Club Championship Round 3 Wall Chart & Round One Bulletin

I wanted to post a quick update reminding people that we’ll be playing round 3 of our club championship this Thursday at 7pm, per the attached wall chart image. Please feel free to join us for Frisco’s 6:30pm lecture and to spectate the tournament games thereafter but we won’t be holding the typical free, unrated blitz tournament this week. We will have a skittles room available for those who wish to pick up a game or two and that room becomes reasonably active as the tournament games finish round 8pm.

Frisco is also creating an excellent tournament bulletin for each round and that for the first may be viewed here.

Please let me know if you have any questions about the club championship or about club events for the remainder of the year (https://menloparkchess.club/events/) and I hope to see you at the Arrillaga Center soon! Regards,

Mark Drury

October 16th Happenings & Club Championship

I wanted to share a quick update that the club’s Autumn Quads wrapped up last week, save for a few makeup games which will occur on the 23rd or 30th of this month, so tomorrow, October 16th, will include Frisco’s excellent lecture and a casual evening with a possible free, unrated blitz tournament to round out the night for those who are interested. One difference will be that I won’t attend tomorrow, given I’ll be out of town, but Hayden Brongersma, Jeff McGinnis and Hugo Pu have graciously offered to run the club in my stead. They will begin setting up round 6pm and if you are able to help them I’m sure it would be much appreciated. Casual, blitz, bughouse and hand-and-brain competition may complement any blitz tournament, I’m sure, so please plan to attend for some or all of the three hours, and thank you again, Hayden, Jeff and Hugo, for helping out!

I also wanted to send another reminder to register for our 4th annual club championship which begins November 6th, a 5-round G/45;d5 affair in one section over six weeks (no chess Thanksgiving week) that includes three or four different prize groups. This is our premier event and may very well be the most prestigious tournament north of Palo Alto and south of Atherton on the peninsula during the latter two months of the year. Details and a registration link may be found here: https://menloparkchess.club/event/fourth-menlo-park-chess-club-championship-round-one/. Regards,

Mark Drury

Quads Continue & Club Championship Registration Opens

Just a quick reminder that tonight we continue our quick-rated quads after Frisco’s 6:30pm lecture so there will be no blitz tournament this evening, while the final quad games will occur next Thursday, October 9th, to wrap up this event (the Events tab on the club website is up-to-date through early November, when our five-round club championship begins).

Speaking of our club championship, it begins November 6th and includes five rounds of dual-rated G/45;d5 chess, one game per evening over six weeks with a break during the Thanksgiving Holiday. Details about this fun event and a registration link may be found here:

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments or suggestions about club activities and I hope to see many of you at the club soon. Regards,

Mark Drury

Autumn Double-Round Quick-Rated Quads

Below are the complete wall charts and pairings for our Autumn Double-Round Quick-Rated Quads, which begin Thursday, September 25th. As a reminder, participants will play two games against the same opponent each evening, one as white and one as black. Players should arrive at the club no later than 6:50pm to be ready to start their first game at 7pm sharp. Chess boards, chess sets, chess clocks, score sheets and pens will be provided by the club but feel free to bring your own clock of you prefer. Our tournament rules summary is worthwhile reading if you are new to rated chess or need a refresher.

Quad One

#Name/Rating/IDRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Rd 5Rd 6TotalPrize
1Yoyo HeW 4B 4B 3W 3B 2W 2
1917 1517449100½1012.5$15
2Adam FerrellW 3B 3B 4W 4W 1B 1
1879 12644884100½102.5$15
3Jason WrightB 2W 2W 1B 1B 4W 4
1844 1270714701½0001.5
4Hayden BrongersmaB 1W 1W 2B 2W 3B 3
1838 31240441111½115.5$50

Quad Two

#Name/Rating/IDRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Rd 5Rd 6TotalPrize
1Breakwell LoyalkaW 4B 4B 3W 3W 2B 21st
1728 315695211111116.0$50
2Yaniv VinishW 3B 3B 4W 4B 1W 1
1705p 32105653110½002.5
3Mark DruryB 2W 2W 1B 1W 4B 4
1700 124593130000½00.5
4Hugo PuB 1W 1W 2B 2B 3W 3
1679 31093860001½½13.0$30

