Last night we held another single-section Swiss-system blitz tournament, a G/3+2 affair with 24 players and, as with last week, Kunal Modi mowed through the field for another perfect 5 of 5 result. Adam Stevens and Aaron Cho tied for second with 4 points and all three received $25 Kepler’s Books gift certificates for their exertions. Congratulations to our winners and thank you to everyone who participated in this event, our last of the year!
It’s hard to believe the club will observe its one year anniversary when we next meet January 5th and it has been far more successful than I would have imagined in January or February of this year. For my part, the greatest reward is meeting so many of you fine people, both at the club and online. Thank you for your participation and support over the course of the year, have a great Holiday season and a safe New Year and here’s hoping next year will be even better! Regards,
Our final meeting and tournament of 2022, we’ll play 5 or 6 rounds of G/3+2 blitz in a single Swiss section or, depending upon turnout, we may hold 4- or 6-person round robins based on rating (or some estimation thereof). We’ll begin promptly at 7:15pm so please register ahead of time via the button on this page or arrive no later than 7:00pm Wednesday if you plan to play in this event. Registration is free, the tournament will be limited to 36 players and prizes include Kepler’s Books gift certificates.
Twenty people joined us last night for a Swiss G/3+2 blitz tournament of five rounds, including several first-time visitors, among them first-place finisher Kunal Modi, who was a perfect 5 for 5 even though he faced stiff competition in Shahin Aghevli (2nd), Karim Seada (3rd) and a host of strong players tied for 4th at 3 points. Congratulations to Kunal, Shahin and Karim and thank you to everyone who played in this event!
We’ll hold another blitz event next week to close out the year (the club won’t meet December 21st or 28th), either another single-section Swiss tourney or 4- or 6-player round robins, depending upon turnout, with Kepler’s Books gift certificates serving as prizes. I’ll send an event invite for that tournament later today. Regards,
We’ll hold a casual 5-round G/3+2 blitz tournament as something of a warmup for our club’s blitz championship, to occur the following Wednesday, December 14th. Tomorrow’s event will either be one single Swiss section or, depending upon turnout, we may hold 6-person round robins based on rating (or some estimation thereof). We’ll begin “promptly” at 7:15pm so please show up no later than 7:00 if you plan to play in this event. There should also be people on hand for informal or other non-tournament games.
Our regular weekly club meeting occurs Wednesday evenings from 6:00-9:45pm in the Cypress Room of the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center. Casual, blitz and bughouse chess are in the offing and we’ll discuss details of the next blitz tournament, tentatively scheduled for December 7th.
Our club championship blitz playoff for the 2nd-3rd overall, Under-1500 and Under-1000 prizes took place this past Wednesday in our skittles room and, after all the flags fell, Pranav Jindal took 2nd with 2.5/3 points, Andy Shih secured 3rd with 1.5 points and Cesar Tamondong and Aaron Cho tied for 4th-5th with 1 point apiece (Pranav and Andy are pictured together, below).
The U1500 group was all tied after the first round robin with each player securing the needed 1 point, but Peter Roumeliotis prevailed in the second go-round, winning the first two games against Roshan Mahanth and Anton Bobkov. Oisin Harrington wasn’t able to join us for the U1000 playoff so Banks Bennion and Benjamin Sergeant played a best-of-three blitz match, one wherein Banks’ savvy use of the clock and excellent play got the better of Benjamin over two games (Peter and Banks are also pictured below with their winnings).
Congratulations to all of our playoff contestants and winners and, again, thank you to everyone who played in this event–please let me know if you have any feedback, good or bad, which will help make future tournaments better. Regards,
Yesterday evening we held a four-round double blitz G/3+2 tournament and twenty-nine people participated. In this particular event two games were contested in each round, one as white and one as black with the same opponent, which is relatively uncommon in Swiss system tournaments.
After three rounds no less than nine players had a reasonable chance at a prize, but after the dramatic fourth round concluded WFM Olivia Smith claimed sole first place with seven out of eight points and took home the $30 Kepler’s Books gift certificate.
The tie for second between blitz mavens Pranav Jindal, Alaric Stein and Andy Shih, each with 6.5 points, resulted in not one but two G/3+0 round robin playoffs for the remaining prizes, given the first ended in yet another three-way tie. Would that we had recorded these games as there was some very interesting chess, no matter the time control, including wild swings of fortune in a single game. Pranav proved victorious in the second playoff and collected the $20 gift certificate while Alaric pocketed $10 (Andy received a firm consolation handshake).
Blitz tournaments clearly bring the crowds to our club so we’ll continue holding at least one of these each month as our schedule and interest allow. As always, please let me know if you have suggestions for other chess activities and I hope to see you at the club soon!
Our regular weekly club meeting occurs Wednesday evenings from 6:00-9:45pm in the Cypress Room of the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center. Casual, blitz and bughouse chess are in the offing and we’ll discuss details of the Chess960 tournament tentatively scheduled for September 14th.
Our regular weekly club meeting occurs Wednesday evenings from 6:00-9:45pm in the Cypress Room of the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center. Casual, blitz and bughouse chess are in the offing and we’ll discuss details of the Chess960 tournament tentatively scheduled for September 14th.
One way to summarize Wednesday’s final installment of our Surfeit of Blitz Marathon, the 5-round G/3+0 tournament, is simply: Bada venit, Bada vidit, Bada vicit! Badamkhand Norovsambuu scored 4.5 out of 5 points for clear first place, ceding a single draw to her friend Saikhanchimeg Tsogtsaikhan, another very strong expert-level player and a first-time visitor to the club (and by “strong” we’re talking clear first with a perfect 5-0 score in the 2018 US Women’s Open, over a number of titled players—Badamkhand won the same event this year!). Alaric, Pranav, Kathan and Shahin shared 2nd place with 4 points, while Shawnak and Josh shared Under-17 1st place with 3 points.
Alaric outlasted all others in our Surfeit of Blitz Marathon, taking first place with 15 out of 18 points over four tournaments. Pranav had the only perfect score after four rounds in the G/3+0 last night and could have joined Alaric atop the marathon with a last-round win, but Badamkhand wasn’t having it, so he and Shahin shared 2nd place with 14 points, while Kathan took sole 4th with 13. The Under-17 marathon saw a tie for 1st place, with Ethan and Josh both scoring 8 points after playing in just three of the four events. The final results for the G/3+0 event and the overall marathon are in the attached images, while the marathon prizes are given below—I’ll follow up individually to ask how people wish to be paid. Congratulations to all our winners and a hearty thank you to everyone who played in this fun if eccentric event!
Blitz chess is clearly very popular with the club, given we had 63 people participate in the marathon, so we’ll do something similar again before the end of the year. I may miss the coming two Wednesdays but the club will still meet for casual and blitz chess August 3rd and 10th, and we’ll consider holding another USCF-rated event in September. As always, if you have suggestions for club activities or tournaments please let me know.
