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 free weekly lecture begins at 6:30pm and it remains one of the highlights of club attendance.
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. Note that our free weekly lecture begins at 6:30pm and it remains one of the highlights of club attendance.
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. Note that our free weekly lecture begins at 6:30pm and it remains one of the highlights of club attendance.
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. Note that our free weekly lecture begins at 6:30pm and it remains one of the highlights of club attendance.
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. Note that our free weekly lecture begins at 6:30pm and it remains one of the highlights of club attendance.
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. Note that our free weekly lecture begins at 6:30pm and it remains one of the highlights of club attendance.
Copa del Menlo, Round Three
To honor the FIFA World Cup this summer we’ll hold our own Copa del Menlo the first three Thursdays in July (2nd, 9th, 16th), a quick-rated G/20;d3 event played in small Swiss sections of 6-8 players grouped by rating, with two games played per evening against the same opponent, one as white and one as black. With the World Cup in mind, this will also be a team event using the so-called “snake draft” to create teams of four or so players from each section in the tournament, with an added cash prize given to the top two teams based upon total team score (the sum or all team member scores).
Given the small sections and teams nature of this event it is paramount that players are able to play all three weeks of the tournament — no byes are available and we are not planning to hold a makeup round at this time, though that could change if sufficient people request it (July is a vacation month, after all). Full details follow:
- Format: Small Swiss sections (groups of 6-8 players) based upon rating with two games against the same opponent per evening, one as white and one as black
- Rounds: July 2nd, 9th and 16th with no makeup round planned for this event — games begin promptly at 7:00pm
- Control: G/20;d3 (quick-rated games of 20 minutes per player plus a 3-second delay per move)
- Entry Fee: $20; PayPal: mark@drury.com; Venmo: @Mark-Drury-12; Zelle: 650-400-6393; entire entry fee goes to the prize fund
- Prizes: Based upon 32 entries and 8-player sections, each section will offer a $70 first, $40 second and $20 third prize with ties splitting the money while the top team will split $80 and the second-place team $40 (based on 4-person teams)
- Byes: No byes are available for this event
- Register: Registrations closed after round one
- Equipment: Boards, sets, clocks, score sheets and pens will be provided by the Menlo Park Chess Club (bring a digital clock if you prefer your own)
- Membership: All tournament participants must be current US Chess members for the duration of the event
- Rules: Our tournament chess rules summary is mandatory reading if you’re new to tournament play
- Info: For more information please send email to info@menloparkchess.club
- Social: Join our Facebook group or Google group to stay abreast of club news, tournaments and events
Copa del Menlo, Round Two
To honor the FIFA World Cup this summer we’ll hold our own Copa del Menlo the first three Thursdays in July (2nd, 9th, 16th), a quick-rated G/20;d3 event played in small Swiss sections of 6-8 players grouped by rating, with two games played per evening against the same opponent, one as white and one as black. With the World Cup in mind, this will also be a team event using the so-called “snake draft” to create teams of four or so players from each section in the tournament, with an added cash prize given to the top two teams based upon total team score (the sum or all team member scores).
Given the small sections and teams nature of this event it is paramount that players are able to play all three weeks of the tournament — no byes are available and we are not planning to hold a makeup round at this time, though that could change if sufficient people request it (July is a vacation month, after all). Full details follow:
- Format: Small Swiss sections (groups of 6-8 players) based upon rating with two games against the same opponent per evening, one as white and one as black
- Rounds: July 2nd, 9th and 16th with no makeup round planned for this event — games begin promptly at 7:00pm
- Control: G/20;d3 (quick-rated games of 20 minutes per player plus a 3-second delay per move)
- Entry Fee: $20; PayPal: mark@drury.com; Venmo: @Mark-Drury-12; Zelle: 650-400-6393; entire entry fee goes to the prize fund
- Prizes: Based upon 32 entries and 8-player sections, each section will offer a $70 first, $40 second and $20 third prize with ties splitting the money while the top team will split $80 and the second-place team $40 (based on 4-person teams)
- Byes: No byes are available for this event
- Register: Registrations closed after round one
- Equipment: Boards, sets, clocks, score sheets and pens will be provided by the Menlo Park Chess Club (bring a digital clock if you prefer your own)
- Membership: All tournament participants must be current US Chess members for the duration of the event
- Rules: Our tournament chess rules summary is mandatory reading if you’re new to tournament play
- Info: For more information please send email to info@menloparkchess.club
- Social: Join our Facebook group or Google group to stay abreast of club news, tournaments and events
Impromptu Blitz #62 Results
We had a good turnout this past Thursday for an excellent lecture by Frisco Del Rosario on another classic Morphy game followed by seven rounds of G/3+2 blitz action, which has become standard fare during our casual evenings. Twenty one people participated in the free, unrated tournament, including no less than five first-time visitors to the club as well as two people who returned after an absence of many months.
After the final round wound down Pranav Jindal and Hayden Brongersma shared top honors with 5.5 points out of seven, followed by junior standout Caleb Leong and relative newcomer Sam Bekker at 5.0. NM Gabe Sanchez and yours truly shared fifth place after handing younger nemeses tough losses in round 7. Full results are in the attached image and our current club blitz ratings and points totals may be viewed at the following links:
https://menloparkchess.club/ladders/club-unofficial-blitz-ratings/
https://menloparkchess.club/ladders/club-blitz-points-standings/
We’ll hold another casual evening this coming Thursday with a lecture and blitz tournament and will offer book prizes based on blitz point standings after the tournament concludes. May 28th is still in flux as I won’t be able to attend that evening but I’m hoping to have others run the club in my absence, while our next rated tournament begins June 4th — more details about that event will be shared soon.
A4c Variant Results & No Chess Meeting May 7th
First and foremost, the chess club will not meet tomorrow, May 7th, given I need to be out of town and had neither the time nor the wherewithal to secure approval from recreation center staff for my replacement (it’s more complicated at Arrillaga given one typically must have a contract in place with the city to serve as the instructor for a club or class, even as a temporary stand-in). Apologies for the short notice but we will definitely meet again next week, May 14th, at the usual time.
We’ve held two variant events since my last update and, regrettably, the SwissSys software did what it sometimes does after the final round of our Freestyle Chess with Draft event back on April 23rd, failing to save the final round results even though I did so at least three times before leaving the club that evening. I discovered the error several days after the fact and wasn’t able to reliably reconstruct what happened in the fifth and final round, though I may still try to do that if enough people are interested.
There was no such problem with our A4c Variant tournament last week, however, and after four rounds of this metagame within a game, best of three games in ten minutes format Hayden Brongersma stood alone with a perfect 4.0 points. Four strong players tied for second a full point behind: Pranav Jindal, Lauren Goodkind, Austin Chen and Cameron Troy, while Yoyo He secured sole sixth with 2.5 points. Full results are in the attached image, thank you to everyone who joined us and we’ll play this variant again soon, given most people expressed enthusiasm for it.
The other item of note is that I’ve updated the club Events page at to reflect the fact that we now plan to hold our next rated tournament in June. I cannot be at the club May 28th and that coupled with the closure this week made a rated event more difficult to schedule. I’ll update the June 4th event with more information as soon as I have it and please let me know in the meantime if you have any questions or preferences where that is concerned. Regards,
Mark Drury
