 20 | Michael Sherrard | W 2 | B 27 | B 4 | W 12 | |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | ||
| 21 | Asher Sekhar | B 8 | W 25 | B 19 | W 18 | |
| 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.0 | ||
| 22 | Alfred Davis | W 3 | B 6 | W 27 | B 14 | |
| 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | ||
| 23 | Carolyn Travis | W 10 | B 14 | B 5 | W 13 | |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | ||
| 24 | Lucian Liu | B 4 | W 16 | W 14 | B 27 | |
| 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | ||
| 25 | Sean Langley | W 11 | B 21 | —- | —- | |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | U1.0 | U1.0 | 1.0 | ||
| 26 | Allen Liu | —- | bye | B 13 | W 19 | |
| U0.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | ||
| 27 | Arjun Thathoo | B 12 | W 20 | B 22 | W 24 | |
| 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |