Blitz Championship #2: G/3+2 & Combined Results

Twenty-eight people joined us for our Blitz Championship #2 last night, another seven-rounder with a G/3+2 time control in place of last week’s G/5+0. Kunal Modi’s excellent 6.0 out of 7 was good for clear first and the top group’s $80 prize, while Zelin Fang and Hayden Brongersma shared first place in group two and split $60. There was a three-way tie in group three between Kaio Deeter, Breakwell Loyalka and Austin Chen, all of whom split another $60 while young Siddharth Kalra took sole first in group four, claiming all $40 of that group’s prize. This event has already been rated and the report may be viewed here: https://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?202410244452.

Last night also wrapped up our combined blitz championship and after fourteen long rounds over two weeks Andy Applebaum edged out Kunal Modi by half a point to take the overall Menlo Park Chess Club Championship and the extra $100 prize. Well played, Andy and Kunal, and thank you to everyone who joined us for these two blitz tournaments.

Note that we won’t meet next week, October 31st, given it’s Halloween but our five-round club championship proper begins the following week and spots are still available in that event if you prefer longer time controls: https://menloparkchess.club/event/third-menlo-park-chess-club-championship-round-1/. Regards,

Mark Drury

Blitz Championship #1: G/5+0 Results

Below are the results of our Blitz Championship #1: G/5+0 from Thursday, which saw a full complement of 32 pre-registered players, all of whom showed up pretty much on time such that we were able to start the tournament round 7:05pm. Congratulations to Badamkhand Norovsambuu for capturing sole first place in the event and the $100 prize, ahead of some very strong blitz competition! Zelin Fang, Yoyo He and Yash Shaw tied for the 1400-1800 prize ($27 each) while young Austin Chen was the lone U1400 participant at 4 points or better, which earned him $60. Thank you to everyone who participated in this event, see the attached wall charts for full results and the US Chess rating report is available here: https://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?202410170182-12459313.

Next week’s rated Blitz Championship #2: G/3+2 is filling fast so please register asap if you hope to play in this event. As a reminder, the person with the highest combined score from both blitz tournaments will be crowned the club’s blitz champion and will receive an extra $100 prize (in addition to any prize won at this week’s event). We will likely have three or four prize groups again this week, just as in last week’s tournament, so just about everyone has a chance to win something: https://menloparkchess.club/event/club-blitz-championship-tournament-2-g-32/. Regards,

Mark Drury

Impromptu Blitz #28 Results

Following Frisco’s excellent lecture Thursday, thirty-one players participated in our Impromptu Blitz #28, another 7-round affair in one section but with a G/5+0 time control this time around. There were upsets, there were illegal moves (yours truly pushed a pawn 3 squares in one move to squander a winning attack), there were embarrassing mates (yours truly was mated by a pawn in an otherwise won endgame) and there were time forfeitures galore, just what one might expect when there’s no increment or delay. Congratulations to Andy Applebaum and Pranav Jindal for outlasting many other strong players and tying for first with 5.5. points, and thank you to everyone who participated in this event (full results are attached).

Thursday was also our good friend Taewoo Kim’s last evening at the club, given he and his family (Minsoo, Jung and Taein) return to Korea this week–we wish them all the best and look forward to following Taewoo’s chess journey online.

This week we’ll hold what is tentatively planned to be a rated G/5+0 blitz tournament of seven rounds but if we don’t get at least 20-24 entries by Tuesday we may instead make it an unrated event, though still with a $5 entry fee and cash prizes. If you have a preference for rated versus unrated please let me know and please register asap if you plan to play in this event: https://menloparkchess.club/event/club-blitz-championship-tournament-1-g-50/. Regards,

Mark Drury

Impromptu Blitz #26 & #27 Results (& Barebottle Brewing)

Adding the wall charts for our Impromptu Blitz Tourney numbers 26 and 27, which took place September 26th and October 3rd and were well attended, with perhaps seven first-time visitors to the club last night alone.

Andy Applebaum, Mikhail Molodyk and Yoyo He took 1st-3rd places, respectively, in the G/4;d2 #26 last week while Alex Chin and Cesar Tamondong tied for first in the G/3+2 #27 last night, with Pranav Jindal and Hayden Brongersma tying for third in that event (one which saw a surprising number of upsets). The full results for both tournaments may be seen in the attached images and thank you again to everyone who participated!

