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 weekly lecture begins at 6:30pm and it remains one of the highlights of club attendance.
Freestyle Chess with Draft #2 Results
Well, the inevitable happened last week when ten-year-old Austin Chen (I think he’s but ten) tied for first place with Breakwell Loyalka in our five-round Freestyle Chess with Draft tournament, one with a relatively short (for the variant) G/5;d3 time control. Austin and Breakwell played some nice games en route to their 4.5 out of 5 scores, with Austin grinding down both me and Sanat Singhal in what were likely drawn rook and pawn endgames while Breakwell won a wild final-round game against WFM Olivia Smith. Olivia, Hugo Pu and Raghav Ramesh tied for third with 3.5 points. The full results are in the attached image and thank you to everyone who joined us for this fun variant tournament.
This Thursday we’ll hold yet another casual evening with a lecture at 6:30pm followed by a free, unrated blitz tournament round 7pm. Also, we will proceed with our autumn quick-rated quads beginning September 25th so if you wish to play and have not yet registered for that event please do so asap at: https://menloparkchess.club/event/autumn-double-round-quick-rated-quads-rounds-1-2/. Regards,
Mark Drury
Impromptu Blitz #47 Results
I’m once again sharing the results of last week’s impromptu blitz tournament a little late but we enjoyed another great turnout, with several first-time visitors rounding out the 26-player field for six rounds of G/5+0. There were a number of upsets in this event but seeing Hayden Brongersma and Pranav Jindal share first at 5.0 out of 6 is no surprise these days, while junior Hugo Pu had an excellent showing at 4.5 points for sole third, ahead of some very strong players. The full results are in the attached image and thank you to everyone who played in this event!
I would also like to thank Alex Chin once again for sharing his very nice Smith-Morra Gambit tournament win with us while Frisco was otherwise engaged at a Valkyries game. As someone who plays the Sicilian and who regularly loses to the Smith-Morra it was both a pleasure and a pain to watch Alex’s crushing position unfold during his lecture. If any others among our membership would like to share a game with the club please let me know and we can work you in to the lecture rotation at some point.
Tonight we’ll have another lecture at 6:30pm followed by the promised Freestyle Chess/Chess960 event with a draft (details here). I haven’t yet settled on a time control or number of rounds so the first few people at the club this evening will make that call for me. I hope to see many of you tonight! Regards,
Mark Drury
Alex Chin Lecture & Blitz Tournament Tomorrow Night
Just a brief message to let everyone know the double-round, quick rated quads will not begin this week, as planned, but will go ahead on September 25th per the updated events page here: https://menloparkchess.club/events/ — please register for that event soon if you plan to play. This week, with Frisco needing to attend the Valkyries game at Chase Center, Alex Chin has stepped up to regale us with one of his recent, interesting tournament games, so please plan to be at the club round 6:30pm to enjoy Alex’s lecture and game analysis (and thank you, Alex, for offering to fill Frisco’s very large shoes this week!).
After Alex’s lecture we’ll hold another blitz tournament round 7pm, as ever, but note that the following week, September 11th, will include both a lecture and a Freestyle Chess (Chess960) Draft Tournament, something which has been popular in the past. No need to register ahead of time for that event but do try to be at the club by 6:30pm for the lecture and so we can play freestyle round 7pm.
I hope to see many of you at the club this week and next! Regards,
Mark Drury
Freestyle Chess (Chess960) Draft Tournament
A number of people have requested that we revisit Chess960 or, as it’s now styled, Freestyle Chess in another casual tournament so that’s exactly what we’ll do in this event, again using a piece placement draft with the following format and rules:
- There will likely be 5 or 6 Swiss rounds at G/5;d3 in one or two sections
- Registration will occur onsite–please try to arrive by 6:45pm
- The games will be played with the normal Freestyle/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 third 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 Freestyle/Chess960
- More information about castling may be found in chess.com tutorials here and here
- The bishops must be placed on opposite-colored squares
- We will use clock move rather than touch move, as in our casual 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
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 weekly lecture begins at 6:30pm and it remains one of the highlights of club attendance.
Impromptu Blitz #46 Results
We enjoyed another good turnout for last night’s lecture (thanks, Frisco!) and G/5+0 blitz tournament of six rounds and, suffice to say, many of us floundered without the benefit of a delay or increment (though most seemed to like the time control). After six long rounds, then, Hayden Brongersma and Alex Chin stood alone atop the wall chart, the lone “blemish” in either’s score a shared draw in round 4. Sanat Singhal took sole third with 4.5 points and clipped me on the way to that score in an interesting From’s Gambit, one which could have gone either way. It was also great to see Alaric Stein again last night, who shared fourth with Pranav, Cameron and Alex. Full results are in the attached image and thank you to everyone who joined us for this event.
Note that the club will NOT meet next week, August 28th, given the Arrillaga Center will be closed then, but we will hold another casual evening with a lecture and blitz tournament the following week, September 4th. We will also postpone our quick-rated event to later in September or early October and will instead run a number of variant tournaments next month–more details about that will be shared soon. Regards,
Mark Drury
Impromptu Blitz #45 Results
Last week saw considerable appetite—demand, even—among those assembled at the club for no fewer than eight rounds of G/3+2 blitz after Frisco’s excellent lecture, something we were able to accommodate with just enough time to spare to meet our 9pm closing deadline (which I’m still trying to extend, incidentally). We again had several first-time visitors to the club, one of whom, Zachary Rhinehart, proved his mettle with a hard-fought first place finish at 7.0 out of 8 points.
Remarkably, young Cameron Troy, who is clearly getting stronger each and every week, took sole second with 6.5 points, and that after an epic final-round battle with fellow junior player Austin Chen, who tied for fourth with four other strong players at 5.0. Pranav Jindal was sole third at 5.5 points (he and I both fell to Cameron in this event). I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: watching our many strong junior players improve week after week is one of the most rewarding aspects of the club for me and I look forward to seeing their continued improvement as they play with our club or elsewhere. Full results are in the attached image and thank you to everyone who participated in the tournament.
Tonight will be another casual evening at the club with a lecture beginning at 6:30pm followed by a G/5+0 blitz tournament round 7pm—I hope to see many of you there! Regards,
Mark Drury
Impromptu Blitz #44 Results
I’m finally getting round to sharing the results from last week’s 7-round, G/3;d3 blitz tournament, one which featured a number of upsets and dramatic time scrambles, not least of which was Josen Kalra’s scintillating effort against Pranav Jindal in round 4, though Pranav recovered nicely to win the event with 6 out of 7 points. Josen and perennial wall-chart-topper Hayden Brongersma tied for second at 5 points while Yash Shah and Austin Chen split 4th place with 4.5 points. For my part, my angry Bird’s Opening got the better of three strong junior players, players who normally have no trouble dispatching me in these blitz events, so I’m pondering retirement from competitive blitz play at the club while I’m ahead (the probability of my ever again besting the same three players in the same evening is very near zero, frankly). Congratulations to our winners, full results are in the attached image and thank you to everyone who joined us last week.
Tonight we’ll do pretty much the same, with a lecture beginning at 6:30pm followed by another free, unrated blitz tournament round 7pm, though we’ll opt for a different time control—much as people appear to like G/3;d3 it’s getting a little stale. I hope to see many of you at the club this evening! Regards,
Mark Drury
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 weekly lecture begins at 6:30pm and it remains one of the highlights of club attendance.