Menlo Park Chess Club

Casual, Blitz, Bughouse, Ladder Chess Evening
2023-07-13 18:00 - 21:45 (America/Los_Angeles) | Arrillaga Family Recreation Center, 700 Alma Street, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, United States
Our regular weekly club meeting occurs Thursday evenings from 6:00-9:45pm in the Oak Room of the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center. Casual, blitz, bughouse and ladder chess games are in the offing and we’ll discuss details of the next tournament, tentatively scheduled for early August.

Casual, Blitz, Bughouse, Ladder Chess Evening
2023-07-20 18:00 - 21:45, 2023-07-27 18:00 - 21:45
Our regular weekly club meeting occurs Thursday evenings from 6:00-9:45pm in the Oak Room of the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center. Casual, blitz, bughouse and ladder chess games are in the offing and we’ll discuss details of the next tournament, tentatively scheduled for early August. Note that Mark Drury won’t attend this week so new visitors may wish to arrive round 7pm to give other club members time to set up for the evening. Please bring your own boards, sets and clocks if you have them.

Casual, Blitz, Bughouse, Ladder Chess Evening
2023-08-31 18:00 - 21:45
Our regular weekly club meeting occurs Thursday evenings from 6:00-9:45pm in the Oak Room of the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center. Casual, blitz, bughouse and ladder chess games are in the offing and we’ll also play any makeup games from our August Quick-Rated Quads this evening, if needed.

Casual, Blitz, Bughouse, Ladder Chess Evening
2023-09-07 18:00 - 21:45, 2023-09-21 18:00 - 21:45, 2023-09-28 18:00 - 21:45, 2023-12-07 18:00 - 21:45, 2023-12-14 18:00 - 21:45
Our regular weekly club meeting occurs Thursday evenings from 6:00-9:45pm in the Oak Room of the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center. Casual, blitz, bughouse and ladder chess games are in the offing and we may also play another impromptu blitz tournament (free, no prizes), given there appears to be an appetite for same.

Casual, Blitz, Bughouse, Ladder Chess Evening
2023-09-14 18:00 - 21:45
Our regular weekly club meeting occurs Thursday evenings from 6:00-9:45pm in the Oak Room of the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center. Casual, blitz, bughouse and ladder chess games are in the offing, as usual.
Please note: I (Mark Drury) will not be at the club this week, September 14th, but the room will be open for those who wish to play some casual, blitz, bughouse or ladder chess games. Those who do attend will need to bring their own chess equipment and set up tables for play, as needed, then return the tables to their usual configuration before leaving–takes all of a few minutes to do so. I will share more information about our G/60;d5 club championship occurring in Oct/Nov and a few other events upon my return next week.

Casual, Blitz, Bughouse, Ladder Chess Evening
2023-10-05 18:00 - 21:45
Our regular weekly club meeting occurs Thursday evenings from 6:00-9:45pm in the Oak Room of the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center. Casual, blitz, bughouse and ladder chess games are in the offing, as usual.
Please note: I (Mark Drury) will not be at the club this week, October 5th, but the room will be open for those who wish to play some casual, blitz, bughouse or ladder chess games. Those who do attend will need to bring their own chess equipment and set up tables for play, as needed, then return the tables to their usual configuration before leaving–takes all of a few minutes to do so.

Casual, Blitz, Bughouse, Ladder Chess Evening
2023-10-12 18:00 - 21:45
Our regular weekly club meeting occurs Thursday evenings from 6:00-9:45pm in the Oak Room of the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center. Casual, blitz, bughouse and ladder chess games are in the offing, as usual.
Please note: I (Mark Drury) will not be at the club this week, October 12th, but the room will be open for those who wish to play some casual, blitz, bughouse or ladder chess games. Those who do attend will need to bring their own chess equipment and set up tables for play, as needed, then return the tables to their usual configuration before leaving–takes all of a few minutes to do so.

Casual, Blitz, Bughouse, Ladder Chess Evening
2023-10-19 18:00 - 21:45
Our regular weekly club meeting occurs Thursday evenings from 6:00-9:45pm in the Oak Room of the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center. Casual, blitz, bughouse and ladder chess games are in the offing, as usual.
Please note: I (Mark Drury) will not be at the club this week, October 19th, but the room will be open for those who wish to play some casual, blitz, bughouse or ladder chess games. Those who do attend will need to bring their own chess equipment and set up tables for play, as needed, then return the tables to their usual configuration before leaving–takes all of a few minutes to do so.

Casual, Blitz, Bughouse, Ladder Chess Evening
2024-01-11 18:00 - 21:00, 2024-02-08 18:00 - 21:00
Our regular weekly club meeting occurs Thursday evenings from 6:00-9:00pm in the Oak Room of the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center. Casual, blitz, bughouse and ladder chess games are in the offing and we may also play another impromptu blitz tournament (free, no prizes), given there appears to be an appetite for same.

A4c Variant Tournament
2024-02-15 19:00 - 20:30
“A4c” or “The Clock (Almost) Never Stops” Variant

Background: One of the strongest blitz players in our club came up with this variant and, after hearing it described, we couldn’t resist holding an informal tournament to give it a try. It involves a good deal of fast chess plus a game within a game (a metagame) centered around how best to manage one’s fixed time allotment over several games.

Concept: Players will play best of 3 games against the same opponent in each round with 10 minutes on their clocks, with no increment or delay. When a game ends, players pause the clock but do not reset the time. They reset the pieces then restart the clock for the next game with the times remaining from the prior game(s). If a player runs out of time they lose the match. If a player wins the majority of the points possible in the 3 games, they win the match (so if a player wins two games and still has time remaining on their clock they win the match). One player gets two games with the white pieces (first and third games) and the other gets preferred clock side for all games.

