Category: tournament

Posted on

Alex Chin Lecture & Blitz Tournament Tomorrow Night

Just a brief message to let everyone know the double-round, quick rated quads will not begin this week, as planned, but will go ahead on September 25th per the updated events page here: https://menloparkchess.club/events/ — please register for that event soon if you plan to play. This week, with Frisco needing to attend the Valkyries game at Chase Center, Alex Chin has stepped up to regale us with one of his recent, interesting tournament games, so please plan to be at the club round 6:30pm to enjoy Alex’s lecture and game analysis (and thank you, Alex, for offering to fill Frisco’s very large shoes this week!).

After Alex’s lecture we’ll hold another blitz tournament round 7pm, as ever, but note that the following week, September 11th, will include both a lecture and a Freestyle Chess (Chess960) Draft Tournament, something which has been popular in the past. No need to register ahead of time for that event but do try to be at the club by 6:30pm for the lecture and so we can play freestyle round 7pm.

I hope to see many of you at the club this week and next! Regards,

Mark Drury

Posted on

Impromptu Blitz #46 Results

We enjoyed another good turnout for last night’s lecture (thanks, Frisco!) and G/5+0 blitz tournament of six rounds and, suffice to say, many of us floundered without the benefit of a delay or increment (though most seemed to like the time control). After six long rounds, then, Hayden Brongersma and Alex Chin stood alone atop the wall chart, the lone “blemish” in either’s score a shared draw in round 4. Sanat Singhal took sole third with 4.5 points and clipped me on the way to that score in an interesting From’s Gambit, one which could have gone either way. It was also great to see Alaric Stein again last night, who shared fourth with Pranav, Cameron and Alex. Full results are in the attached image and thank you to everyone who joined us for this event.

Note that the club will NOT meet next week, August 28th, given the Arrillaga Center will be closed then, but we will hold another casual evening with a lecture and blitz tournament the following week, September 4th. We will also postpone our quick-rated event to later in September or early October and will instead run a number of variant tournaments next month–more details about that will be shared soon. Regards,

Mark Drury

Posted on

Impromptu Blitz #45 Results

Last week saw considerable appetite—demand, even—among those assembled at the club for no fewer than eight rounds of G/3+2 blitz after Frisco’s excellent lecture, something we were able to accommodate with just enough time to spare to meet our 9pm closing deadline (which I’m still trying to extend, incidentally). We again had several first-time visitors to the club, one of whom, Zachary Rhinehart, proved his mettle with a hard-fought first place finish at 7.0 out of 8 points.

Remarkably, young Cameron Troy, who is clearly getting stronger each and every week, took sole second with 6.5 points, and that after an epic final-round battle with fellow junior player Austin Chen, who tied for fourth with four other strong players at 5.0. Pranav Jindal was sole third at 5.5 points (he and I both fell to Cameron in this event). I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: watching our many strong junior players improve week after week is one of the most rewarding aspects of the club for me and I look forward to seeing their continued improvement as they play with our club or elsewhere. Full results are in the attached image and thank you to everyone who participated in the tournament.

Tonight will be another casual evening at the club with a lecture beginning at 6:30pm followed by a G/5+0 blitz tournament round 7pm—I hope to see many of you there! Regards,

Mark Drury

Posted on

Impromptu Blitz #44 Results

I’m finally getting round to sharing the results from last week’s 7-round, G/3;d3 blitz tournament, one which featured a number of upsets and dramatic time scrambles, not least of which was Josen Kalra’s scintillating effort against Pranav Jindal in round 4, though Pranav recovered nicely to win the event with 6 out of 7 points. Josen and perennial wall-chart-topper Hayden Brongersma tied for second at 5 points while Yash Shah and Austin Chen split 4th place with 4.5 points. For my part, my angry Bird’s Opening got the better of three strong junior players, players who normally have no trouble dispatching me in these blitz events, so I’m pondering retirement from competitive blitz play at the club while I’m ahead (the probability of my ever again besting the same three players in the same evening is very near zero, frankly). Congratulations to our winners, full results are in the attached image and thank you to everyone who joined us last week.

Tonight we’ll do pretty much the same, with a lecture beginning at 6:30pm followed by another free, unrated blitz tournament round 7pm, though we’ll opt for a different time control—much as people appear to like G/3;d3 it’s getting a little stale. I hope to see many of you at the club this evening! Regards,

Mark Drury

Posted on

Impromptu Blitz #43 Results & August Quads Postponement

We had another good turnout at the club last week with several first-time visitors joining us for the lecture and free blitz tournament. After seven rounds of G/3;d3 schadenfreude Hayden Brongersma stood alone atop the wall chart with a perfect 7-0 score, followed a point behind by Pranav Jindal in sole second, while we dropped down to 4.5 points to pick up the four-way tie for third between Gabe Sanchez, Josen Kalra and juniors Austin Chen and Surya Raghav. Two other young players, Cameron Troy and Max Cheung, also had excellent results in this event, foretelling the inevitable changing of the chess guard, as it were. Full results are in the attached image and thank you to everyone who joined us for this fun, free tournament.

