A4c Variant Tournament

We enjoyed an excellent turnout this past Thursday for our first foray into A4c Chess, as we’re styling it (though the variant’s creator may yet object). As a reminder, this variant is best-of-three games against each opponent with ten total minutes on one’s clock, so time management across the two or three games in each match is critical. Indeed, we saw a number of matches in each round where time was used, how shall we say, less than optimally, which led to severe time crunches in the third game and to much clock slapping (sometimes in a vain attempt to stave off the inevitable loss on time)—it definitely made for interesting spectacle and was fun to watch. More information about the variant and the tournament details may be found here.

Twenty-eight people participated in three sections, which worked well for the three rounds we were able to squeeze in during the evening. Below are the results for each section and congratulations are due to winners Kunal (group one), David (group two) and Hayden and Austin (group three). Thank you to everyone who played in this event and the feedback was universally positive, even with the late start, so we’ll definitely play A4c Chess again soon.

Group One

#PlayerRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Total
1Kunal ModiB 8W 5B 3
1.02.03.03.0
2Pranav JindalW 7B 3W 6
1.01.52.52.5
3Gabriel SanchezB 4W 2W 1
1.01.51.51.5
4Karim SeadaW 3B 7B 5
0.01.01.51.5
5Wentao WuB 6B 1W 4
1.01.01.51.5
6Alaric SteinW 5B 8B 2
0.01.01.01.0
7Josen KalraB 2W 4W 8
0.00.01.01.0
8Renzo FrigatoW 1W 6B 7
0.00.00.00.0

Group Two

#PlayerRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Total
1David ZhaoW 6B 4B 2
1.02.03.03.0
2Paul TanenbaumW 8B 5W 1
1.02.02.02.0
3Pablo JadzinskyB 4W 6B 7
0.01.02.02.0
4Michael ByunW 3W 1B 5
1.01.02.02.0
5Samuel AgdamagB 7W 2W 4
1.01.01.01.0
6Amogh RaoB 1B 3W 8
0.00.01.01.0
7Charles MayvilleW 5B 8W 3
0.01.01.01.0
8Evan SobelB 2W 7B 6
0.00.00.00.0

Group Three

#PlayerRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Total
1Hayden BrongersmaW 10B 8B 3
1.02.03.03.0
2Austin ChenW 7B 4W 6
1.02.03.03.0
3Atul DhingraW 9B 5W 1
1.02.02.02.0
4Fadi ArodakiB 12W 2W 8
1.01.02.02.0
5Hugo PuW 11W 3B 7
1.01.02.02.0
6George PurtellB 8W 10B 2
0.01.01.01.0
7Kumaravel MohamkumarB 2W 12W 5
0.01.01.01.0
8Aditya DhamdhereW 6W 1B 4
1.01.01.01.0
9Will KesselmanB 3W 11—-
0.01.0U1.01.0
10Shlok ChowdhuryB 1B 6W 12
0.00.01.01.0
11Victor ChenB 5B 9bye
0.00.00.50.5
12Bud WollW 4B 7B 10
0.00.00.00.0

Impromptu Blitz #10 Results

We had an excellent turnout for our impromptu blitz tournament last night, with 25 people participating, including a number of first- or second-time visitors—welcome to Munci Inonu, Wyatt Morgan, Pablo Jadzinsky, Evan Sobel, Serena Shinault and Carlos Fuertes and thank you for joining us! Renzo Frigato was able to join us again after a prolonged absence and it was great to see him, as well! This event saw a somewhat unusual 4-way tie for first with four points out of five—congratulations to Munci Inonu, Pranav Jindal, Josen Kalra and David Zhao on their excellent play! The full results for the tournament follow and next week we will play another free, fun-focused tournament using the A4c variant—more details will be on our Events page later today.

#PlayerRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Rd 5Total
1Munci InonuB 16W 9B 7W 13W 2
1.02.02.03.04.04.0
2Pranav JindalW 17B 4W 15W 7B 1
1.02.03.04.04.04.0
3Josen KalraB 12W 18B 16W 6B 7
0.01.02.03.04.04.0
4David ZhaoW 21W 2B 11B 8W 9
1.01.02.03.04.04.0
5Renzo FrigatobyeW 25B 6B 12W 13
0.51.51.52.53.53.5
6Wyatt MorganbyebyeW 5B 3B 16
0.51.02.02.03.03.0
7Olivia SmithB 11W 10W 1B 2W 3
1.02.03.03.03.03.0
8Pablo JadzinskyB 18W 12B 10W 4B 17
1.01.02.02.03.03.0
9Alex WuW 24B 1W 17B 15B 4
1.01.02.03.03.03.0
10Evan SobelW 22B 7W 8B 20W 19
1.01.01.02.03.03.0
11Michael ByunW 7B 22W 4B 24W 15
0.01.01.02.03.03.0
12Austin ChenW 3B 8B 13W 5W 20
1.02.02.02.03.03.0
13Alex SubyeB 20W 12B 1B 5
0.51.52.52.52.52.5
14Mark DruryW 23B 15byebyebye
1.01.01.52.02.52.5
15Jeff McGinnisB 19W 14B 2W 9B 11
1.02.02.02.02.02.0
16Samuel AgdamagW 1B 24W 3B 23W 6
0.01.01.02.02.02.0
17Charles MayvilleB 2W 21B 9B 18W 8
0.01.01.02.02.02.0
18Hayden BrongersmaW 8B 3B 21W 17W 23
0.00.01.01.02.02.0
19Serena ShinaultW 15B 23W 20B 25B 10
0.01.01.02.02.02.0
20Hugo PubyeW 13B 19W 10B 12
0.50.51.51.51.51.5
21Aditya DhamdhereB 4B 17W 18W 22B 24
0.00.00.00.51.51.5
22Shlok ChowdhuryB 10W 11W 24B 21W 25
0.00.00.00.51.51.5
23Brian ChenB 14W 19B 25W 16B 18
0.00.01.01.01.01.0
24Jeff UngarB 9W 16B 22W 11W 21
0.00.01.01.01.01.0
25Carlos FuertesbyeB 5W 23W 19B 22
0.50.50.50.50.50.5

Impromptu Blitz #9 Results

Due to the miscommunication between rec. center staff and yours truly we postponed the start of our January quads one week, to January 18th, leaving the evening of the 11th free for yet another impromptu blitz tournament. Last night’s affair was a free 5-round G/5+0 affair, one which included 22 players, three of them new visitors to the club (welcome, Anaida, Sandhya and Venugopal!) and saw Pranav emerge victorious, as is often the case. Below are the full results for this event and we will likely hold another impromptu blitz tournament on February 8th—check our Events page for more details when available. Regards,

Mark Drury

#PlayerRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Rd 5Total
1Pranav JindalB 10W 5B 3W 2B 8
1.02.03.04.05.05.0
2Cesar TamondongB 15W 7B 6B 1W 5
1.02.03.03.04.04.0
3Josen KalraB 16W 9W 1B 8W 10
1.02.02.03.04.04.0
4Chris MurphyW 14B 6W 8B 12B 9
1.01.01.02.03.03.0
5Charles MayvilleW 20B 1W 14B 13B 2
1.01.02.03.03.03.0
6David ZhaoB 21W 4W 2B 10W 14
1.02.02.02.03.03.0
7Kornel CsernaiW 12B 2W 11B 16W 15
1.01.01.02.03.03.0
8Venugopal ManiB 17W 19B 4W 3W 1
1.02.03.03.03.03.0
9Nicholas TanW 18B 3W 16B 11W 4
1.01.02.03.03.03.0
10Hayden BrongersmaW 1B 13B 19W 6B 3
0.01.02.03.03.03.0
11Austin ChenB 19W 17B 7W 9W 13
0.01.02.02.03.03.0
12Shlok ChowdhuryB 7W 15B 21W 4B 19
0.01.02.02.03.03.0
13Ashwin GaneshB 22W 10B 20W 5B 11
1.01.02.02.02.02.0
14Michael DarrB 4W 21B 5W 20B 6
0.01.01.02.02.02.0
15Aditya DhamdhereW 2B 12W 18W 19B 7
0.00.01.02.02.02.0
16Joey LoW 3B 18B 9W 7B 21
0.01.01.01.02.02.0
17Brian ChenW 8B 11W 22B 18W 20
0.00.01.01.02.02.0
18Alan ChenB 9W 16B 15W 17B 22
0.00.00.01.02.02.0
19Mark / EstherW 11B 8W 10B 15W 12
1.01.01.01.01.01.0
20Bud WollB 5W 22W 13B 14B 17
0.01.01.01.01.01.0
21Sandhya CW 6B 14W 12B 22W 16
0.00.00.01.01.01.0
22Anaida StepanyanW 13B 20B 17W 21W 18
0.00.00.00.00.00.0

Schedule Update, Kolty Blitz, Impromptu Blitz #8 Results

I have an important schedule update which I hope everyone receives before next Thursday, December 21st: there will be no chess that evening. I was informed late last Thursday, after most people had left the club for the night, that the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center will close for the holidays Wednesday, December 20th. Our next meeting will be January 11th, then, and I’ll send more details soon about the 3-week quick-rated tournament which begins on that date.

