Category: general

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More Schedule Changes & Impromptu Blitz #35 Results


Apologies for the short notice (and the long message) but I am out of town today and next Thursday and will not be at the club either evening, regrettably, but we still plan to meet for casual play and Frisco’s lecture beginning at 6:30pm. If some of you are able to arrive early, round 6:15pm or so, to help set up the room that would be great. Having a few people help put away all the chess sets and boards round 8:45pm or earlier is also important, given the desk attendant, Harold, is typically ready to march out the door at 9pm sharp.

The chess equipment (boards and pieces) are in the usual cabinet in the Willow Room–Harold and several members know where it is stored. Note that the club chess clocks won’t be available this evening given they are at my home so please bring your clock or download one of the free apps onto your phone if you would like to play timed games tonight. Next week the club clocks will again be available.

Another scheduling change is that for our dual-rated G/45;d5 event, which will now begin May 8th and not next week. Sriram and I were looking at our calendars and it simply makes more sense to run that event in May, when we wouldn’t need a protracted break between rounds. I’ll follow up with everyone who has registered thus far with more details and will ask about continued interest in participating, bye requests, possible entry fee refunds and the like.

Lastly, we held one of our oddest impromptu blitz tournaments last week with a double-round G/1+5 (game in 1 minute with a 5-second increment) affair and, suffice to say, reviews were mixed on the time control. It was too short for an enjoyable blitz experience yet too long to warrant the double-round format, with sentiment seeming that most were glad to have tried it but don’t wish to do so again. When all eight rounds were finished Hayden Brongersma stood atop the field of 22 with 7 out of 8 points, followed a half point back by perennial wall chart-topper Pranav Jindal. Yash Shah and Liam Liu shared third at 6 points while relative newcomer Di Lin was alone in fifth at 5.0. Full results are in the attached image, thank you to everyone who slogged through this event with us and know that we’ll stick to more conventional blitz formats in the future. Regards,

Mark Drury

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Schedule Updates

As some of you know, we were not able to play chess at the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center last week due, in the end, to a simple clerical error: the facility director didn’t have us “on the schedule” for the night and, thus, we couldn’t use their room for legal/liability reasons. A number of adults made the best of things by walking the two blocks to Barebottle Brewing Co. for chess and libations, but I do sincerely apologize to those of you who made the trek to the club and played no chess for your pains. I remained at the center until 7:20pm so hopefully I was able to get word of the cancelation to everyone who showed up that evening.

On the bright side, we are once again “on the schedule” and will meet this Thursday, April 3rd, for another casual evening with a lecture at 6:30 followed by a free, unrated blitz tournament round 7pm. Round one of the dual-rated tournament originally scheduled for tomorrow will now start on April 17th and the event will run over five weeks with rounds 2, 3 and 4 occurring April 24th, May 8th and May 15th, respectively (the week of May 1st will be another casual evening with a lecture and blitz tournament).

The club Events page (https://menloparkchess.club/events/) includes the full schedule through the end of May and if you wish to play in the dual-rated tournament now beginning on April 17th please register asap at:

https://menloparkchess.club/event/april-dual-rated-g-45d5-swiss-in-two-sections-round-one

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or comments and I look forward to seeing many of you at the club soon. Regards,

Mark Drury

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Recent Tournament Results & Updates

I’m sharing the results from a couple of our recent impromptu blitz tournaments (attached images) and wanted to pass along that we’ll hold another free, unrated blitz tournament tomorrow evening beginning promptly at 7pm. Depending upon entries we may have one single section, as below, or we may break players into groups of 6, 8 or more to create more equitable sections. Please plan to arrive at the club by 6:30 to partake of Frisco’s excellent lecture before the tournament (last week’s explication of the mating pattern with king, bishop and knight versus king was a revelation to me and may be worth repeating soon).

Also, Chris Torres and I are trying to nail down the next rated club tournament, which could begin as early as August 1st, and I’ll share details here as soon as I have them. I hope to see many of you tomorrow, Thursday, evening! Regards,

Mark Drury

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Last Week’s Results & Upcoming Meetings

Yet another late update for the previous week: we enjoyed an excellent lecture from Frisco Del Rosario then assayed a longer time control in our first impromptu slightly-longer-than-blitz event, a G/7;d2 affair with 18 people joining the fray, and with yours truly being treated most shamefully over the board, it must be said. Andy Applebaum once again claimed first with a perfect 4-0, while Pranav Jindal, Adam Ferrell and Venugopal Mani tied for second a full point behind (3-0); full results for this event are in the attached image. People appeared to approve of the time control but the general thinking is that G/5 or less with some small delay affords more rounds and less waiting between rounds, so we’ll likely return to the faster time controls for our impromptu tournaments.

Frisco will give another lecture this Thursday evening beginning at 6:30pm sharp then we’ll play another free, unrated blitz event beginning shortly after 7pm. As a reminder, there will be no club meeting July 4th, given it’s a national holiday and I believe the Arrillaga Center will be closed, and I will be out of town July 11th but Frisco offered to host the club that evening for a lecture, casual play and/or a thematic tournament. Thank you once again for all you are doing for the club, Frisco!