At present we have just eight people registered for our August quick-rated quads so I plan to postpone that event some number of weeks, perhaps into early  September (the 4th or 11th). We could proceed if we get 4-8 more registrations this week so I’ll make the final call tomorrow, Wednesday, and I apologize for the uncertainty round our schedule. Note that if we do proceed with the rated event we’ll also have a skittles room open for those who wish to play casual games or even a concurrent, unrated blitz event. As always, please let me know if you have any questions and I hope to see many of you at the club this week.

Mark Drury

Posted on

Impromptu Blitz #42 Results & No Chess Meeting July 17th & 24th

We enjoyed a very large turnout at the club last night, with no fewer than 8-10 first-time visitors and almost as many more who were joining us for just the second or third time, and 38 people partook of seven rounds of G/3;d3 blitz as we spilled out of our normal playing room into the hall with two additional tables. Perennial blitz favorite Pranav Jindal returned after a short hiatus to share equal first at 6.0 points with first-time visitor Sanat Singhal, who appeared to be headed for a 7-0 sweep until he ran afoul of Hayden Brongersma’s knight fork in the waning seconds of their final-round game, a victory which elevated Hayden to sole third at 5.5 points. Four strong players, including juniors Austin Chen and Jiaming Zhao, tied for 4th place with 5.0 points, leaving a very large contingent to gnash their teeth at 4.0 points and below. I never seem to have the presence of mind to ask all the new visitors how they learned about the club but word is clearly getting out and it’s wonderful to see so many new faces at these casual events.

In other chess news, club stalwart Cesar Tamondong had a fantastic result over the July 4th weekend, winning sole first place with 5.5/6 in the U1700 Senior Reserve Section of the 27th Annual Sacramento Chess Club Championship. Well done, Cesar—you’ll be an A player again before long!

I also wanted to pass along one final reminder that I’ll be out of town the next two Thursdays, July 17th and 24th, and the chess club will not meet those evenings, regrettably. It turns out there are more than enough volunteers to cover for me while I am out of town so I think this will be the final time we cancel a club meeting due to my absence. Have a great couple weeks and I hope to see many of you at the club July 31st (for another casual evening and blitz tournament). Regards,

Mark Drury

Posted on

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

Posted on

Impromptu Blitz #40 Results

Twenty people took part in last week’s free, 7-round G/3;d3 blitz tournament, with several new visitors and some returning players in the mix. Alex Su and Yoyo He shared first place with 6.0 points out of 7, first-time visitor Vishesh Agrawal took sole third with 5.0 points and a raft of players tied for fourth at 4.0. This G/3;d3 time control seems to be working for us, with little in the way of complaint, but we’re always willing to try something different if earlier arrivals at the club have a request.

We will meet tonight, July 3rd, for a lecture and another free blitz tournament and will do the same the following week, July 10th, before taking two weeks off for a summer break of sorts. In August the tentative plan is to hold double-round quick-rated quads or small Swisses over 3-4 weeks, as we’ve done in the past, but please let me know if you’d prefer some other format which might work with our ~7-9pm time constraint. I hope to see many of you at the club this evening! Regards,

Mark Drury

Posted on

Last Week’s Impromptu Team Blitz #1 Results

Last Thursday we tried, for the first time, a free team blitz event using the SwissSys ‘fixed team’ setup with eight teams of two for the sixteen brave souls who were willing to give this format a try. Suffice to say, the pairings were interesting, as were the results. I haven’t yet taken a closer look at the pairings in question but during many of the rounds the higher rated players on each team were not paired against one another, as I was expecting–it may be the software was favoring color alteration or actual team player score in these intra-match pairings but there was no lack of questions as the tournament unfolded, understandably.

When all was said and done, Josen Kalra and Lua Loyalka stood atop the other teams with four match points out of five, followed by three other teams at 3 points. The team scores were reasonably even which suggests that the proprietary algorithm used to make the teams was a success, never mind the good-natured grousing heard from a couple of the younger teams. I don’t know that I would call this event a success but we may give it another try at some point if there’s any interest, and thank you to everyone who boldly took part.

Tonight we’ll have another lecture at 6:30pm followed by a free, unrated blitz tournament at 7pm–I hope to see many of you then! Regards,

Mark Drury

Posted on

Impromptu Blitz #39 Results

We had an excellent turnout for our lecture and blitz tournament last week, with 28 people playing a full seven rounds of G/3;d3. After five rounds Breakwell Loyalka found himself alone in first place with 4.5 points, before running afoul of Simon Rubinstein-Salzedo in round six. Similarly, young Austin Chen was sole first after six rounds with 5.0 points, before falling to Simon in the final round, leaving Breakwell and Simon tied for first at 5.5 out of 7 when all was said and done. Austin held on to sole third with 5.0 points, ahead of some very strong players. The full results are in the attached image and thank you to everyone who joined us for this event.

Note that this evening there will be no lecture, given Frisco is covering the Golden State Valkyries game at Chase Center tonight, so we’ll hold casual play until 7pm then start our free, unrated blitz tournament at that time, perhaps with a team twist to mix things up. I hope to see many of you at the club this evening! Regards,

Mark Drury