Menlo Park Chess Club

Fourth Menlo Park Chess Club Championship, Round Five
2025-12-11 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Arrillaga Family Recreation Center, 700 Alma Street, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, United States
The Menlo Park Chess Club will hold our fourth annual club championship beginning Thursday, November 6th, at 7pm, a five-round USCF-rated Swiss system event using the dual-rated G/45;d5 time control over five weeks (there will be no round on November 27th, Thanksgiving). Our championship is aimed at players with at least some tournament experience (one or two rated events, say) and may not be suitable for children under the age of 10, given games could last until almost 9pm on a school night. Details follow:

Format: Five-round Swiss-system tournament in one section, one game per evening
Rounds: November 6th, 13th, 20th and December 4th and 11th (there is no round November 27th, Thanksgiving)—games begin promptly at 7:00pm
Control: G/45;d5 (dual-rated game of 45 minutes for each player plus a 5-second delay per move)
Entry Fee: $20 (the entire entry fee will be returned in prizes)

Payment: PayPal: mark@drury.com; Venmo: @Mark-Drury-12, Zelle: 6504006393
Prizes: Four prize groups based upon November US Chess regular ratings with roughly 8 players per prize group (Group 1: $120, $60, $40; Group 2: $100, $60, $40; Group 3: $80, $40, $20; Group 4: $80, $40, $20, with adjustments as needed based on tournament/group size)
Byes: One half-point bye is available for any round save the last, but the bye must be requested at least two days in advance of the day of play
Boards, sets, clocks, score sheets and pens will be provided by the Menlo Park Chess Club (bring a clock if you prefer your own)
All tournament participants must be current US Chess members
Our tournament chess rules summary is worth perusing if you’re new to tournament play
For more information please send email to info@menloparkchess.club
Join our Facebook group to stay abreast of future club tournaments and events

Casual, Blitz, Lecture, Ladder Chess Evening
2026-01-08 18:00 - 21:00, 2026-01-15 18:00 - 21:00, 2026-01-22 18:00 - 21:00, 2026-01-29 18:00 - 21:00, 2026-02-05 18:00 - 21:00, 2026-02-12 18:00 - 21:00, 2026-02-19 18:00 - 21:00, 2026-02-26 18:00 - 21:00 and 4 more dates
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 lecture are in the offing and we will also play another free, unrated blitz tournament beginning round 7pm, given there appears to be a continuing appetite for same. Note that our free weekly lecture begins at 6:30pm and it remains one of the highlights of club attendance.

March Quadness, Round One
2026-03-05 19:00 - 21:00
The Menlo Park Chess Club will hold dual-rated quads beginning Thursday, March 5th, using the G/45;d5 time control and playing one game each evening over three successive weeks, with a possible makeup week March 26th. Players will be grouped into quads based upon current US Chess Regular ratings to keep things as competitive as possible. This tournament is suitable for experienced players as well as newer US Chess members seeking to establish an over-the-board rating. Details follow:

Format: Quads (groups of four players) or perhaps small Swiss sections of 6-8 players over three weeks, one game per evening
Rounds: March 5th, 12th and 19th with a possible makeup round March 26th — games begin promptly at 7:00pm
Control: G/45;d5 (dual-rated game of 45 minutes per player plus a 5-second delay per move)
Entry Fee: $20; PayPal: mark@drury.com; Venmo: @Mark-Drury-12; entire entry fee goes to the prize fund
Prizes: Each quad will offer a $50 first and $30 second prize with ties splitting the money while any Swiss section prizes will depend upon the number of players therein
Byes: No byes are available for this event
Register: Please sign up in advance using the ‘Register’ button, above
Equipment: Boards, sets, clocks, score sheets and pens will be provided by the Menlo Park Chess Club (bring a digital clock if you prefer your own)
Membership: All tournament participants must be current US Chess members for the duration of the event
Rules: Our tournament chess rules summary is mandatory reading if you’re new to tournament play
Info: For more information please send email to info@menloparkchess.club
Social: Join our Facebook group, Google group or email list to stay abreast of club news, tournaments and events

March Quadness, Round Two
2026-03-12 19:00 - 21:00
The Menlo Park Chess Club will hold dual-rated quads beginning Thursday, March 5th, using the G/45;d5 time control and playing one game each evening over three successive weeks, with a possible makeup week March 26th. Players will be grouped into quads based upon current US Chess Regular ratings to keep things as competitive as possible. This tournament is suitable for experienced players as well as newer US Chess members seeking to establish an over-the-board rating. Details follow:

Format: Quads (groups of four players) or perhaps small Swiss sections of 6-8 players over three weeks, one game per evening
Rounds: March 5th, 12th and 19th with a possible makeup round March 26th — games begin promptly at 7:00pm
Control: G/45;d5 (dual-rated game of 45 minutes per player plus a 5-second delay per move)
Entry Fee: $20; PayPal: mark@drury.com; Venmo: @Mark-Drury-12; entire entry fee goes to the prize fund
Prizes: Each quad will offer a $50 first and $30 second prize with ties splitting the money while any Swiss section prizes will depend upon the number of players therein
Byes: No byes are available for this event
Register: Registration is now closed for this event
Equipment: Boards, sets, clocks, score sheets and pens will be provided by the Menlo Park Chess Club (bring a digital clock if you prefer your own)
Membership: All tournament participants must be current US Chess members for the duration of the event
Rules: Our tournament chess rules summary is mandatory reading if you’re new to tournament play
Info: For more information please send email to info@menloparkchess.club
Social: Join our Facebook group, Google group or email list to stay abreast of club news, tournaments and events

March Quadness, Round Three
2026-03-19 19:00 - 21:00

Freestyle Chess (Chess960) Draft Tournament
2026-04-23 19:00 - 21:00
A number of people have requested that we revisit Chess960 or, as it’s now styled, Freestyle Chess in another casual tournament so that’s exactly what we’ll do in this event, again using a piece placement draft with the following format and rules:

A Swiss system tournament of 4 or 5 rounds at G/5;d3 in one or two sections
Registration will occur onsite–please try to arrive by 6:45pm
The games will be played with the normal Freestyle/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 third 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 Freestyle/Chess960
More information about castling may be found in chess.com tutorials here and here
The bishops must be placed on opposite-colored squares
We will use clock move rather than touch move, as in our casual 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, though this does not apply during the draft/piece placement phase of the game
Each player’s score for this event will be combined with that from the A4c Variant tournament the following week to determine who wins nice book prizes, though one needn’t commit to playing in both events

A4c Variant Tournament #4
2026-04-30 19:00 - 21:00
“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 three informal tournaments in 2024 and 2025 to give it a try. It proved very popular so we’re giving it another go—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 two or three 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.

Prizes: Player scores from this event will be combined with those from the previous week’s Freestyle Chess tournament to determine the winners of some nice book prizes, donated by a former club member who left the Bay Area some time ago.

Next Rated Tournament, Round One
2026-05-07 18:00 - 21:00
Details coming soon …
