Details coming soon …
Freestyle Chess (Chess960) Draft Tournament
A number of people have requested that we revisit Chess960 or, as it’s now styled, Freestyle Chess in another casual tournament so that’s exactly what we’ll do in this event, again using a piece placement draft with the following format and rules:
- There will likely be 4 or 5 Swiss rounds at G/5;d3 in one or two sections
- Registration will occur onsite–please try to arrive by 6:45pm
- The games will be played with the normal Freestyle/Chess960 rules except for the use of a draft, wherein white starts black’s clock then black places the first piece on the back rank and starts white’s clock, white copies that move then places another piece of their own, black copies that placement then places a third piece, etc., until black places a final piece and white makes the first chess move of the game
- It’s important to note that the draft phase covered above occurs while players’ clocks are running, just as in normal moves for the game
- The king must be placed between the two rooks as in normal Freestyle/Chess960
- More information about castling may be found in chess.com tutorials here and here
- The bishops must be placed on opposite-colored squares
- We will use clock move rather than touch move, as in our blitz tournaments
- An illegal move pointed out by an opponent (no one else) immediately ends the game as a loss for the player who made the illegal move
Chess960 Draft Tournament
Our club dabbled in yet another interesting chess variant Thursday with the Chess960 Draft Tournament and, poorly as I did this time around, I think I speak for everyone in stating that the event was a lot of fun, with unusual positions seen in every round. In one of my games I made the cardinal mistake of failing to take stock of immediate threats on my first move and, as a result, lost a pawn and the exchange to a marauding bishop on move 2 or 3, which was mildly embarrassing. The timed draft aspect of this variant really adds something new and different to the game, especially with a relatively short time control like G/7;d3, but players got the hang of it quickly and there were few if any illegal setups that I’m aware of.
Eighteen participants turned out to be perfect for the four rounds we were able to play and congratulations are once again due to Pranav Jindal for another perfect score, his 4-0 result half a point better than Gabe Sanchez’s 3.5 for sole second. David Zhao and Josen Kalra enjoyed another excellent showing with their shared third place finish at 3 points, ahead of some very strong expert-level competition. Thank you to everyone who played in this event, please let me know if you have any feedback and we’ll give it another go later this year. Regards,
Mark Drury
| # | Player | Rd 1 | Rd 2 | Rd 3 | Rd 4 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pranav Jindal | W 9 | B 11 | W 7 | B 5 | |
| 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | ||
| 2 | Gabriel Sanchez | W 3 | B 8 | W 5 | B 7 | |
| 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 | ||
| 3 | David Zhao | B 2 | W 16 | B 17 | W 9 | |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | ||
| 4 | Josen Kalra | W 6 | B 7 | W 12 | B 11 | |
| 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | ||
| 5 | Alaric Stein | B 10 | W 14 | B 2 | W 1 | |
| 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | ||
| 6 | Kunal Modi | B 4 | W 17 | B 9 | W 10 | |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 7 | Wentao Wu | B 16 | W 4 | B 1 | W 2 | |
| 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 8 | Alex Wu | W 12 | W 2 | B 10 | W 17 | |
| 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 9 | Michael Byun | B 1 | W 18 | W 6 | B 3 | |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 10 | Hayden Brongersma | W 5 | B 15 | W 8 | B 6 | |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 11 | Austin Chen | B 13 | W 1 | B 14 | W 4 | |
| 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 12 | Hugo Pu | B 8 | W 13 | B 4 | B 15 | |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 13 | Richard Wang | W 11 | B 12 | W 16 | B 14 | |
| 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 1.5 | ||
| 14 | Renzo Frigato | W 18 | B 5 | W 11 | W 13 | |
| 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 1.5 | ||
| 15 | Jeremy Arthur | B 17 | W 10 | B 18 | W 12 | |
| 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | ||
| 16 | Mark Drury | W 7 | B 3 | B 13 | W 18 | |
| 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | ||
| 17 | Aditya Dhamdhere | W 15 | B 6 | W 3 | B 8 | |
| 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | ||
| 18 | Carlos Fuertes | B 14 | B 9 | W 15 | B 16 | |
| 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
