The images shared here give the final standings for our 4-round G/5+0 event as well as the marathon standings through two of four July blitz tournaments. Alaric and Alex tied for first place last night with perfect scores while Matthew Yuan took sole third (and $10) with 3.5 points. Ptolemy was first under-17 with 2.5 points and is $15 the richer while several other juniors tied for second with 2 points.
Given the above-mentioned ties we have more individual event prize money rolling into the marathon prize fund ($40 for the Open, $10 to under-17), such that the new marathon awards are as follows:
More important than the prize money, however (which, let’s be honest, may buy one lunch or a few gallons of gas here in the Bay Area), is the simple goal of playing through all four tournaments while keeping something like a smile on your face, especially come the G/3+0 event, which should be frenetic and loud. Queens will hang, kings will be left in check and flags will fall unnoticed but we hope the small spectacle is fun for everyone.
Well, there is clearly demand for blitz at the club, at least for the “slower” G/5+3 time control used last night. Forty-one people turned out for the first installment of our Surfeit of Blitz Marathon, which is perhaps twenty-one more than we were expecting, and we filled both playing rooms plus had one board in our skittles room. It was great to have so many players join us and the fact that ~90% registered online before the event made things that much easier and smoother–thank you all for taking the few seconds to do that!
Per the wall chart below, Richard, Pranav and Sean tied for first place with perfect scores, while eight others were close behind with 3 points out of 4. Joshua Garrow took the Under-17 first prize ($15) with 3 points and Raajas Dixit took second ($10) with 2.5. Given there were no ties for prizes in the U17 division last night no prize money will roll over to the U17 marathon fund this week (the blue cells in the wall chart show juniors vying for marathon prizes).
The three-way tie for first in our Open division, however, means all $50 of last night’s prizes ($25, $15, $10) will be rolled into the marathon prize fund, as promised/hoped for. At present we have ten people vying for marathon prizes (gold cells in the wall chart), so at $5/person the initial marathon prizes would have been $25, $15 and $10, but with last night’s $50 infusion we now have $35, $25, $20, $15, $5 (somewhat arbitrary, I realize). I expect the same infusion to happen next week, given it’s another 4-round event.
Note that if you thought you entered the marathon and don’t see your name highlighted in gold or blue, below, please let me know. We will also give people one more opportunity to enter the marathon before the start of next week’s first round. Again, thank you all for playing last night and I hope you enjoyed the evening as much as I did!
Note that Pranav Jindal ended with a provisional 2255 rating based on the three games he played (all wins), so it will be interesting to see where his rating goes from there (he joked at the club Wednesday that he may retire from rated tournament play, undefeated, or some such).
We’d like to thank Jim Eade again for his excellent lecture and game review this past Wednesday. It is a sincere privilege to have someone with his experience, expertise and clear love for the game help foster our club in the way that he has and we appreciate all that you do for the broader chess community, Jim!
We’ve had quite a few people register for our free G/5+3 blitz tournament next week. If you haven’t already done so and wish to play in this event please sign up asap, as we may limit participation to ~32 players this time around (you can withdraw at any time if your plans change).
Please let us know if you have any questions about the tournament rating reports or the blitz tournament (info@menloparkchess.club) and we hope to see all of you at the club soon!
Our rated June Mini-Marathon wrapped up this past Wednesday with some very exciting games and a clear first place: Mikhail ended up with 3.5 points after a tough win over Shahin, while Ritam, Cesar and Pranav tied for second with 3.0 out of 4. Pranav was slated to play Mikhail in the final round but came down with the flu and was unable to join us, regrettably, though as some consolation his first provisional Regular rating is 2255 (based on 3 games).
Daniel and Ragav were our top juniors at 2.5 and Daniel had an excellent chance to join Mikhail with 3.5 points, but succumbed in time trouble in a wild game with Ritam. I’ll share all the games as Lichess studies soon (thank you again to those who sent me your digital scores), have submitted both the tournament and extra games for rating and would like to offer a hearty thanks to all of you who participated!
Below are the round 3 results/game studies and tentative round 4 pairings for our June Mini-Marathon, along with the results for three extra rated games from six newer visitors to the club. We’re definitely growing and may need to occupy two tournament rooms for future events to continue our distancing with one game per table, which is a good problem to have.
Some exciting seesaw battles again in this round, with many nice positions squandered amidst the attendant time trouble, groans and gnashing of teeth, and when all the clocks were stopped Pranav found himself alone at the top with 3-0. Only Mikhail now stands between Pranav and an absurdly high USCF provisional rating, just one of the great games we’ll see next week, I’m certain.