If you still need a chess fix this coming week fret not, as the Kolty Chess Club will hold a 7-round G/3+2 blitz tournament Wednesday, December 20th, one I hope to attend and I’m also hoping our Menlo Park club has another good showing at a Kolty blitz event. Details follow (from the Kolty CC Facebook group):

Remember to make room in your holiday schedule for the Eric Steger Appreciation Blitz Tournament next Wednesday, December 20th. This will be a 7 round Swiss, G3/2, USCF rated event so USCF membership is required. Entry fee is $15/$20 and will be in one open section.

Please preregister by emailing Wolfgang at the KoltyChessClub@gmail.com address.

If you plan to come play please bring a digital clock since the club has very few.

We had 20 club stalwarts play in our impromptu G/5+0 blitz tournament this past Thursday, with relative newcomer Ramkumar Jeyaraman taking sole first with a perfect 5-0 score, followed closely by Gabriel Sanchez and Cesar Tamondong at 4-1, with Cesar once again beating me in the final round on the black side of another Bird. Full results for this event are available in the table below.

Lastly, this past Thursday was Paul Hartel’s final visit to the club, given he returns to Germany soon, and we will miss him a great deal. Paul has been a helpful member of the club for some time now, showing up early to help set up and participating in many of our tournaments this year. His game has improved a great deal during his time here, culminating in an even score in our recently-concluded club championship, we wish him every success in chess and in life and hope to meet him over the board again soon!

#PlayerRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Rd 5Total
1Ram JeyaramanB 13W 4B 3W 2B 5
1.02.03.04.05.05.0
2Gabe SanchezW 18B 10W 5B 1W 6
1.02.03.03.04.04.0
3Cesar TamondongB 19W 7W 1B 12B 9
1.02.02.03.04.04.0
4Charlie MayvilleW 17B 1W 11B 13W 10
1.01.01.52.53.53.5
5Thomas GerberW 8B 12B 2W 7W 1
1.02.02.03.03.03.0
6David ZhaobyeB 18W 9W 16B 2
0.51.52.03.03.03.0
7Josen KalraW 15B 3W 8B 5W 11
1.01.02.02.03.03.0
8Austin ChenB 5W 14B 7W 17W 12
0.01.01.02.03.03.0
9Mark DrurybyeW 11B 6B 10W 3
0.51.52.02.52.52.5
10Rohan KapreB 14W 2B 13W 9B 4
1.01.02.02.52.52.5
11Paul HartelW 20B 9B 4W 19B 7
1.01.01.52.52.52.5
12Hayden BrongersmaB 16W 5B 19W 3B 8
1.01.02.02.02.02.0
13Aditya DhamdhereW 1B 15W 10W 4B 16
0.01.01.01.02.02.0
14Jefferson MateoW 10B 8W 20B 18B 19
0.00.01.01.02.02.0
15Beata Ang-DuttaB 7W 13W 17B 20W 18
0.00.00.01.02.02.0
16Shlok ChowdhuryW 12B 17W 18B 6W 13
0.01.02.02.02.02.0
17Gagan PrakashB 4W 16B 15B 8W 20
0.00.01.01.01.51.5
18Joey LoB 2W 6B 16W 14B 15
0.00.00.01.01.01.0
19Jeff UngarW 3B 20W 12B 11W 14
0.01.01.01.01.01.0
20Maxime GerberB 11W 19B 14W 15B 17
0.00.00.00.00.50.5

Impromptu Blitz #7 Results, Schedule Updates

We enjoyed a record 31 participants in our Impromptu Blitz #7 last night, a 5-round G/3+2 affair which included no less than nine first-time visitors to the club. As is often the case, Pranav Jindal and Alaric Stein sat atop the wall chart when all was said and done, Pranav taking first this time with a perfect 5-0 while Alaric shared joint second at 4-1 with Cesar Tamondong, who nicked me in the final round with his accursed From’s Gambit (between he and Kornél I’m considering a temporary ban at the club on that particular response to my beloved Bird). Full results for the tournament may be viewed in the attached image.

I’ll update the club’s schedule of events this weekend (https://menloparkchess.club/events/) but we’ll meet December 14th and 21st for casual, blitz or variant tournaments then there will be no meetings December 28th and January 4th, due to the Holidays. Beginning January 11th we’ll hold a 2- or 3-week quick-rated event of some kind, likely G/15, perhaps double-round quads again. As always, let me know your preferences and/or dislikes and I hope to see many of you next week.

Second Club Championship Results

Our second club championship concluded Thursday, November 30th, with many exciting games impacting the final prize distributions, as is often the case in a single-section Swiss event such as ours, and we were able to stream the top six boards live thanks to the efforts of Jean-Rudolph Cendejas and Cesar Tamondong—thank you both again for arranging that for our club!