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Unrated Quick & Impromptu Blitz #18 Tournament Results

Just a quick note to share the results from our previous two informal tournaments, with the unrated quick event taking place on the 6th (congratulations to Andy Applebaum, Breakwell Loyalka, and Austin Chen for meting out perfect scores in their respective sections) and our impromptu blitz #18 occurring last week, with first-time visitor Ashwin Hebbar claiming sole first ahead of a stacked if smaller field (four masters and several near-masters), while Adam Ferrell sat alone in second, enjoying his best showing yet in one of these blitz affairs. We’ll hold another imformal blitz tournament tomorrow evening and the first couple people to arrive at the club will choose the time control. In other news, Olivia Smith ran away with the most recent Tuesday Night Marathon at the Mechanics Institute, landing 1.5 points clear of second-place finisher IM Elliot Winslow. Great result, Olivia! The full results and all the games may be found via the following links:

https://www.milibrary.org/chess-tournaments/2024-summer-tuesday-night-marathon#standings

https://www.chess.com/events/2024-summer-tuesday-night-marathon

I hope to see many of you at the club tomorrow evening and, as always, please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Mark Drury

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Impromptu Blitz #17 Results

Twenty-six worthies competed in our Impromptu Blitz #17 last Thursday, including two first-time visitors and one returning member (great to see you again, Nicholas!). When all five rounds of G/5;d2 action were said and done Andy Applebaum and Frisco Del Rosario unsurprisingly shared equal first at 4.5 points—well done to both players! It is passing strange how Frisco rails against blitz on occasion (to be fair, in a learning context) yet never manages worse than first place in these events. Hayden Brongersma nabbed sole third with 4.0, another excellent result and clearly a harbinger of first place finishes to come. Full results are in the attached image, thank you to everyone who participated in this tournament and our next impromptu blitz will occur June 27th, per the club schedule found here: https://menloparkchess.club/events/.

Speaking of the schedule, please register in advance for the free, unrated A4c Variant tournament if you plan to play this Thursday—details and a registration link are here: https://menloparkchess.club/event/a4c-variant-tournament-2/.

And beginning June 6th we will commence another double-round quick-rated event of three rounds/weeks in sections of 4, 6 or 8 players, depending upon ratings distributions. Two games against the same opponent will be played each evening, one as white and one as black using the G/15;d5 time control. There is a $10 entry fee for this US Chess-rated event and the entire amount will be returned in the prize fund. More details and a registration link may be found here: https://menloparkchess.club/event/june-double-round-quick-rated-quads-round-1/.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions and I hope to see you at the A4c variant tournament this Thursday!

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Impromptu Blitz #15 Results

I meant to share the results from our previous impromptu blitz tournament sooner but had a very busy week this past—apologies for the delay. Per the wall chart below, Frisco Del Rosario enjoyed a perfect 5-0 score last Thursday, despite his open disdain for these faster time controls, while junior Hayden Brongersma managed sole second ahead of some stiff competition at 4-1 and David Zhao was alone in third with 3.5 points. Thank you to everyone who joined us for this tournament, as always!

Before last week’s tournament began Frisco gave a lecture on a Capablanca game from early in his career, one which ended with a number of sacrifices and a beautiful double-check mate. If you missed that lecture try to be at the club this evening round 6:30pm, when Frisco will review another Capa masterpiece—his justly famed rook ending against Tartakower from New York, 1924.

After Frisco’s lecture we’ll hold another G/5;d2 blitz tournament beginning round 7pm—I hope to see many of you this evening!

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Missed Opportunities

Well, we sampled yet another chess variant this past Thursday evening, one I’ll now dub “ACD” or “Absent Club Director,” my not-so-clever way of stating that I forgot about chess club until round 7:30pm that evening, something which had not yet happened in the two years and two months of the club’s existence.

Perhaps it was Leap Day, likely just senility, but suffice to say I worked in my company’s Fremont office Thursday and a number of coincidences conspired to make me think it was Wednesday. I only realized my error when I arrived home and began thinking about dinner—something triggered the “this doesn’t feel like Wednesday” revelation and subsequent scramble to the club round 7:30pm.

I’m very sorry to all those who were there that evening awaiting boards, pieces and clocks. We had quite a crowd looking forward to a blitz tournament, it seemed, and I appreciate your patience and good humor where my foibles are concerned, as always.

Note that the club will not meet this Thursday, March 7th, as previously announced but we will meet March 14th for a casual/blitz tournament evening and a longer, more formal event will follow the week after. Regards,

Mark Drury

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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

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MPCC Ladders

This evening we’ll host casual, blitz and bughouse play at the club but will also open up our Blitz and Quick ladders a little early for those seeking to climb either. The idea remains to run each ladder for three months and award points for ladder games as one would an ordinary Swiss, where a win is one point, a draw half a point and a loss zero points, and we may also incorporate a bonus for the person or persons who climb the most rungs during each three-month period.

As mentioned during the Quick Swiss last week, Chess.com is sponsoring some nice prizes, including 1-month Diamond memberships for three club members every month, which we will award to ladder participants based on monthly results, with some additional prizes awarded for one’s three-month performance. If you’ve read this far, you deserve a little prize already—please use the following link to get Chessable Pro free for one month, another benefit Chess.com is passing along to affiliate clubs such as ours: http://chessable.com/MenloParkChessClub.

More information about our ladders, along with rules and initial standings based upon our two most recent tournaments, may be found here: https://menloparkchess.club/ladders/ (if you wish to be added to either ladder just let me know). Questions? Send a message to info@menloparkchess.club or see me at the club tonight. Regards,

Mark Drury