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 lecture are in the offing and we will also play another free, unrated blitz tournament beginning round 7pm, given there appears to be a continuing appetite for same. Note that our weekly lecture begins at 6:30pm and it remains one of the highlights of club attendance.
Impromptu Blitz #30 Results
I am belatedly posting the results from our 7-round G/3+2 blitz tournament of last week, which saw several of the first-time visitors from the previous week return for another chance at glory and/or revenge. Alex Chin ended up alone in first place with a perfect 7/7, with Hayden Brongersma in sole second a point behind and Pranav Jindal and Josen Kalra sharing T-3 with 5 points. Congratulations to our winners and thank you to everyone who joined us last week!
Apparently, and somewhat humorously, a couple people tried to let me know last Thursday that a first-time visitor was engaging in a running monologue during his games and I thought they were implicating another new person with whom I was playing a casual game. In any case, apologies I didn’t get the message and didn’t hear the person in question but I’ll be certain to keep an eye and an ear out for this behavior Thursday, when we’ll play another free, unrated Swiss of some kind.
Lastly, I will share the details for our next rated event tomorrow or Thursday at the latest, but expect it to be a quick-rated tournament beginning on February 13th. More to come soon!
Impromptu Blitz #29 Results
We had 32 people participate in our free lecture and unrated blitz tournament last week, per the attached results image, including 10 or 12 first-time visitors to the club, which must be a record (there were clearly some play-over-the-board-chess New Year’s resolutions to thank for the big turnout). Congratulations to Triet, Hayden and Raaja on their first-place tie at 5 out of 6 and to Breakwell for his solo fourth performance at 4.5, another excellent showing ahead of a raft of strong players at 4 points! We’ll do the same thing this Thursday (lecture and blitz tournament) and I’ll send more information soon about our upcoming rated event in February.
Casual, Blitz, Lecture, Ladder Chess Evening
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 lecture are in the offing and we will also play another free, unrated blitz tournament beginning round 7pm, given there appears to be a continuing appetite for same.
Casual, Blitz, Lecture, Ladder Chess Evening
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 lecture are in the offing and we will also play another free, unrated blitz tournament beginning round 7pm, given there appears to be a continuing appetite for same.
Casual, Blitz, Lecture, Ladder Chess Evening
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.
Blitz Championship #2: G/3+2 & Combined Results
Twenty-eight people joined us for our Blitz Championship #2 last night, another seven-rounder with a G/3+2 time control in place of last week’s G/5+0. Kunal Modi’s excellent 6.0 out of 7 was good for clear first and the top group’s $80 prize, while Zelin Fang and Hayden Brongersma shared first place in group two and split $60. There was a three-way tie in group three between Kaio Deeter, Breakwell Loyalka and Austin Chen, all of whom split another $60 while young Siddharth Kalra took sole first in group four, claiming all $40 of that group’s prize. This event has already been rated and the report may be viewed here: https://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?202410244452.
Last night also wrapped up our combined blitz championship and after fourteen long rounds over two weeks Andy Applebaum edged out Kunal Modi by half a point to take the overall Menlo Park Chess Club Championship and the extra $100 prize. Well played, Andy and Kunal, and thank you to everyone who joined us for these two blitz tournaments.
Note that we won’t meet next week, October 31st, given it’s Halloween but our five-round club championship proper begins the following week and spots are still available in that event if you prefer longer time controls: https://menloparkchess.club/event/third-menlo-park-chess-club-championship-round-1/. Regards,
Mark Drury
Blitz Championship #1: G/5+0 Results
Below are the results of our Blitz Championship #1: G/5+0 from Thursday, which saw a full complement of 32 pre-registered players, all of whom showed up pretty much on time such that we were able to start the tournament round 7:05pm. Congratulations to Badamkhand Norovsambuu for capturing sole first place in the event and the $100 prize, ahead of some very strong blitz competition! Zelin Fang, Yoyo He and Yash Shaw tied for the 1400-1800 prize ($27 each) while young Austin Chen was the lone U1400 participant at 4 points or better, which earned him $60. Thank you to everyone who participated in this event, see the attached wall charts for full results and the US Chess rating report is available here: https://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?202410170182-12459313.
Next week’s rated Blitz Championship #2: G/3+2 is filling fast so please register asap if you hope to play in this event. As a reminder, the person with the highest combined score from both blitz tournaments will be crowned the club’s blitz champion and will receive an extra $100 prize (in addition to any prize won at this week’s event). We will likely have three or four prize groups again this week, just as in last week’s tournament, so just about everyone has a chance to win something: https://menloparkchess.club/event/club-blitz-championship-tournament-2-g-32/. Regards,
Mark Drury
Impromptu Blitz #28 Results
Following Frisco’s excellent lecture Thursday, thirty-one players participated in our Impromptu Blitz #28, another 7-round affair in one section but with a G/5+0 time control this time around. There were upsets, there were illegal moves (yours truly pushed a pawn 3 squares in one move to squander a winning attack), there were embarrassing mates (yours truly was mated by a pawn in an otherwise won endgame) and there were time forfeitures galore, just what one might expect when there’s no increment or delay. Congratulations to Andy Applebaum and Pranav Jindal for outlasting many other strong players and tying for first with 5.5. points, and thank you to everyone who participated in this event (full results are attached).
Thursday was also our good friend Taewoo Kim’s last evening at the club, given he and his family (Minsoo, Jung and Taein) return to Korea this week–we wish them all the best and look forward to following Taewoo’s chess journey online.
This week we’ll hold what is tentatively planned to be a rated G/5+0 blitz tournament of seven rounds but if we don’t get at least 20-24 entries by Tuesday we may instead make it an unrated event, though still with a $5 entry fee and cash prizes. If you have a preference for rated versus unrated please let me know and please register asap if you plan to play in this event: https://menloparkchess.club/event/club-blitz-championship-tournament-1-g-50/. Regards,
Mark Drury
Club Blitz Championship Tournament #2: G/3+2
The Menlo Park Chess Club will hold the second of our blitz chess championship tournaments on Thursday, October 24th, at 7pm, a seven-round USCF-rated Swiss system event using the G/3+2 time control 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.
This tournament was preceded by the seven-round G/5+0 event the previous week. 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.
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.
Details for the G/3+2 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/3+2 (blitz-rated game of 3 minutes for each player with a 2-second increment added after each move)
- Entry Fee: $5 (the entire entry fee will be returned in prizes)
- Payment: PayPal: mark@drury.com; Venmo: @Mark-Drury-12, Zelle: 6504006393
- 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)
- All tournament participants must be current US Chess members
- The US Chess Rules for Blitz Chess is short, required reading
- Our tournament chess rules summary is worth perusing if you’re new to tournament play
- For more information please send email to info@menloparkchess.club
- Join our Facebook group to stay abreast of future club tournaments and events