Of special note, after last night’s tournament ended seven of us walked over to Barebottle Brewing Co., a mere three blocks from the club, hoping to find Viktor Grigoriev and the Silicon Valley Chess gang already playing there, but they may not have begun hosting at that venue just yet. Viktor, is that still in the works? In any case, we played some bughouse (with John Vitlacil holding court, per the attached image) and blitz and analyzed a game or two until 10:30pm or so (that’s when I left, at least). It’s a great place for casual chess (people were playing Magic: The Gathering, as well) and I hope to do this again on any given Thursday.

Impromptu Blitz #23, #24 & #25

I wanted to share a few quick updates with the club, given it’s been a while since I posted here. First and foremost, a hearty congratulations are due to WFM Olivia Smith, who played board one for Wales at the recently-concluded Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary. Olivia finished with an excellent score of 6/9 and one can only imagine what an amazing experience this must have been for her and her entire team (https://results.fide.com/olymp2024/olymp.php?ev_code=68&team=80). Well done, Olivia!

Second, attached are the results from our last three impromptu blitz tournaments at the club, all of which used the same G/4;d2 time control. Tomorrow, Thursday, we’ll continue with another excellent lecture from Frisco Del Rosario at 6:30pm then will hold Impromptu Blitz #26 round 7pm, as usual.

Third, I’m trying to decide upon our next tournament format, whether it should be rated or unrated, blitz or a longer time control, how many weeks it should run–all the usual questions rolling around in a TD’s head. If you have an opinion about the format for our next event please let me know and it may begin as soon as the second week of October.

August Quads/Swisses Final Results

Below are the final results with prizes for our August Double-Round Quick-Rated Quads and Swisses, which were again well received. Congratulations to all our winners and thank you once again to everyone who played in this event. Our next rated tournament, the 3rd club championship, will begin in mid-October and more information about that event will be shared here soon. Regards,

Mark Drury

Impromptu Blitz #22 Results

We enjoyed another excellent lecture last Thursday courtesy of Frisco Del Rosario, one centered round a lesser-know rook sac theme which was most recently seen in high-level play about three weeks ago (between Caruana-Firouzja, see https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2732198). Frisco’s lectures are quickly becoming one of my favorite aspects of the club, never mind the way he treats me in our blitz tournaments, and I highly recommend that you visit the club to see and learn for yourself (the lectures begin at 6:30 each Thursday).

Speaking of blitz tournaments, we had 21 players in our most recent G/5;d2 affair and the six rounds we played weren’t enough for many in attendance, given the general clamor for a seventh round (alas, we had too little time for a seventh inning). Despite a first-round bye and a second-round draw/save, Pranav Jindal wound up on top after the sixth round was complete with 5.0 points, followed closely by masters Mike Arne and Frisco Del Rosario at 4.5. Hayden Brongersma, Cesar Tamondong and Kornel Csernai rounded out the top six with 4.0 points apiece. The full results are in the attached image and thank you to everyone who participated in this event.

Note that we have 14 entries for our August Double-Round Quick-Rated Quads beginning this Thursday and the tournament will be more interesting if we get at least 16-24 players, so please sign up asap here if you plan to play. Also of note for you blitz players: we’ll hold our first US Chess-rated blitz tournament (perhaps two of them over two weeks) in September and I’ll send more information about that event once the details are finalized.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments or suggestions for the club and I hope to see many of you this Thursday. Regards,

Mark Drury

Impromptu Not-Quite-Blitz #2 Results

This past Thursday we tried another Swiss event with the G/7;d2 time control over four rounds in two sections and the format was again well received. The only drawback was that some of the games finished quite early, leaving those players (typically younger) to wait for as much as ten minutes for the next round to begin, and when more than a few people are awaiting the next round the room tends to become loud. The noise was only a minor problem after two of the rounds so while not a huge issue it’s something for us to work on as a club (note that we wouldn’t stand for a similar noise level during a rated event).

Congratulations are due to Wentao Wu for winning the Open section with 3.5 out of four points, while Andy Applebaum, first-time visitor Edward Muginshteyn and Hayden Brongersma tied for second with 3.0 points (Hayden is taking up permanent residency in the top three spots of these events). In the Reserve section another first-time visitor, Zelin Fang, scored a 4.0 out of 4.0 to claim sole first while youngsters Austin Chen and Hugo Pu tied for second with 3.0 points. Thank you to all who played in this free, unrated tournament and will likely do something similar this week, ahead of a rated evening set to begin August 8th (more about that soon).

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

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!