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 possible lecture 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, 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 possible lecture 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.
June Double-Round Quick-Rated Quads, Round 1
The Menlo Park Chess Club will hold US Chess quick-rated double-round quads and/or 6- or 8-person 3-round Swiss sections over three consecutive weeks beginning Thursday, June 6th, using the G/15;d5 time control and playing two games against each opponent during the same evening, one as white and one as black. Players will be grouped into quads or small Swiss sections based upon rating to keep things as even as possible. No byes will be available for this event so if you are unable to play all three weeks (June 6th, 13th, 20th) please do not register. These quads are suitable for experienced players as well as newer US Chess members seeking to establish an over-the-board rating. Details follow:
- Format: Double-round quads and/or small Swiss tournaments over three weeks, two games per evening against the same opponent, one as white and one as black
- Rounds: June 6th, 13th and 20th—games begin promptly at 7:00pm
- Control: G/15;d5 (quick-rated game of 15 minutes per player plus a 5-second delay per move)
- Entry Fee: $10 (PayPal: mark@drury.com; Venmo: @Mark-Drury-12); entire entry fee goes to the prize fund.
- Prizes: First place in each quad receives $25, second place receives $15, any ties will split the cash prize(s)—Swiss sections will offer three prizes
- Byes: No byes are available for this event
- Register: Please sign up in advance using the ‘Register’ button, above
- Equipment: Boards, sets, clocks, score sheets and pens will be provided by the Menlo Park Chess Club (bring a digital clock if you own one)
- Membership: All tournament participants must be current US Chess members
- 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 email list to stay abreast of future club tournaments and events
Impromptu Blitz #16 Results
We enjoyed another excellent turnout for our Impromptu Blitz #16 Thursday, with some very strong players gracing our ranks and with Frisco Del Rosario, our reluctant blitz champion, once again claiming first place, this time in a tie with young Liam Liu at 4.5 out of 5 points. Pranav Jindal and Triet Vo tied for second at 4 points while Hayden Brongersma had another strong showing in sole 5th at 3.5. Thank you to everyone who joined us for this fun event!
We’ll hold another free blitz tournament this coming Thursday, May 23rd, likely with the same G/5;d2 time control, and the following week we’ll take our second foray into A4c chess with a tournament of three or four rounds. More information about that event and about the variant plus a registration link may be found here:
Please register ahead of time if you plan to play in this event, which typically helps us start closer to 7pm on tournament night. I hope to see many of you this Thursday and next! Regards,
Mark Drury
Impromptu Blitz #15 Results
I meant to share the results from our previous impromptu blitz tournament sooner but had a very busy week this past—apologies for the delay. Per the wall chart below, Frisco Del Rosario enjoyed a perfect 5-0 score last Thursday, despite his open disdain for these faster time controls, while junior Hayden Brongersma managed sole second ahead of some stiff competition at 4-1 and David Zhao was alone in third with 3.5 points. Thank you to everyone who joined us for this tournament, as always!
Before last week’s tournament began Frisco gave a lecture on a Capablanca game from early in his career, one which ended with a number of sacrifices and a beautiful double-check mate. If you missed that lecture try to be at the club this evening round 6:30pm, when Frisco will review another Capa masterpiece—his justly famed rook ending against Tartakower from New York, 1924.
After Frisco’s lecture we’ll hold another G/5;d2 blitz tournament beginning round 7pm—I hope to see many of you this evening!
A4c Variant Tournament #2
Background: This will be our second foray into A4c Chess and it’s long overdue, given how well our first such event was received. 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 best of 3 games at Gs/10 over three or possibly four rounds (no increment or delay), depending upon when we get started, and we may split players into groups of 4-8 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.
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 possible lecture 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 #14 Results
Twenty-three people participated in our Impromptu Blitz #14 tournament this past Thursday, a G/5;d2 affair which included four first-time visitors to the club—thank you again to Simon Rubinstein-Salzedo, Vin Armelin, Matt Kmiecik and Matt Mascioli for joining us in this event!
For perhaps the first time in one of our casual blitz tournaments we had a four-way tie for first at four out of five points, with Gabe, Kunal, Simon and Josen sharing top honors, while a raft of others tied for second at three points (juniors Max and Chase among them). We’ll hold another casual evening and blitz tournament this coming Thursday then may have a week or two of variant tournaments before beginning our next rated event.
As always, please let me know if there’s anything specific you’d like to see happen at the club (chess-related, preferably) and we’ll try to make it happen. Regards,
Mark Drury
