The Menlo Park Chess Club will hold our second annual club championship beginning Thursday, October 26th, at 7pm, a five-round USCF-rated Swiss system event using the dual-rated G/60;d5 time control over five weeks . Our championship is aimed at players with at least some tournament experience (one or two rated events, say) and may not be suitable for children under the age of 10, given games could last past 9pm on a school night. Additionally, if your child has trouble sitting still or remaining quiet for an hour or two then we would humbly request that you consider registering him or her in one of our other rated events and forego the club championship (we love our junior players but there are a few who truly struggle to remain quiet during even the shorter time controls). Details follow:
Format: Five-round Swiss-system tournament in one section, one game per evening
Rounds: October 26th, November 2nd, 9th, 16th and 30th—games begin promptly at 7:00pm (there is no round on November 23rd, Thanksgiving)
Control: G/60;d5 (dual-rated game of 60 minutes for each player plus a 5-second delay per move)
Entry Fee: $15 (the entire entry fee will be returned in prizes)
Prizes: Four prize groups based upon ratings with roughly 8 players per prize group (Group 1: $100, $60, $40; Group 2: $80, $60, $40; Group 3: $60, $40, $20; Group 4: $60, $40, $20, with adjustments as needed based on group size)
Byes: One half-point bye is available for any round save the last
Boards, sets, clocks, score sheets and pens will be provided by the Menlo Park Chess Club (bring a clock if you own one)
The Menlo Park Chess Club will hold our second annual club championship beginning Thursday, October 26th, at 7pm, a five-round USCF-rated Swiss system event using the dual-rated G/60;d5 time control over five weeks . Our championship is aimed at players with at least some tournament experience (one or two rated events, say) and may not be suitable for children under the age of 10, given games could last past 9pm on a school night. Additionally, if your child has trouble sitting still or remaining quiet for an hour or two then we would humbly request that you consider registering him or her in one of our other rated events and forego the club championship (we love our junior players but there are a few who truly struggle to remain quiet during even the shorter time controls). Details follow:
Format: Five-round Swiss-system tournament in one section, one game per evening
Rounds: October 26th, November 2nd, 9th, 16th and 30th—games begin promptly at 7:00pm (there is no round on November 23rd, Thanksgiving)
Control: G/60;d5 (dual-rated game of 60 minutes for each player plus a 5-second delay per move)
Entry Fee: $15 (the entire entry fee will be returned in prizes)
Prizes: Four prize groups based upon ratings with roughly 8 players per prize group (Group 1: $100, $60, $40; Group 2: $80, $60, $40; Group 3: $60, $40, $20; Group 4: $60, $40, $20, with adjustments as needed based on group size)
Byes: One half-point bye is available for any round save the last
Boards, sets, clocks, score sheets and pens will be provided by the Menlo Park Chess Club (bring a clock if you own one)
The Menlo Park Chess Club will hold our second annual club championship beginning Thursday, October 26th, at 7pm, a five-round USCF-rated Swiss system event using the dual-rated G/60;d5 time control over five weeks . Our championship is aimed at players with at least some tournament experience (one or two rated events, say) and may not be suitable for children under the age of 10, given games could last past 9pm on a school night. Additionally, if your child has trouble sitting still or remaining quiet for an hour or two then we would humbly request that you consider registering him or her in one of our other rated events and forego the club championship (we love our junior players but there are a few who truly struggle to remain quiet during even the shorter time controls). Details follow:
Format: Five-round Swiss-system tournament in one section, one game per evening
Rounds: October 26th, November 2nd, 9th, 16th and 30th—games begin promptly at 7:00pm (there is no round on November 23rd, Thanksgiving)
Control: G/60;d5 (dual-rated game of 60 minutes for each player plus a 5-second delay per move)
Entry Fee: $15 (the entire entry fee will be returned in prizes)
Prizes: Four prize groups based upon ratings with roughly 8 players per prize group (Group 1: $100, $60, $40; Group 2: $80, $60, $40; Group 3: $60, $40, $20; Group 4: $60, $40, $20, with adjustments as needed based on group size)
Byes: One half-point bye is available for any round save the last
Boards, sets, clocks, score sheets and pens will be provided by the Menlo Park Chess Club (bring a clock if you own one)
The Menlo Park Chess Club will hold our second annual club championship beginning Thursday, October 26th, at 7pm, a five-round USCF-rated Swiss system event using the dual-rated G/60;d5 time control over five weeks . Our championship is aimed at players with at least some tournament experience (one or two rated events, say) and may not be suitable for children under the age of 10, given games could last past 9pm on a school night. Additionally, if your child has trouble sitting still or remaining quiet for an hour or two then we would humbly request that you consider registering him or her in one of our other rated events and forego the club championship (we love our junior players but there are a few who truly struggle to remain quiet during even the shorter time controls). Details follow:
Format: Five-round Swiss-system tournament in one section, one game per evening
Rounds: October 26th, November 2nd, 9th, 16th and 30th—games begin promptly at 7:00pm (there is no round November 23th, Thanksgiving)
Control: G/60;d5 (dual-rated game of 60 minutes for each player plus a 5-second delay per move)
Entry Fee: $15 (the entire entry fee will be returned in prizes)
Prizes: Four prize groups based upon ratings with roughly 8 players per prize group (Group 1: $100, $60, $40; Group 2: $80, $60, $40; Group 3: $60, $40, $20; Group 4: $60, $40, $20, with adjustments as needed based on group size)
Byes: One half-point bye is available for any round save the last
Register: Please sign up in advance using the ‘Register’ button, above
Boards, sets, clocks, score sheets and pens will be provided by the Menlo Park Chess Club (bring a clock if you own one)
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,
Wednesday’s final round of our club championship offered up yet more exciting chess and a number of time scrambles which impacted the standings, and when all was said and done unrated Adithya Karavadi (pictured below on the left) stood alone atop the wall chart with 4.5 out of 5 points. Adithya’s first provisional rating will likely be Expert level when this event is rated, which should occur no later than Monday or Tuesday. Five people tied for second place with 4 points: Pranav Jindal, Aaron Cho, Andy Shih, Daniel Francis and Cesar Tamondong. Well done, all of you!