Oddities: Clock location does not change so one player always keeps it on their preferred side. Typically the players start the game by drawing for colors then whomever wins the draw chooses White or Clockside, but given we’ll be holding a Swiss system tournament the player assigned White in any round gets two whites and the player assigned Black gets to choose clockside. (We could also allow the player who is assigned White by the pairing software to choose color preference or clockside to further complicate the metagame).

Comments: I like the metagame aspect of this format because it incentivizes players to manage their clock across multiple games with tactical decisions (whether it is burning down an opponent’s time when they are ahead on time or resigning quickly to preserve more time for subsequent games). It also allows a stronger slower player to manage their time differently and take more time to win the majority of games (though this is risky if they go into a third game after budgeting time poorly).

Format: As mentioned above, we will play 3 games at Gs/10 over three or possibly four rounds, depending upon when we get started, and we may split players into groups of 8-12 by rating if the tournament doesn’t start very near 7pm (leaving time for just three rounds), so please arrive a little earlier if at all possible.

Chess960 Draft Tournament
2024-02-22 19:00 - 20:30
On the heels of our very successful A4c Variant Tournament, we’ll hold another Chess960 variant tournament, this time using a piece placement draft with the following format and rules:

There will likely be 4 or 5 Swiss rounds at G/7;d3 in one or two sections
The games will be played with the normal Chess960 rules except for the use of a draft, wherein white starts black’s clock then black places the first piece on the back rank and starts white’s clock, white copies that move then places another piece of their own, black copies that placement then places a second piece, etc., until black places a final piece and white makes the first chess move of the game
It’s important to note that the draft phase covered above occurs while players’ clocks are running, just as in normal moves for the game
The king must be placed between the two rooks as in normal Chess960
The bishops must be placed on opposite-colored squares
We will use clock move rather than touch move, as in our blitz tournaments
An illegal move pointed out by an opponent (no one else) immediately ends the game as a loss for the player who made the illegal move

Casual, Blitz, Bughouse, Ladder Chess Evening
2024-02-29 18:00 - 21:00, 2024-03-14 18:00 - 21:00
Our regular weekly club meeting occurs Thursday evenings from 6:00-9:00pm in the Oak Room of the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center. Casual, blitz, bughouse and ladder chess games are in the offing and we will also play another impromptu blitz tournament (free, no prizes), given there appears to be an appetite for same.

Casual, Blitz, Bughouse, Ladder Chess Evening
2024-03-21 18:00 - 21:00, 2024-03-28 18:00 - 21:00, 2024-05-02 18:00 - 21:00, 2024-05-09 18:00 - 21:00, 2024-05-16 18:00 - 21:00
Our regular weekly club meeting occurs Thursday evenings from 6:00-9:00pm in the Oak Room of the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center. Casual, blitz, bughouse and ladder chess games are in the offing and we will also play another impromptu blitz tournament beginning at 7pm (free, no prizes), given there appears to be an appetite for same.

Casual, Blitz, Lecture, Ladder Chess Evening
2024-05-23 18:00 - 21:00, 2024-06-27 18:00 - 21:00, 2024-07-11 18:00 - 21:00, 2024-07-18 18:00 - 21:00
Our regular weekly club meeting occurs Thursday evenings from 6:00-9:00pm in the Oak Room of the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center. Casual, blitz, bughouse and ladder chess games as well as a possible lecture are in the offing and we will also play another impromptu blitz tournament beginning at 7pm (free, no prizes), given there appears to be an appetite for same.

A4c Variant Tournament #2
2024-05-30 19:00 - 21:00
Background: This will be our second foray into A4c Chess and it’s long overdue, given how well our first such event was received. One of the strongest blitz players in our club came up with this variant and, after hearing it described, we couldn’t resist holding an informal tournament to give it a try. It involves a good deal of fast chess plus a game within a game (a metagame) centered around how best to manage one’s fixed time allotment over several games.

Concept: Players will play best of 3 games against the same opponent in each round with 10 minutes on their clocks, with no increment or delay. When a game ends, players pause the clock but do not reset the time. They reset the pieces then restart the clock for the next game with the times remaining from the prior game(s). If a player runs out of time they lose the match. If a player wins the majority of the points possible in the 3 games, they win the match (so if a player wins two games and still has time remaining on their clock they win the match). One player gets two games with the white pieces (first and third games) and the other gets preferred clock side for all games.

Oddities: Clock location does not change so one player always keeps it on their preferred side. Typically the players start the game by drawing for colors then whomever wins the draw chooses White or Clockside, but given we’ll be holding a Swiss system tournament the player assigned White in any round gets two whites and the player assigned Black gets to choose clockside. (We could also allow the player who is assigned White by the pairing software to choose color preference or clockside to further complicate the metagame).

Comments: I like the metagame aspect of this format because it incentivizes players to manage their clock across multiple games with tactical decisions (whether it is burning down an opponent’s time when they are ahead on time or resigning quickly to preserve more time for subsequent games). It also allows a stronger slower player to manage their time differently and take more time to win the majority of games (though this is risky if they go into a third game after budgeting time poorly).

Format: As mentioned above, we will play best of 3 games at Gs/10 over three or possibly four rounds (no increment or delay), depending upon when we get started, and we may split players into groups of 4-8 by rating if the tournament doesn’t start very near 7pm (leaving time for just three rounds), so please arrive a little earlier if at all possible.

Casual, Blitz, Lecture, Ladder Chess Evening
2024-07-25 18:00 - 21:00
Our regular weekly club meeting occurs Thursday evenings from 6:00-9:00pm in the Oak Room of the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center. Casual, blitz, bughouse and ladder chess games as well as a possible lecture are in the offing and we will also play another impromptu blitz tournament beginning at 7pm (free, no prizes), given there appears to be a strong appetite for same.
