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 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.
Casual, Blitz, Bughouse, 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 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.
Casual, Blitz, Bughouse, 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 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.
Impromptu Blitz #11 Results
Twenty-one people played in our impromptu blitz tournament last Thursday, a G/3+2 affair of five rounds, and Pranav Jindal once again claimed sole first with 4.5 points, a first-round bye notwithstanding. Gabe Sanchez, Ramkumar Jeyaraman and 9-year-old Liam Liu tied for second with 4 points, followed by Kornel Csernai in sole 5th with 3.5—well played, all of you! Full results are in the table below and thank you to everyone who joined us for this event.
We’ll hold two more casual evenings this week and next, with free blitz tournaments occurring in each, then will commence a US Chess dual-rated Swiss-system event over three weeks beginning Thursday, April 4th, and concluding April 25th (there will be no chess club meeting April 18th). Players will be divided into groups of 6 or 8 based on rating and will play one game at G/45;d5 each week. More information and a registration link may be found here.
Please let me know if you have any questions and I hope to see many of you at the club this Thursday!
| # | Name/Rating/ID | Rd 1 | Rd 2 | Rd 3 | Rd 4 | Rd 5 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pranav Jindal | bye | W 5 | B 11 | W 12 | B 3 | |
| 0.5 | 1.5 | 2.5 | 3.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 | ||
| 2 | Gabe Sanchez | B 8 | W 13 | B 6 | W 3 | B 9 | |
| 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | ||
| 3 | Ramkumar Jeyaraman | B 19 | W 10 | B 4 | B 2 | W 1 | |
| 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | ||
| 4 | Liam Liu | B 16 | W 12 | W 3 | B 7 | B 6 | |
| 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | ||
| 5 | Kornel Csernai | bye | B 1 | W 21 | W 13 | B 12 | |
| 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.5 | 2.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 | ||
| 6 | Lauren Goodkind | W 9 | B 7 | W 2 | B 15 | W 4 | |
| 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | ||
| 7 | Hayden Brongersma | B 20 | W 6 | B 19 | W 4 | B 16 | |
| 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | ||
| 8 | David Zhao | W 2 | B 18 | W 9 | B 19 | W 15 | |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | ||
| 9 | Austin Chen | B 6 | W 20 | B 8 | W 11 | W 2 | |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | ||
| 10 | Mark Drury | —- | B 3 | bye | bye | bye | |
| X1.0 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 2.0 | 2.5 | 2.5 | ||
| 11 | Rohan Kapre | bye | W 21 | W 1 | B 9 | B 17 | |
| 0.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | ||
| 12 | Andy Applebaum | W 15 | B 4 | W 14 | B 1 | W 5 | |
| 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 13 | Evan Sobel | W 17 | B 2 | W 15 | B 5 | W 19 | |
| 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 14 | Renzo Frigato | bye | bye | B 12 | W 16 | B 20 | |
| 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 15 | Arnav Bhavsar | B 12 | W 16 | B 13 | W 6 | B 8 | |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 16 | George Purtell | W 4 | B 15 | W 18 | B 14 | W 7 | |
| 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 17 | Brian Chen | B 13 | W 19 | B 20 | W 18 | W 11 | |
| 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 18 | Bud Woll | bye | W 8 | B 16 | B 17 | W 21 | |
| 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | ||
| 19 | Beata Ang-Dutta | W 3 | B 17 | W 7 | W 8 | B 13 | |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | ||
| 20 | Jerome Oriel | W 7 | B 9 | W 17 | B 21 | W 14 | |
| 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | ||
| 21 | Gautam Dutta | bye | B 11 | B 5 | W 20 | B 18 | |
| 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
Casual, Blitz, Bughouse, 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 are in the offing and we will also play another impromptu blitz tournament (free, no prizes), given there appears to be an appetite for same.
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 |
Casual, Blitz, Bughouse, 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 are in the offing and we will also play another impromptu blitz tournament (free, no prizes), given there appears to be an appetite for same.
Chess960 Draft Tournament
On the heels of our very successful A4c Variant Tournament, we’ll hold another Chess960 variant tournament, this time using a piece placement draft with the following format and rules:
- There will likely be 4 or 5 Swiss rounds at G/7;d3 in one or two sections
- The games will be played with the normal 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 second 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 Chess960
- 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
A4c Variant Tournament
We enjoyed an excellent turnout this past Thursday for our first foray into A4c Chess, as we’re styling it (though the variant’s creator may yet object). As a reminder, this variant is best-of-three games against each opponent with ten total minutes on one’s clock, so time management across the two or three games in each match is critical. Indeed, we saw a number of matches in each round where time was used, how shall we say, less than optimally, which led to severe time crunches in the third game and to much clock slapping (sometimes in a vain attempt to stave off the inevitable loss on time)—it definitely made for interesting spectacle and was fun to watch. More information about the variant and the tournament details may be found here.
