Tag: fun

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Hall of Bright Carvings Quick Swiss Rounds 1 & 2

Our Hall of Bright Carvings Quick Swiss got off to a rocky start Thursday due, chiefly, to SwissSys software crashes and subsequent data loss, but we managed to complete the second round by ~9pm so all was not lost. I believe I have resolved the software issues so rounds 3 and 4 should proceed far more smoothly, with an 8:30pm finish easily attainable if we begin promptly at 7:00pm. The three images below show the results after two rounds (please check them for accuracy) as well as the tentative third round pairings—these could change if there are bye requests or withdrawals before Thursday evening (let me know ASAP if you are unable to play for any reason).

Another issue raised by several players Thursday was that of frequent vocal intrusions heard during play. We have a number of younger, less experienced players in this event, players who may be accustomed to scholastic gatherings where stream of consciousness chatter about one’s misfortunes during a game is largely overlooked. I won’t be playing in rounds 3 and 4 and will do my best to keep this chatter to a minimum, but please keep in mind that part of our club’s charter is to encourage new players to join our tournament ranks and some etiquette leeway should be afforded the youngest participants—they could very well be tomorrow’s masters, after all. Regards,

Mark Drury

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Raphael Yelluas Memorial Blitz

The Raphael Yelluas Memorial Blitz event held last night at the Kolty Chess Club was a great success, with a very large turnout split into two sections, 1600+ and U1600. The Menlo Park club was well represented and saw excellent results from the likes of Cesar, Adam, Kunal, Marshall, Nicholas, Samuel, Ashwin, Alex Chin, Shahin Aghevli, Josen Kalra, Michael Ho and certainly others I’m forgetting at present.

I don’t have the official results but I believe IM Grisha Kotlyar and CM Badamkhand Norovsambuu tied for first in the 1600+ section, while Menlo Park Chess Club stalwarts Nicholas Tan and Samuel Agdamag shared first in the U1600 section, after an exciting final-round draw between the two (both undefeated to that point!).

The photos below are from the first round, with Cesar and Badamkhand squaring off on board two while I had the pleasure of playing Grisha on board one. We began an interesting Dutch game of a dozen or so moves until I may have been on the verge of losing a pawn or some positional concession but instead opted to boldly hang my queen, from which auspicious start I never left the bottom boards for the rest of the night. Grisha was gracious in victory, however, and may visit our club at some point to play blitz with members and/or give a lecture of some kind.

A big thank you to Wolfgang Behm, George Jeffers, Carl Lumma, Grisha Kotlyar and all the other Kolty Chess Club Players who made this happen—it was a great event!

IM Grisha Kotlyar and Mark Drury before their round one game
Cesar Tamondong and CM Badamkhand Norovsambuu before their round one game
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Mad Hatter Ladder Blitz Swiss Results

We enjoyed another full house Thursday night, April 27th, for our Mad Hatter Ladder Blitz Swiss, with perhaps eight people playing in their first over-the-board event. I didn’t do justice to the name of this tournament, given I had five different Mad Hatter-worthy variations prepared for each of the five rounds, but in reading the room we went with straight-up chess and I think that was the right call (we may partake of those variations later this year).

Kunal enjoyed another perfect result with his 5-0 score, one point ahead of second-place finishers Alex, Pranav, Adam, Amós and Kornél (who is likely the world’s strongest Class D player). The tournament started just a few minutes after 7pm and finished round 8:30, so a huge thank you to everyone for checking in early, as requested, and for joining us last night!

As a reminder, the club will soon host ladders for blitz and slower games and last night’s event was the seed tournament for our blitz ladder. I’ll create a page on the website for the ladder and will include the rules on that page, but the thinking is we’ll offer some nice prizes for those who are most active (or some similar criteria) on the ladder over the remainder of the year. More details about that will follow soon.