Quad Three

#Name/Rating/IDRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Rd 5Rd 6TotalPrize
1Austin ChenW 4B 4B 3W 3B 2W 2
1641 312932491111015.0$50
2Di LinW 3B 3B 4W 4W 1B 1
1555p 324023561½01103.5$30
3Kaio DeeterB 2W 2W 1B 1B 4W 4
1440 319519860½000F0F0.5
4Jeffrey McGinnisB 1W 1W 2B 2W 3B 3
1400 1319583000101F1F3.0

Quad Four

#Name/Rating/IDRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Rd 5Rd 6TotalPrize
1Steven SwickW 4B 4B 3W 3W 2B 2
unr. 325874961000001.0
2Caleb LeongW 3B 3B 4W 4B 1W 1
1284 3020784910½1114.5$50
3Cameron TroyB 2W 2W 1B 1B 4W 4
1233 306326210111014.0$30
4Vinayak VikramB 1W 1W 2B 2W 3B 3
1081 3100766301½0102.5

Quad Five

#Name/Rating/IDRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Rd 5Rd 6TotalPrize
1Lua LoyalkaW 4B 4B 3W 3B 2W 2
1043 315695310011103.0$30
2Alan ChenW 3B 3B 4W 4W 1B 1
502 312932650000011.0
3Alfred DavisB 2W 2W 1B 1B 4W 4
438p 319392411100002.0
4Saveen SahniB 1W 1W 2B 2W 3B 3
unr. 325157441111116.0$50

Impromptu Blitz #41 Results & Summer Schedule

Twenty intrepid people, including five first-time visitors to the club, joined us this past Thursday for another excellent lecture followed by seven rounds of G/3;d3 blitz, which is fast becoming the favored (or least despised) time control at the club of late. Alex Su once again shared first place with 6.0 out of 7 points, though this time with relative newcomer Vishesh Agrawal, a strong blitz player who took third the previous week, while Adam Ferrell had another strong showing with sole third at 5.0, ahead of the usual dejected throng of 4.0 players. I was expecting a lighter turnout given we met on the eve of a national holiday but attendance was good and it was great to see so many new people at the club.

This coming Thursday we’ll do the same, with a lecture and free, unrated blitz tournament, then we’ll take the weeks of July 17th and July 24th off (I’ll be riding my bike across Iowa with the RAGBRAI horde). I’m including the tentative summer schedule below but always check https://menloparkchess.club/events/ for the latest event and tournament information:

Jul 10: Lecture & Free Blitz Tournament
Jul 17: No Chess Meeting
Jul 24: No Chess Meeting
Jul 31: Lecture & Free Blitz Tournament
Aug 07: Rounds 1-2, August Double-Round Quick-Rated Event
Aug 14: Rounds 3-4, August Double-Round Quick-Rated Event
Aug 21: Rounds 5-6, August Double-Round Quick-Rated Event
Aug 28: No Chess Meeting

Registration is now open for our August Double-Round Quick-Rated Quads & Small Swisses for those who are interested. Participation is limited to 32 players so please register early. Regards,

Mark Drury

May Dual-Rated Swiss Results & Lecture + Blitz Tournament Tonight

Attached are the final results and prize distributions for our May Dual-Rated Swiss event. Congratulations to Alex Chin for his first place win and perfect score in the 1400+ section, to Hayden Brongersma and Yaniv Vinish for shared second and to Austin Chen and Josen Kalra for splitting the 1600-and-under prize. In the U1400 section, Di Lin and Neeraj Rao shared first place followed by David Tagatac and Cameron Troy in a tie for third. Note that Cameron claimed the U1200 prize in that section, leaving David with the $60 third prize (the U1400 section had two more paid entries than did the 1400+, hence the slightly larger prize fund).

The tournament was rated by US Chess earlier this week and the results are available here: https://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?202505299942.0 (full cross tables for both sections are in the attached images).

Thank you to everyone who played in this event and to Sriram Rao for ably directing it. We’ll hold additional rated tournaments in July and September—as always, please let me know if you have a preference where format and/or time control are concerned.

Tonight we will hold another casual evening with a lecture beginning at 6:30pm followed by a free, unrated blitz tournament round 7pm–I hope to see many of you at the club then!

