There will be no chess club meeting September 3rd but we will meet September 10th, when our rated Copa del Menlo tournament begins (see the Events page to register now).
The Menlo Park Chess Club will hold our first annual blitz chess championship beginning Thursday, October 17th, at 7pm, a seven-round USCF-rated Swiss system event using the G/5+0 time control (no increment or delay) over one evening. Our blitz championship is aimed at players with some rated or blitz tournament experience and may not be suitable for beginners or for children under the age of 10, given this event could last until almost 9pm on a school night.
Note that the US Chess Rules for Blitz Chess are slightly different than those the club typically follows in our impromptu blitz events so please spend the ~10 minutes needed to read the rules summary linked here.
This tournament will be followed Thursday, October 24th, by another seven-round USCF-rated Swiss system event using the G/3+2 time control, one which requires a separate registration and entry fee (see the Events page for a link). The individual who participates in both events over two weeks and has the highest combined score will be declared our Blitz Chess Champion and will receive an additional $100 prize. In the event of a tie there will be a G/3+0 playoff for both the prize and the title–first player to win a game is the victor.
Details for the G/5+0 event follow:
Format: Seven-round Swiss-system rated tournament in one section over one evening
Rounds: Round 1 begins promptly at 7:00pm and participants are strongly encouraged to check in by 6:45pm; subsequent rounds begin 1-2 minutes after previous round ends
Control: G/5+0 (blitz-rated game of 5 minutes for each player with no increment or delay
Entry Fee: $5 (the entire entry fee will be returned in prizes)
Prizes: Two prize groups based upon October US Chess regular, quick or blitz ratings (TD discretion for each player) with roughly 16 players per prize group, winner take all: Group 1, $100; Group 2, $60, based on 32 players
Byes: Zero-point byes are available for any round
Register: Please sign up in advance using the ‘Register’ button, above
Boards, sets and clocks will be provided by the Menlo Park Chess Club (bring a clock if you own one)
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 possible lecture are in the offing and we will also play another impromptu blitz tournament beginning at 7pm (free, no prizes), given there appears to be an appetite for same.
Adding the wall charts for our Impromptu Blitz Tourney numbers 26 and 27, which took place September 26th and October 3rd and were well attended, with perhaps seven first-time visitors to the club last night alone.
Andy Applebaum, Mikhail Molodyk and Yoyo He took 1st-3rd places, respectively, in the G/4;d2 #26 last week while Alex Chin and Cesar Tamondong tied for first in the G/3+2 #27 last night, with Pranav Jindal and Hayden Brongersma tying for third in that event (one which saw a surprising number of upsets). The full results for both tournaments may be seen in the attached images and thank you again to everyone who participated!
Of special note, after last night’s tournament ended seven of us walked over to Barebottle Brewing Co., a mere three blocks from the club, hoping to find Viktor Grigoriev and the Silicon Valley Chess gang already playing there, but they may not have begun hosting at that venue just yet. Viktor, is that still in the works? In any case, we played some bughouse (with John Vitlacil holding court, per the attached image) and blitz and analyzed a game or two until 10:30pm or so (that’s when I left, at least). It’s a great place for casual chess (people were playing Magic: The Gathering, as well) and I hope to do this again on any given Thursday.
I wanted to share a few quick updates with the club, given it’s been a while since I posted here. First and foremost, a hearty congratulations are due to WFM Olivia Smith, who played board one for Wales at the recently-concluded Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary. Olivia finished with an excellent score of 6/9 and one can only imagine what an amazing experience this must have been for her and her entire team (https://results.fide.com/olymp2024/olymp.php?ev_code=68&team=80). Well done, Olivia!
Second, attached are the results from our last three impromptu blitz tournaments at the club, all of which used the same G/4;d2 time control. Tomorrow, Thursday, we’ll continue with another excellent lecture from Frisco Del Rosario at 6:30pm then will hold Impromptu Blitz #26 round 7pm, as usual.
Third, I’m trying to decide upon our next tournament format, whether it should be rated or unrated, blitz or a longer time control, how many weeks it should run–all the usual questions rolling around in a TD’s head. If you have an opinion about the format for our next event please let me know and it may begin as soon as the second week of October.
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 possible lecture are in the offing and we will also play another impromptu blitz tournament beginning at 7pm (free, no prizes), given there appears to be a strong appetite for same.
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 possible lecture are in the offing and we will also play another impromptu blitz tournament beginning at 7pm (free, no prizes), given there appears to be a strong appetite for same.
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 possible lecture are in the offing and we will also play another impromptu blitz tournament beginning at 7pm (free, no prizes), given there appears to be a strong appetite for same.
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 possible lecture are in the offing and we will also play another impromptu blitz tournament beginning at 7pm (free, no prizes), given there appears to be a strong appetite for same.
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 possible lecture are in the offing and we will also play another impromptu blitz tournament beginning at 7pm (free, no prizes), given there appears to be a strong appetite for same.
We enjoyed another excellent lecture last Thursday courtesy of Frisco Del Rosario, one centered round a lesser-know rook sac theme which was most recently seen in high-level play about three weeks ago (between Caruana-Firouzja, see https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2732198). Frisco’s lectures are quickly becoming one of my favorite aspects of the club, never mind the way he treats me in our blitz tournaments, and I highly recommend that you visit the club to see and learn for yourself (the lectures begin at 6:30 each Thursday).
Speaking of blitz tournaments, we had 21 players in our most recent G/5;d2 affair and the six rounds we played weren’t enough for many in attendance, given the general clamor for a seventh round (alas, we had too little time for a seventh inning). Despite a first-round bye and a second-round draw/save, Pranav Jindal wound up on top after the sixth round was complete with 5.0 points, followed closely by masters Mike Arne and Frisco Del Rosario at 4.5. Hayden Brongersma, Cesar Tamondong and Kornel Csernai rounded out the top six with 4.0 points apiece. The full results are in the attached image and thank you to everyone who participated in this event.
Note that we have 14 entries for our August Double-Round Quick-Rated Quads beginning this Thursday and the tournament will be more interesting if we get at least 16-24 players, so please sign up asap here if you plan to play. Also of note for you blitz players: we’ll hold our first US Chess-rated blitz tournament (perhaps two of them over two weeks) in September and I’ll send more information about that event once the details are finalized.
As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments or suggestions for the club and I hope to see many of you this Thursday. Regards,
