Our February Small Swisses concluded March 13th with a couple make-up games and the full results with prize distributions are available on the following page:
Congratulations to Pranav Jindal, Breakwell Loyalka, Amogh Rao and Evan Sobel for winning clear first in their respective sections, with a special shout out to Pranav for the perfect score in his group–well played, all of you! I should also point out that 8 out of 11 of our prize winners were junior players, proving once again the old maxim that “youth will be served!” The full US Chess rating report for this quick-rated event may be viewed here, and thank you to everyone who joined us for this tournament.
Speaking of youth served, the top four finishers in last week’s Impromptu Blitz #34 were all juniors, perhaps for the first time ever in our club but certainly not the last. Breakwell Loyalka secured first alone with 5 out of 6 points after a tough last-round win over Hugo Pu, who tied with Zelin Fang and Austin Chen for second at 4.5 points. Zelin ground me down in the final round and Austin did the same to newcomer (and another strong junior) Cameron Troy. Full results for #34 are in the attached image.
Interestingly, in my third-round game with Breakwell he played some offbeat b4 line as white against my Sicilian and quietly encouraged me to take the pawn, that it was “perfectly safe.” I accepted and soon found my uncastled king and uncoordinated pieces in a world of hurt. Not two rounds later I was seated next to Breakwell and Vinayak Vikram during their game when the same b4 position in the Sicilian arose, and I’m certain I heard the same, now hollow-sounding “perfectly safe” assurances emanating from the white side of the board during that game, as well (with the same result, it seems). Just a heads-up in case you find yourself playing Breakwell and he offers you similar “safety.”
Note that tomorrow evening Frisco will give his lecture from 6:30pm to 7pm and then we will hold another free, informal Freestyle Swiss tournament of 4 or 5 rounds, with a draft format and G/5;d3 time control. More information about the tournament is here and you can register at the club Thursday beginning round 6:30pm. The following week we’ll hold a blind draw bughouse tournament and on April 3rd we’ll begin a four-week, four-round rated Swiss in two sections with a G/45;d5 time control. I’ll send more information about both tournaments in a day or two. As always, I hope to see many of you at the club soon! Regards,
Mark Drury