Recent Tournament Results & Upcoming Tournaments

Our February Small Swisses concluded March 13th with a couple make-up games and the full results with prize distributions are available on the following page:

https://menloparkchess.club/tournaments/february-small-swisses-final-results-prizes/

Congratulations to Pranav Jindal, Breakwell Loyalka, Amogh Rao and Evan Sobel for winning clear first in their respective sections, with a special shout out to Pranav for the perfect score in his group–well played, all of you! I should also point out that 8 out of 11 of our prize winners were junior players, proving once again the old maxim that “youth will be served!” The full US Chess rating report for this quick-rated event may be viewed here, and thank you to everyone who joined us for this tournament.

Speaking of youth served, the top four finishers in last week’s Impromptu Blitz #34 were all juniors, perhaps for the first time ever in our club but certainly not the last. Breakwell Loyalka secured first alone with 5 out of 6 points after a tough last-round win over Hugo Pu, who tied with Zelin Fang and Austin Chen for second at 4.5 points. Zelin ground me down in the final round and Austin did the same to newcomer (and another strong junior) Cameron Troy. Full results for #34 are in the attached image.

Interestingly, in my third-round game with Breakwell he played some offbeat b4 line as white against my Sicilian and quietly encouraged me to take the pawn, that it was “perfectly safe.” I accepted and soon found my uncastled king and uncoordinated pieces in a world of hurt. Not two rounds later I was seated next to Breakwell and Vinayak Vikram during their game when the same b4 position in the Sicilian arose, and I’m certain I heard the same, now hollow-sounding “perfectly safe” assurances emanating from the white side of the board during that game, as well (with the same result, it seems). Just a heads-up in case you find yourself playing Breakwell and he offers you similar “safety.”

Note that tomorrow evening Frisco will give his lecture from 6:30pm to 7pm and then we will hold another free, informal Freestyle Swiss tournament of 4 or 5 rounds, with a draft format and G/5;d3 time control. More information about the tournament is here and you can register at the club Thursday beginning round 6:30pm. The following week we’ll hold a blind draw bughouse tournament and on April 3rd we’ll begin a four-week, four-round rated Swiss in two sections with a G/45;d5 time control. I’ll send more information about both tournaments in a day or two. As always, I hope to see many of you at the club soon! Regards,

Mark Drury

February Small Swisses Rounds 3 & 4 Results

Below are the results from rounds 3 and 4 of our February Small Swisses event along with the tentative pairings for final rounds 5 and 6, to occur on March 6th. The prizes for each section are as follows:

Sections One & Four : $80, $50, $30
Section Two: $60, $40, $20
Section Three: $50, $30

Section One

#Name/Rating/IDRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Rd 5Rd 6TotalPrize
1Pranav JindalB 6W 6W 3B 3W 4B 4
1965p 306288841.02.03.04.05.06.06.0$80
2Zelin FangW 5B 5B 8W 8W 7B 7
1851 170830430.00.01.02.03.04.04.0$50
3Chase WangB 7W 7B 1W 1W 5B 5
1788 150158521.02.02.02.03.03.53.5$30
4Vedant VermaW 8B 8B 5W 5B 1W 1
1733 169948320.01.02.03.03.03.03.0
5Jialin WuB 2W 2W 4B 4B 3W 3
1707 304102901.02.02.02.02.02.52.5
6Yash ShahW 1B 1W 7B 7B 8W 8
1717 306521910.00.00.00.01.02.02.0
7Cesar TamondongW 3B 3B 6W 6B 2W 2
1688 124390910.00.01.02.02.02.02.0
8Josen KalraB 4W 4W 2B 2W 6B 6
1639 126152101.01.01.01.01.01.01.0

Section Two

#Name/Rating/IDRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Rd 5Rd 6TotalPrize
1Breakwell LoyalkaB 5W 5W 3B 3W 4B 4
1526 315695211.01.52.53.04.04.54.5$60
2Hayden BrongersmaW 3B 3B 6W 6W 5B 5
1562 312404410.00.01.02.03.04.04.0$30
3Venugopal ManiB 2W 2B 1W 1W 6B 6
1500 164197531.02.02.02.53.04.04.0$30
4Yaniv VinishW 6B 6W 5B 5B 1W 1
1516p 321056530.51.52.52.52.53.03.0
5Hugo PuW 1B 1B 4W 4B 2W 2
1439 310938600.00.50.51.51.51.51.5
6Justin DongB 4W 4W 2B 2B 3W 3
1598p 172122530.50.50.50.51.01.01.0

