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).

Category: rated

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Impromptu Blitz #74 & #75 Results

Attached are the wall charts for our Impromptu Blitz tournaments of the past two weeks, with 22 and 28 players participating, respectively. #74 saw Pranav Jindal and Austin Chen tie for first with 6.0 points out of 7, while Sam Bekker and Carlos Jerez tied for third at 5.0 and, as ever, there followed a raft of strong players left gnashing their teeth at 4.0, still a respectable score in this crowd. #75 saw the return of Vedant Verma, a talented junior player who seems markedly stronger every time he visits the club. Vedant cruised to a 6.5-point first place finish, a full point ahead of second place finishers—you guessed it—Pranav Jindal, Austin Chen and Sam Bekker at 5.5, while visiting Chicagoan Max Newman managed sole fifth place at 5.0 (Max and I played an interesting game in round two which left me gnashing my teeth). Thank you to everyone who joined us for these tournaments, congratulations to our winners and we’ll do much the same next week, October 29th.

Registrations are now open for our annual club championship which begins November 5th. This is a five-round, dual-rated G/45;d5 event, one game per evening over five weeks, with a break for Thanksgiving November 26th. One bye is available for the event in any round save the last and we’ll be using Chess67 to run this tournament, so you’ll need to create an account thereon to register: https://chess67.com/club/menlo-park-chess-club/tournaments/fifth-menlo-park-chess-club-championship-20261105. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments and I hope to see you at the club soon. Regards,

Mark Drury

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Copa del Menlo Final Results & Prizes

Our rated Copa del Menlo chess tournament wrapped up Thursday after a makeup round and I wanted to thank Hugo Pu once again for so ably directing this event for our club! Attached is the wall chart with final scores and prize distributions for each section and if I hear no concerns about errors or omissions by Sunday evening I will send the prize money to our individual and team winners.

Speaking of winners, congratulations to Neeraj, Ujjwal and Zayn for claiming sole first with perfect scores in each of their sections. Neeraj’s result is especially impressive given he was the lowest-rated player in the top section and faced some very tough opponents on his way to three full points. Aiden Huang and Austin Chen also had excellent results in that section, winning clear second and third respectively, a feat made all the more interesting when you consider that the average age of the top three finishers is likely less than ten years. Youth will be served, it seems!

The tournament has already been rated and may be viewed here: https://ratings.uschess.org/event/202609240083 (the dropdown list atop the table allows one to see different sections). Our next rated event will be the club championship beginning November 5th and I’ll share more information about that tournament soon. Regards,

Mark Drury

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Lecture & Blitz Tournament Tomorrow Evening, Copa del Menlo Registration

I wanted to thank Jeff McGinnis once again for running the club in my absence last week, along with everyone who helped him—I truly appreciate your support! Seems we had at least seven first- or second-time visitors during the evening, which is in keeping with the current trend of lots of new people joining us—here’s hoping the burgeoning interest continues.

Tomorrow night will be another casual evening with a lecture followed by a free, unrated blitz tournament beginning round 7pm. I’ll be gone the following week, June 25th, riding my bicycle on the Oregon coast, but am hoping the club will still meet with the help of additional volunteer organizers—more about that a few days hence.

Finally for now, I updated our rated July tournament to be a G/45;d5 affair given that appears to be the club preference where time control is concerned, so we will play just one dual-rated game each of the three weeks, rather than two quick-rated games. Signups are still light so please register asap if you plan to play, something which makes planning for the tournament far easier:

https://menloparkchess.club/event/copa-del-menlo-round-one/.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions and I hope to see many of you tomorrow evening. Regards,

Mark Drury

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“March Quadness” Registration Opens

With apologies to fans of NCAA Basketball, our next dual-rated quads tournament begins March 5th and runs three consecutive weeks, with a possible makeup round scheduled for March 26th if needed. More details and a registration link may be found here — please register asap if you wish to play in this event as we’re limiting the field to 28 players this time around (7 quads).

Relatedly, the results of our recently-concluded club survey may be seen below and made clear people prefer that our next rated event have a longer time control, so the quads will be played at G/45;d5, one game per evening. In addition to the data shared below we received a large number of helpful comments and suggestions so we’ll try to incorporate all that we can in upcoming events — thank you to those who took the time to complete the survey! Regards,

Mark Drury

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Club Championship Final Results & Prizes

Attached are two views of the final results of our Fourth Menlo Park Chess Club Championship, one showing the usual wall chart and another the standings, in case some of you prefer either or both. Congratulations to Breakwell Loyalka, who went undefeated to claim sole first and the title of club champion, and that despite a wild endgame with Frisco in the final round which could have gone either way. I believe Breakwell is our youngest champion to date and his victory is none too surprising given the way he has performed in other recent events. Frisco was also undefeated with three wins and two draws for four points out of five, tying with Vedant Verma for overall second place—congratulations to both of you! Andrew Yu and Steven Swick also deserve mention for claiming sole first and $80 in their prize groups, while Josen Kalra, Di Lin and I tied for first in the second prize group to split the three prizes therein.

Kabir Jain won our cumulative upset prize, despite late surges by Vinayak Vikram and Caleb Leong, and will claim the Pixel Earbuds donated by the Pu family — congratulations to Kabir and thank you once again, Dennis, Helena and Hugo Pu for your generous donation to our club. I also wanted to thank Hugo Pu for ably directing this tournament, which allowed me to play without interruption — I very much appreciate your help, Hugo!

Thank you again to everyone who played in or spectated our final tournament of the year and we’ll do something similar in February or early March of next year. Regards,

Mark Drury

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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

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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

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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:

Fourth Menlo Park Chess Club Championship, Round One

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

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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