Twenty-eight people participated in three sections, which worked well for the three rounds we were able to squeeze in during the evening. Below are the results for each section and congratulations are due to winners Kunal (group one), David (group two) and Hayden and Austin (group three). Thank you to everyone who played in this event and the feedback was universally positive, even with the late start, so we’ll definitely play A4c Chess again soon.
Group One
| # | Player | Rd 1 | Rd 2 | Rd 3 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kunal Modi | B 8 | W 5 | B 3 | |
| 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | ||
| 2 | Pranav Jindal | W 7 | B 3 | W 6 | |
| 1.0 | 1.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | ||
| 3 | Gabriel Sanchez | B 4 | W 2 | W 1 | |
| 1.0 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | ||
| 4 | Karim Seada | W 3 | B 7 | B 5 | |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 1.5 | ||
| 5 | Wentao Wu | B 6 | B 1 | W 4 | |
| 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 1.5 | ||
| 6 | Alaric Stein | W 5 | B 8 | B 2 | |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | ||
| 7 | Josen Kalra | B 2 | W 4 | W 8 | |
| 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | ||
| 8 | Renzo Frigato | W 1 | W 6 | B 7 | |
| 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
Group Two
| # | Player | Rd 1 | Rd 2 | Rd 3 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | David Zhao | W 6 | B 4 | B 2 | |
| 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | ||
| 2 | Paul Tanenbaum | W 8 | B 5 | W 1 | |
| 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 3 | Pablo Jadzinsky | B 4 | W 6 | B 7 | |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 4 | Michael Byun | W 3 | W 1 | B 5 | |
| 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 5 | Samuel Agdamag | B 7 | W 2 | W 4 | |
| 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | ||
| 6 | Amogh Rao | B 1 | B 3 | W 8 | |
| 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | ||
| 7 | Charles Mayville | W 5 | B 8 | W 3 | |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | ||
| 8 | Evan Sobel | B 2 | W 7 | B 6 | |
| 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
Group Three
| # | Player | Rd 1 | Rd 2 | Rd 3 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hayden Brongersma | W 10 | B 8 | B 3 | |
| 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | ||
| 2 | Austin Chen | W 7 | B 4 | W 6 | |
| 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | ||
| 3 | Atul Dhingra | W 9 | B 5 | W 1 | |
| 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 4 | Fadi Arodaki | B 12 | W 2 | W 8 | |
| 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 5 | Hugo Pu | W 11 | W 3 | B 7 | |
| 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 6 | George Purtell | B 8 | W 10 | B 2 | |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | ||
| 7 | Kumaravel Mohamkumar | B 2 | W 12 | W 5 | |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | ||
| 8 | Aditya Dhamdhere | W 6 | W 1 | B 4 | |
| 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | ||
| 9 | Will Kesselman | B 3 | W 11 | —- | |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | U1.0 | 1.0 | ||
| 10 | Shlok Chowdhury | B 1 | B 6 | W 12 | |
| 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | ||
| 11 | Victor Chen | B 5 | B 9 | bye | |
| 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | ||
| 12 | Bud Woll | W 4 | B 7 | B 10 | |
| 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
A4c Variant Tournament
“A4c” or “The Clock (Almost) Never Stops” Variant
Background: One of the strongest blitz players in our club came up with this variant and, after hearing it described, we couldn’t resist holding an informal tournament to give it a try. It involves a good deal of fast chess plus a game within a game (a metagame) centered around how best to manage one’s fixed time allotment over several games.
Concept: Players will play best of 3 games against the same opponent in each round with 10 minutes on their clocks, with no increment or delay. When a game ends, players pause the clock but do not reset the time. They reset the pieces then restart the clock for the next game with the times remaining from the prior game(s). If a player runs out of time they lose the match. If a player wins the majority of the points possible in the 3 games, they win the match (so if a player wins two games and still has time remaining on their clock they win the match). One player gets two games with the white pieces (first and third games) and the other gets preferred clock side for all games.
Oddities: Clock location does not change so one player always keeps it on their preferred side. Typically the players start the game by drawing for colors then whomever wins the draw chooses White or Clockside, but given we’ll be holding a Swiss system tournament the player assigned White in any round gets two whites and the player assigned Black gets to choose clockside. (We could also allow the player who is assigned White by the pairing software to choose color preference or clockside to further complicate the metagame).
Comments: I like the metagame aspect of this format because it incentivizes players to manage their clock across multiple games with tactical decisions (whether it is burning down an opponent’s time when they are ahead on time or resigning quickly to preserve more time for subsequent games). It also allows a stronger slower player to manage their time differently and take more time to win the majority of games (though this is risky if they go into a third game after budgeting time poorly).
Format: As mentioned above, we will play 3 games at Gs/10 over three or possibly four rounds, depending upon when we get started, and we may split players into groups of 8-12 by rating if the tournament doesn’t start very near 7pm (leaving time for just three rounds), so please arrive a little earlier if at all possible.