Chess 960 Draft Tournament

Our club dabbled in yet another interesting chess variant Thursday with the Chess960 Draft Tournament and, poorly as I did this time around, I think I speak for everyone in stating that the event was a lot of fun, with unusual positions seen in every round. In one of my games I made the cardinal mistake of failing to take stock of immediate threats on my first move and, as a result, lost a pawn and the exchange to a marauding bishop on move 2 or 3, which was mildly embarrassing. The timed draft aspect of this variant really adds something new and different to the game, especially with a relatively short time control like G/7;d3, but players got the hang of it quickly and there were few if any illegal setups that I’m aware of.

Eighteen participants turned out to be perfect for the four rounds we were able to play and congratulations are once again due to Pranav Jindal for another perfect score, his 4-0 result half a point better than Gabe Sanchez’s 3.5 for sole second. David Zhao and Josen Kalra enjoyed another excellent showing with their shared third place finish at 3 points, ahead of some very strong expert-level competition. Thank you to everyone who played in this event, please let me know if you have any feedback and we’ll give it another go later this year. Regards,

Mark Drury

#PlayerRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Total
1Pranav JindalW 9B 11W 7B 5
1.02.03.04.04.0
2Gabriel SanchezW 3B 8W 5B 7
1.02.02.53.53.5
3David ZhaoB 2W 16B 17W 9
0.01.02.03.03.0
4Josen KalraW 6B 7W 12B 11
1.01.02.03.03.0
5Alaric SteinB 10W 14B 2W 1
1.02.02.52.52.5
6Kunal ModiB 4W 17B 9W 10
0.01.01.02.02.0
7Wentao WuB 16W 4B 1W 2
1.02.02.02.02.0
8Alex WuW 12W 2B 10W 17
1.01.01.02.02.0
9Michael ByunB 1W 18W 6B 3
0.01.02.02.02.0
10Hayden BrongersmaW 5B 15W 8B 6
0.01.02.02.02.0
11Austin ChenB 13W 1B 14W 4
1.01.02.02.02.0
12Hugo PuB 8W 13B 4B 15
0.01.01.02.02.0
13Richard WangW 11B 12W 16B 14
0.00.01.01.51.5
14Renzo FrigatoW 18B 5W 11W 13
1.01.01.01.51.5
15Jeremy ArthurB 17W 10B 18W 12
0.00.01.01.01.0
16Mark DruryW 7B 3B 13W 18
0.00.00.01.01.0
17Aditya DhamdhereW 15B 6W 3B 8
1.01.01.01.01.0
18Carlos FuertesB 14B 9W 15B 16
0.00.00.00.00.0