Roshan Mahanth, Anton Bobkov and Peter Roumeliotis tied for the Under-1500 prize with 3 points apiece, while the Under-1000 prize also saw a 3-way tie between Oisin Harrington, Benjamin Sergeant and Banks Bennion, all at 2 points. The ties will be settled over the board next week with some friendly G/5+0 blitz to determine who takes home the remaining premium club set and board prizes, a spectacle which may alone merit attendance this coming Wednesday.
Congratulations to Adithya and a huge thank you to everyone who played in or stopped by to spectate our first club championship–hopefully we’ll hold the same event same time next year! Regards,
We again had some very exciting games come down to the final seconds of the time control in round 4 of our club championship–improbable draws were salvaged and tough-fought seeming wins lost in the proceedings and it was a great deal of fun to be a spectator rather than a player in many cases.
Below are the round 5 pairings for tomorrow night (final round of the tournament) as well as the championship standings thus far. As a reminder, if we have ties for the 1st-3rd (2nd-3rd is really the only possibility), U1500 or U1000 prizes we’ll hold a blitz chess playoff the following week (G/5+0, number of games determined by number of players). Please let me know if you have any questions and I look forward to more exciting games during the final round on November 9th! Regards,
We had an excellent round 3 with a number of very exciting games! As we get deeper into the tournament the pairings are evening out somewhat and many of Wednesday’s games again came down to the final few minutes of the time control. More than a few of the games merit review by everyone in the club and I’ll share those after I get everything added to our Lichess study.
I’ve included two attachments with this post: one showing the round 3 results and the tentative round 4 pairings and another showing ratings changes based on the USCF formula as calculated by the SwissSys software. I have not validated this ratings report but I’m guessing it’s reasonably or wholly correct, given US Chess endorses SwissSys. I decided to share the parings early (on Facebook) because they offer so many good matchups that I’m hoping we get no additional bye requests for the round. Given a few people asked last night, I’d also like to remind everyone that this is a 5-round event, so this Wednesday is not the final round.
Please let me know if you have any questions and thank you again to everyone who is playing in this tournament–it’s been a great deal of fun thus far! Regards,
No fewer than 40 aspirants to the mantle “Menlo Park Chess Club Champion” took part in round one of our tournament Wednesday evening and, despite it being the first round of a single-section Swiss event, when contests are typically more lopsided, there were a good many close games which came down to the final minutes or seconds of the G/60 d/5 time control.
Truth be told, we had more people who wished to play in this event than we were able to accommodate, given we had access to just the Cypress and skittles rooms for tournament play—the Oak Room, into which we typically overflow, was occupied by another group early in the evening. Yet another reason to register online early for our more popular events.
I have the pairings for round 2 and will share those no later than Monday, and will also complete the Lichess study with round 1 games over the weekend, perhaps as early as Friday. Thank you again to everyone who joined us for round one of this event!
The Menlo Park Chess Club will hold our club championship beginning Wednesday, October 12th, at 7pm, a four- or five-round USCF-rated Swiss system event using the dual-rated G/60 d/5 time control over four or five weeks (the number of rounds will depend on the number of players). This tournament is suitable for experienced players as well as newer US Chess members seeking to establish an over-the-board rating. Details follow:
Format: Four- or five-round Swiss-system tournament in one section, one game per evening
Rounds: October 12th, 19th, 26th, November 2nd, 9th—games begin promptly at 7:00pm
Control: G/60 d/5 (dual-rated game of 60 minutes for each player plus a 5-second delay per move)
Entry Fee: $0 (the MPCC will pay for prizes and the US Chess rating fees for this event)
Prizes: Collector Series Plastic Chess Pieces (quadruple-weighted, 4″ King) with MPCC logo mousepad chessboard to 1st-3rd, top under 1500, top under 1000
Byes: Half-point byes are available for any round save the last
Register: Registrations closed after round 3 of the tournament
Boards, sets and clocks will be provided by the Menlo Park Chess Club (bring a clock if you own one)
