There will be no chess club meeting May 28th but we will meet June 4th

Tag: tournament

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Impromptu Blitz #52 Results

We tried something a little different beginning with this week’s free, unrated blitz tournament — we gave all thirty players the same beginning rating with the thought that, over the course of 4-5 such blitz events, we’d come to better understand the relative strengths of club members’ blitz play. That, and there’s still some vague idea floating around that we’ll create a ladder, tournament and/or related prize structure based on ratings accrual and other factors over that time. More information will be shared as the idea crystalizes and please let me know if you have any opinions or ideas, of course.

Triet Vo had an excellent result in this large first event with a perfect 7 out of 7 score, while Hayden Brongersma sat alone in second a point behind. Pranav Jindal and Caleb Leong shared third with 5 points, Austin Chen was sole fifth at 4.5 and a swarm of strong players settled for T6 honors at 4 points. Full results are in the attached image and the SwissSys ratings report is also attached (it includes a couple anomalies that I’ll need to investigate). We will continue the blitz ratings folly in the coming weeks and hopefully it will be modestly entertaining as we figure out what we’re actually doing with this experiment. Regards,

Mark Drury

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Impromptu Blitz #51 Results

We had a smaller turnout for last week’s lecture and blitz tournament but there was no lack of appetite for the usual seven rounds of G/4;d2 chess. There were quite a few upsets over those seven rounds but Pranav Jindal still prevailed with 5.5 points and sole first place. Jason Wright and young Austin Chen tied for second with 5.0 out of 7 while Hayden Brongersma was alone in fourth with 4.5 points. Full results are in the attached image, congratulations to our winners and thanks to everyone who played in this free, unrated event.

Tonight will be much the same as last week, with a lecture beginning at 6:30pm followed by another free, unrated blitz tournament round 7pm, this time with a G/3+2 time control. I hope to see many of you then! 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 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.

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Impromptu Blitz #50 Results

Our first meeting of 2026 was a success with 24 players partaking of seven rounds of G/5+0 blitz action, including many first-time visitors to the club. A hearty welcome to Scott Stoll, Billy and Ketch Allen, Tushar Janefalkar and Nicholas Zhu and thank you again for joining us at the club!

Breakwell Loyalka added an exclamation point to his club championship win last month with a convincing 7/7 score in this event, a full point and a half ahead of second place finisher Hayden Brongersma. NM Gabe Sanchez claimed sole third at 5.0 out of 7 while young Austin Chen was alone in fourth at 4.5 points. There followed a raft of strong players at 4.0 who were left wondering what might have been, though mention should be made of Lua Loyalka’s performance in that group–she is quietly making her way up these wall charts week after week and I won’t be surprised to find her nearer the top by year’s end.

The full results for this blitz tournament are in the attached image and we will do the same thing this coming Thursday, though perhaps with a G/4;d2 time control this time around–I hope to see many of you then. 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 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.

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Club Championship Final Results & Prizes

Attached are two views of the final results of our Fourth Menlo Park Chess Club Championship, one showing the usual wall chart and another the standings, in case some of you prefer either or both. Congratulations to Breakwell Loyalka, who went undefeated to claim sole first and the title of club champion, and that despite a wild endgame with Frisco in the final round which could have gone either way. I believe Breakwell is our youngest champion to date and his victory is none too surprising given the way he has performed in other recent events. Frisco was also undefeated with three wins and two draws for four points out of five, tying with Vedant Verma for overall second place—congratulations to both of you! Andrew Yu and Steven Swick also deserve mention for claiming sole first and $80 in their prize groups, while Josen Kalra, Di Lin and I tied for first in the second prize group to split the three prizes therein.

Kabir Jain won our cumulative upset prize, despite late surges by Vinayak Vikram and Caleb Leong, and will claim the Pixel Earbuds donated by the Pu family — congratulations to Kabir and thank you once again, Dennis, Helena and Hugo Pu for your generous donation to our club. I also wanted to thank Hugo Pu for ably directing this tournament, which allowed me to play without interruption — I very much appreciate your help, Hugo!

Thank you again to everyone who played in or spectated our final tournament of the year and we’ll do something similar in February or early March of next year. Regards,

Mark Drury

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Club Championship Round 3 Wall Chart & Round One Bulletin

I wanted to post a quick update reminding people that we’ll be playing round 3 of our club championship this Thursday at 7pm, per the attached wall chart image. Please feel free to join us for Frisco’s 6:30pm lecture and to spectate the tournament games thereafter but we won’t be holding the typical free, unrated blitz tournament this week. We will have a skittles room available for those who wish to pick up a game or two and that room becomes reasonably active as the tournament games finish round 8pm.

Frisco is also creating an excellent tournament bulletin for each round and that for the first may be viewed here.

Please let me know if you have any questions about the club championship or about club events for the remainder of the year (https://menloparkchess.club/events/) and I hope to see you at the Arrillaga Center soon! Regards,

Mark Drury