Mad Hatter Ladder Blitz Swiss

The Menlo Park Chess Club will hold a free, unrated 5-round blitz tournament with a G/5+0 time control in one section over one evening, April 27th, and the outcome of this event will determine the initial positions on the club’s blitz ladder (more details about the ladder and possible prizes associated with it over the course of the year will be shared soon). The first round begins promptly at 7pm, please check in at the club no later than 6:45pm!

“Hall of Bright Carvings” Quick Swiss, Rounds 3 & 4

The Menlo Park Chess Club will hold another USCF-rated tournament over two consecutive Thursdays, May 4th and May 11th, at 7pm, a four round Swiss-system event using the Quick-rated G/15 d/3 time control, with two games played each evening. This tournament is suitable for experienced players as well as newer US Chess members seeking to establish an over-the-board rating. Multiple sections will be created with the goal of allowing players four games against opposition close to their own rating or skill level (sections could be as small as 8-10 players). Details follow:

  • Format: Four round Swiss-system tournament in 2-4 sections, two games per evening
  • Rounds: May 4th and 11th—play begins promptly at 7:00pm but please arrive by 6:45pm to check in
  • Control: G/15 d/3 (USCF Quick time control)
  • Entry Fee: $5 (PayPal: mark@drury.com; Venmo: @Mark-Drury-12), entire entry fee goes to the prize fund.
  • Prizes: Players will be divided into two or more sections based upon rating and number of participants; top two scorers in each section win that section’s prize fund, with 1st place taking ~75% (any ties will split the cash prize).
  • Byes: Half-point byes are available for any round except the last
  • Register: Closed after Round 2 on May 4th
  • Boards, sets and clocks will be provided by the Menlo Park Chess Club (bring a clock if you own one)
  • All tournament participants must be current US Chess members
  • Tournament is limited to 36 players so early registration is encouraged
  • Withdraw at any time up to the start of the event for a full refund
  • Our tournament chess rules summary is worth perusing if you’re new to tournament play
  • For more information please send email to info@menloparkchess.club or tweet @MenloParkChess
  • Join our Facebook group to stay abreast of future club tournaments and events

“Hall of Bright Carvings” Quick Swiss, Rounds 1 & 2

The Menlo Park Chess Club will hold another USCF-rated tournament beginning Thursday, May 4th, at 7pm, a four round Swiss-system event over two weeks using the Quick-rated G/15 d/3 time control, with two games played each evening. This tournament is suitable for experienced players as well as newer US Chess members seeking to establish an over-the-board rating. Multiple sections will be created with the goal of allowing players four games against opposition close to their own rating or skill level (sections could be as small as 8-10 players). Details follow:

  • Format: Four round Swiss-system tournament in 2-4 sections, two games per evening
  • Rounds: May 4th and 11th—play begins promptly at 7:00pm but please arrive by 6:45pm to check in
  • Control: G/15 d/3 (USCF Quick time control)
  • Entry Fee: $5 (PayPal: mark@drury.com; Venmo: @Mark-Drury-12), entire entry fee goes to the prize fund.
  • Prizes: Players will be divided into two or more sections based upon rating and number of participants; top two scorers in each section win that section’s prize fund, with 1st place taking ~75% (any ties will split the cash prize).
  • Byes: Half-point byes are available for any round except the last
  • Register: Please sign up in advance using the ‘Register’ button above
  • Boards, sets and clocks will be provided by the Menlo Park Chess Club (bring a clock if you own one)
  • All tournament participants must be current US Chess members
  • Tournament is limited to 36 players so early registration is encouraged
  • Withdraw at any time up to the start of the event for a full refund
  • Our tournament chess rules summary is worth perusing if you’re new to tournament play
  • For more information please send email to info@menloparkchess.club or tweet @MenloParkChess
  • Join our Facebook group to stay abreast of future club tournaments and events

Casual, Blitz, Bughouse Chess Evening

Our regular weekly club meeting now occurs Thursday evenings from 6:00-9:45pm in the Oak Room of the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center. Casual, blitz and bughouse chess are in the offing and we’ll discuss details of the next tournament, tentatively scheduled for April 20th.