Following are the individual games from round 2 of our June Mini-Marathon (chapters 11-21 in the tournament study). These Lichess studies may not be the best way to share games given some minor UX issues with the feature but we’ll continue to use them for this event, at least. Lots of interesting games and the worthy up-and-down struggle between John and Ziyu ended with a demonstration of the power of three connected passed pawns. Well played, everyone!
Below are the standings after round 2 of our June Mini-Marathon, as well as the tentative round 3 pairings. We have a number of byes in round 3, including two of the three people tied for first, so this will make for an interesting finish. Given the number of participants we probably should have played 5 rounds, to better guarantee a clear first, but if there is a tie for any of first, second or third places we’ll hold a blitz chess memefest the following week to see who takes home the gift certificates.
Be certain to check https://menloparkchess.club/tournaments/latest-tournament-pairings/ for the latest pairings as we get closer to Wednesday, and I’ll send another reminder Tuesday but recall that we agreed to start rounds 3 and 4 at 6:30pm over the coming two weeks. Hopefully this isn’t a hardship for anyone?
Lastly, there was a spate of interesting games in round 2 and I should have all of them added to our June Mini-Marathon Lichess study this weekend (https://lichess.org/study/UWaFebaG)–thanks to those of you who sent me the PGN files for your games as that certainly makes things easier on my end!
Chris Torres and his daughter stopped by the club June 8th to have a look around and Chris wrote a very nice post about what we’re doing. Thank you so much for visiting, Chris, and for the very nice write-up–please visit us again soon!
The image below gives the results for round 1 of our June Mini-Marathon as well as the tentative round 2 pairings. Note that these pairings could change if we receive additional late entries or bye requests so I’ll confirm the pairings Tuesday afternoon.
We had some exciting games in round 1, replete with several missed opportunities to hold a draw or secure a full point, and all ten are now available in this Lichess study. Note that most of the game annotations are provided by engine analysis, though I added a couple comments in parentheses to one or two games. I plan to do this for all of our longer time control events so people have access to a club game archive, of sorts, and I’ll make PGN files available on the club website, as well (just look for the specific tournament link once the event is complete).
I also wanted to point out that we had a good casual/blitz showing last week–those who wished to play non-tournament games–ideally we’ll see as many people this coming Wednesday for more of the same. Please let me know if you have any questions in the meantime and I hope to see you at the club soon.
I included a couple photos, below, from last week’s blitz tournament, one from the start of round three and the other showing the final game of that round: the battle between Cody and Shahin (facing the camera). I believe Shahin was down to mere tens of seconds in this tough game but the inadvertent 5-second delay we ended up using allowed him to hold on and hand Cody his only loss of the event (and, yes, I’ve made a mental note to take better photos at the club).
Speaking of blitz, I’ve bandied about this idea of holding a blitz mini-marathon over the four Wednesdays in July. Each Wednesday tournament would include 4-5 rounds and would be a standalone event, with modest prizes, while the sum of one’s scores in all four events would then be your total for the mini-marathon (hence, a maximum of 16-20 points). You needn’t play in all four events, given busy summer schedules with vacations and such, while, conceivably, someone who plays just three events and does very well could prove competitive in the mini-marathon. We might also decrease the time control each successive week, to ratchet up the pressure (G5+2, G5+0, G3+2, G3+0, say). The entry fee for individual events would be free, as usual, while those interested in the full mini-marathon could pay a modest fee to create a prize fund, something quite a few people have expressed interest in to date. If you have any interest in or feedback about such a tourney please let me know.
In other news, several recent visitors to the club have asked that we offer casual and blitz chess on a regular basis, for those who cannot or do not wish to play in tournaments, and I’m happy to report that our “Skittles Room” will now be a permanent fixture at the club. This is the room directly across the hall from our usual space—I’ll set that up each evening with boards, pieces and clocks and we can use that for casual, blitz, bughouse and post-game analysis while tournaments are in progress (it also serves admirably as the parent’s lounge).
Finally for this update, a number of people have requested that we offer lectures and/or lessons and I’m working on something which may happen as soon as June 29th. Jim Eade, one or our resident masters and benefactors, has offered to analyze one or two of the more interesting games from our June Mini-Marathon tournament or perhaps review some aspect of endgame technique. We’ll send details and a firm date once we know more.
