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.
Club Championship Playoff Results
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,
Mark Drury
Club Championship Final Standings
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,
Mark Drury
Club Championship Round 4 Results
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,
Mark Drury
Club Championship Round 3 Results
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,
Mark Drury
Club Championship Round 1 Results
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!
— Mark Drury
Double Blitz G/3+2 Tournament Results
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!
— Mark Drury
Casual, Blitz, Bughouse, Chess960
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.
Casual, Blitz, Bughouse, Chess960
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.
Surfeit of Blitz G/3+0 Results, Final Marathon Standings
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.
— Mark Drury
Surfeit of Blitz Marathon Prizes
Open:
1. Alaric Stein, $45
2-3. Pranav Jindal, $32.50
2-3. Shahin Aghevli, $32.50
4. Kathan Shukla, $25
5-6. Richard Shu, $17.50
5-6. Yash Shah, $17.50
7. Sean Murray, $10
8. Lasha Lakirbaia, $5
9. Kornel Csernai, $5
Under 17:
1-2. Ethan Mei, $22.50
1-2. Joshua Garrow, $22.50
3. Cody Kletter, $15
4. Zidaan Kapoor, $10
