There will be no chess club meeting September 3rd but we will meet September 10th, when our rated Copa del Menlo tournament begins (see the Events page to register now).

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

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

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