Section Three

#Name/Rating/IDRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Rd 5Rd 6TotalPrize
1Amogh RaoB 3W 3W 2B 2B 4W 4
1295p 309493411.02.02.53.04.05.05.0$50
2Austin ChenB 4W 4B 1W 1B 3W 3
1373 312932491.02.02.53.04.04.54.5$30
3Jeffrey UngarW 1B 1W 4B 4W 2B 2
1202p 163967430.00.01.02.02.02.52.5
4Michael SherrardW 2B 2B 3W 3W 1B 1
1300 124473680.00.00.00.00.00.00.0

Section Four

#Name/Rating/IDRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Rd 5Rd 6TotalPrize
1Evan SobelB 7W 7W 5B 5W 2B 2
839p 318600441.01.02.03.04.04.54.5$80
2Zelan FangW 8B 8W 6B 6B 1W 1
882 306297641.02.03.03.53.54.04.0$50
3Lua LoyalkaW 5B 5W 7B 7B 6W 6
813 315695310.01.02.02.03.03.53.5$30
4Lucian LiuB 6W 6W 8B 8W 7B 7
unr. 322753270.00.01.01.02.03.03.0
5Alon DoitelB 3W 3B 1W 1B 8W 8
unr. 322523261.01.01.01.02.03.03.0
6Daniel JostW 4B 4B 2W 2W 3B 3
unr. 322923271.02.02.02.52.53.03.0
7Tyler MiddletonW 1B 1B 3W 3B 4W 4
unr. 323011630.01.01.02.02.02.02.0
8Alfred DavisB 2W 2B 4W 4W 5B 5
unr. 319392410.00.00.01.01.01.01.0

February Small Swisses Round 1 & 2 Results

Below are the results from rounds 1 and 2 of our February Small Swisses event along with the tentative pairings for rounds 3 and 4, to occur on February 27th. The prizes for each section are as follows:

Sections One & Four : $80, $50, $30
Section Two: $60, $40, $20
Section Three: $50, $30

Section One

#Name/Rating/IDRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Total
1Pranav JindalB 7W 7W 2B 2
1965p 306288841.02.02.0
2Chase WangB 8W 8B 1W 1
1788 150158521.02.02.0
3Jialin WuB 6W 6W 4B 4
1707 304102901.02.02.0
4Vedant VermaW 5B 5B 3W 3
1733 169948320.01.01.0
5Josen KalraB 4W 4W 6B 6
1639 126152101.01.01.0
6Zelin FangW 3B 3B 5W 5
1851 170830430.00.00.0
7Yash ShahW 1B 1W 8B 8
1717 306521910.00.00.0
8Cesar TamondongW 2B 2B 7W 7
1688 124390910.00.00.0

Section Two

#Name/Rating/IDRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Total
1Venugopal ManiB 6W 6B 2W 2
1500 164197531.02.02.0
2Breakwell LoyalkaB 5W 5W 1B 1
1526 315695211.01.51.5
3Yaniv VinishW 4B 4W 5B 5
1516p 321056530.51.51.5
4Justin DongB 3W 3W 6B 6
1598p 172122530.50.50.5
5Hugo PuW 2B 2B 3W 3
1439 310938600.00.50.5
6Hayden BrongersmaW 1B 1B 4W 4
1562 312404410.00.00.0

Section Three

#Name/Rating/IDRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Rd 5Rd 6Total
1Austin ChenB 2W 2B 3W 3B 2W 2
1373 312932491.02.02.0
2Michael SherrardW 1B 1B 4W 4W 1B 1
1300 124473680.00.00.0
3Amogh RaoB 4W 4W 1B 1B 4W 4
1295 309493410.0
4Jeffrey UngarW 3B 3W 2B 2W 3B 3
1202 163967430.0

Section Four

#Name/Rating/IDRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Total
1Zelan FangW 8B 8W 2B 2
882 306297641.02.02.0
2Daniel JostW 7B 7B 1W 1
unr. 322923271.02.02.0
3Evan SobelB 5W 5W 6B 6
839p 318600441.01.01.0
4Lua LoyalkaW 6B 6W 5B 5
813 315695310.01.01.0
5Tyler MiddletonW 3B 3B 4W 4
unr. 323011630.01.01.0
6Alon DoitelB 4W 4B 3W 3
unr. 322523261.01.01.0
7Lucian LiuB 2W 2W 8B 8
unr. 322753270.00.00.0
8Alfred DavisB 1W 1B 7W 7
unr. 319392410.00.00.0