Alex Chin went a perfect 5-0 to claim sole first place, followed by Tobin Bennion and David Zhao in second with 4 points out of five. Prinav Jindal, Nick Matelli, and Anton Bobkov shared 4th-6th places with 3.5 points and five players tied for 7th-11th with 3.0. The US Chess rating report may be found here while the full wall chart and prize group standings follow in the two tables below. Thank you to everyone who played in this event and we’ll look to hold a third club championship same time next year!

NameRatingScorePrize
1600+
CHIN, ALEX20095.0$100
BENNION, TOBIN17084.0$60
MATELLI, NICK16953.5$20
JINDAL, PRANAV20043.5$20
TAMONDONG, CESAR16323.0
KALRA, JOSEN16003.0
WU, JIALIN17032.5
LIU, LIAM16652.0
JEYARAMAN, RAMKUMARunr.2.0
1300-1599
ZHAO, DAVID15024.0$80
WANG, CHASE13283.0$50
LAKIRBAIA, LASHA13043.0$50
GRINKIN, NIKITA14532.5
MCGINNIS, JEFFREY15042.0
KIM, TAEWOO14002.0
SHERRARD, MICHAEL14781.5
AGDAMAG, SAMUEL14621.5
1002-1299
BOBKOV, ANTON12923.5$60
CSERNAI, KORNEL12853.0$40
DHINGRA, ATUL10952.5$7
DESAI, DHRITEE12132.5$7
BENNION, BANKS11402.5$7
RASYID, HAMDANIL12602.0
ARODAKI, FADI10602.0
BRONGERSMA, HAYDEN10641.5
UNGAR, JEFFREY10431.0
UNR-1001
HARTEL, PAUL9182.5$50
RAO, AMOGHunr.2.5$50
PU, HUGOunr.1.5$10
GAUTHIER, GREGORYunr.1.5$10
RASYID, UMAR10011.0
DARR, MICHAEL7981.0
SINGH, PARAMDEEP6721.0
KALRA, SIDDHARTH2530.5

Club Championship Games Streamed Live!

Thanks to the efforts and connections of Juan Cendejas and Cesar Tamondong, the top six boards of the final round of our club championship to be played Thursday, November 30th, at 7pm will be streamed live on both chess.com and DGT’s livechesscloud.com via the following links:

https://www.chess.com/events/2023-menlo-park-chess-club-championship
https://view.livechesscloud.com/#bffa7ace-751d-40a8-bf8f-9a324599ba3f

The pairings for the top six boards remain the same as in our previous post but there were some changes on the lower boards due to illness or withdrawal—the latest pairings are shared below for reference. This is an exciting first for our young club and likely won’t be the last time we dabble in this technology. Thank you, Juan and Cesar!

Second Club Championship Final Round Pairings, Wall Chart, Prize Group Standings

Our round 4 games were no less exciting than previous rounds and we saw a number of upsets, to boot. Below are the final round pairings, wall chart and prize group standings heading into the final round. As always, the pairings could change if someone is unable to play on the 30th, and I’ll update these tables asap if that’s the case.

Recall that the chess club will not meet this Thursday, the 23rd, due to Thanksgiving—please enjoy the holiday, everyone! Regards,

Mark Drury

Second Club Championship Round 4 Pairings, Wall Chart, Prize Group Standings

The round 3 games were every bit as exciting as those in the previous round, with some narrow escapes, some clearly winning attacks which fizzled out and some interesting endgames, including that between Greg and Umar, which had a study-like quality about it given the opposite-color bishops. Again, I’ll try to get some of these games online during the Thanksgiving break next week, perhaps sooner.

Below are the pairings, wall chart and prize group standings for round 4. Anton is half a point clear in his group but fell ill this week and won’t be able to play Thursday, regrettably, though he still has an excellent chance at a prize with a draw or win in the final round. Hugo is also half a point clear in his group and we’ll see if he can keep that going when he plays Nikita this week. Note that a number of players have needed to take a zero-point bye given they’d already used the one half-point bye allowed in this event. That’s always unfortunate but there are a number of reasons why we use this rule–follow up with me Thursday if you have any questions.

Due to the odd number of players this round Umar gets the full-point bye though, as always, things could change in 24 hours if we get another bye request or the like–I’ll redo the pairings if I receive any such requests before 4pm Thursday. I look forward to seeing many of you tomorrow! Regards,

Mark Drury

Second Club Championship Round 3 Pairings, Wall Chart, Prize Group Standings

Round 2 of our club championship was another exciting affair with a number of very close games, including several of those on the top boards. I will try to publish some or all of the games in a Lichess study, as with a couple of our previous events, a task which is always made easier if you send me a timely pgn file of your game score (thank you to those who are already doing so). The second and third tables below include the wall chart and the prize group standings, and all prizes remain very much up for grabs in each group. I’ve received the entry fee payment from a smattering of players so please send that along (or pay at the club) at your earliest convenience. Regards,

Mark Drury