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“Tower of Flints” Bughouse Swiss Results

Fourteen club stalwarts and six new visitors played in our first Bughouse Swiss tournament this past Thursday and the fact that Robert’s team claimed first prize with a perfect 4-0 was a surprise to no one, given his strength in this format. Robert’s teammate, John Vitlacil, and I go way back to the Burlingame Chess Club circa the late 1980s, where we played a number of tournament games against one another, so it was great to see him again after so many decades. We also had four or five first-time visitors who played casual and blitz chess Thursday, opting not to play in the tournament, which is always an option if you’re not a fan of any specific format or variant.

Congratulations are also due to teams Amogh / Pranav and newcomers Nirvan / Rachel for their second-place tie at 3 points, ahead of four teams with 2 points. For my part, I weighed poor Andres down with moves like 2. f4 in my game against Kornél, when his teammate, Jerome, extracted a pawn to drop on my f2 square with check, leading to a very quick, instructional and most embarrassing forced mate several moves later. I have no future in bughouse but I’ll continue playing it for the humor value, alone.

As much fun as this bughouse tournament was, I think we’ll forego the second such event scheduled for April 13th, given the format (chiefly the makeup of the teams) still needs some thought to make it appealing to a larger swath of our regular players. Please let me know if you have any feedback, good or bad, thanks to all of you who played in this event and we’ll most likely try the format again in the near future.

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“Tower of Flints” Chess960 Swiss Results

Twenty-two intrepid souls joined us for the Chess960 tournament Thursday night, one which morphed into an individual Swiss rather than a team event due to the number of relatively late entries. When the last flag fell two things were clear: we had, as a group, finally figured out how to castle (for the most part) and Josh Garrow is at least 3 inches taller and his chess skills are even stronger than when he visited us last summer. Congratulations to Josh on his perfect 4-0 score, to Quincy Chen for sole second with 3.5 points and to Chris Murphy, Jay Wacker, Jerome Oriel and Steven Swick on tying for third with 3.0 points!

I mentioned to a number of people that I chose the four Chess960 starting positions used last night based, somewhat whimsically, on information in the following Lichess user blog post—I haven’t looked too closely at the methodology or the code to judge its merits but I found it interesting and you may too: https://lichess.org/@/rdubwiley/blog/using-lichesss-public-data-to-find-the-best-chess-960-position/GCpB9WLH.

As another reminder, the first of two bughouse tournaments occurs next Thursday and you have the option to choose your teammate (via the registration form or by contacting me) or to allow me to pick one for you from the pool of other individual entries. The first event is free to enter, given it will serve as a club trial for the format, and the following week we will hold the same event with a $5 entry fee per player, all of which will be returned in prizes. Enter one or both events at https://menloparkchess.club/events/ and I hope to see many of you for some bughouse over the coming two weeks! Regards,

Mark Drury

“Tower of Flints” Team Bughouse

The Menlo Park Chess Club will hold its first team Bughouse event April 6th, a follow-on to our Team Blitz tournament and part of a long-promised experiment to see if the team format works for our membership. The tournament will consist of sixteen teams of two players in a 4-round Swiss with a G/5 time control and free entry. More information about Bughouse rules and strategy may be found here.

Sign up individually using the Register button, above, and indicate your desired team member if you have one (optional). Given the fixed team nature of this event there is little flexibility where the number of participants is concerned, so if you wish to play please sign up early. That said, please do not register if you are on the fence about playing on the 6th, as nothing causes more swirl in a team event than late withdrawals or, worse, no-shows.

Shortly after registrations close team rosters and pairings will be shared with all participants. If you need to withdraw for any reason please let the tournament director know as soon as possible, so that a replacement player may be found and the teams rebalanced, as necessary. The first round will begin promptly at 7:00pm so please arrive by 6:45 Thursday to check in. Our Tournament Rules Summary will be followed for this tournament with the lone exception that we will observe clock move rather than touch move (the distinction will be shared before the start of the first round). Please send any questions or comments to info@menloparkchess.club and we look forward to seeing you at at this event!