“Tower of Flints” Team Blitz #1

The Menlo Park Chess Club will hold two consecutive team blitz tournaments March 9th and 16th, part of a long-promised experiment to see if this format works for our membership. The first event on March 9th will offer free entry and will include either eight teams of 4 players (32), six teams of six players (36) or ten teams of four players (40), depending upon the number of registrations, with a bias for the middle option. The second event on March 16th may include a $5 entry fee, all of which will be returned to the top two or three teams as prizes. If there are six or eight teams the tournament format will be round robin (five or seven rounds, respectively). If there are ten teams the format will be a five-round Swiss. The time control is tentatively G/5 d/2 and may be slightly shorter if there are seven rounds (G/4 d/2).

Sign up individually using the Register button, above, and teams will be crafted using a patent-pending, proprietary algorithm known only to ChatGPT, with the avowed goal of making the event as equitable as possible where rating and/or skill level are concerned. Given the fixed team nature of this event there is little flexibility where the number of participants is concerned, so if you wish to play please sign up early. That said, please do not sign up if you are on the fence about playing next Thursday, as nothing causes more swirl in a team event than late withdrawals or, worse, no-shows.

Shortly after registrations close team rosters and pairings will be shared with all participants. If you need to withdraw for any reason please let the tournament director know as soon as possible, so that a replacement player may be found and the teams rebalanced, as necessary. The first round will begin promptly at 7:00pm so please arrive by 6:45 Thursday to check in. The US Chess Rules of Blitz Chess will be followed for both events with the lone exception that we will observe clock move rather than touch move (the distinction will be shared before the start of the first round). Please send any questions or comments to info@menloparkchess.club and we look forward to seeing you at one or both of these events!