Author: Chess Club Staff

    Chess Tournaments
    2024 Calendar

    Following is a list of our recent and upcoming tournaments:


    We get 2024 started on January 9 with a five round event that concludes February 6.  There are two sections and the time control is G/90 with 5 second delay.

    Standings here




    This is a 5-round event in two sections (over 1400 and under 1400). Most recent “live” US Chess regular ratings used for all sections. You must play in the section determined by that rating. There is one round each Tuesday night and games start at 6:45 pm. The Club opens at 6:00 pm. Time control is Game/90 minutes with 5 second delay. Two 1/2 point byes are available. Last round byes must be requested before the start of Round 4. The entry fee is $35 and should be paid online. Advance registration is strongly advised.

    Standings here


    One Champion to rule them all! We start our 2024 Club Championship tournament on March 19. It’s seven rounds over seven Tuesday evenings in one big Open section. The winner will be Club Champion and have their name engraved on the SGVCC Champions Cup trophy. We will also give out engraved Best-in-Rating-Class plaques and have a $550 prize fund.

    Standings here


    We start the Mount Wilson Challenge on May 7, a five round event in two sections that concludes June 4th.

    Standings here


    This is a 6-round event in two sections (over 1400 and under 1400).  Most recent “live” US Chess regular ratings used for all sections to ensure close match-ups. You must play in the section determined by that rating.  There is one round each Tuesday night and games start at 6:45 pm. The Club opens at 6:00.  Time control is Game/90 min. with 5 second delay. Two 1/2 point byes are available. Last round byes must be requested before the start of Round 4. Total prize fund is $600 with prizes awarded to the top three in each section.

    Standings here


    The Hogwarts Swiss
    07/23/24 – 08/27/24

    Cast a spell on your opponents! A six-round event in three Wizarding sections: Harry’s Over 1600, Hermione’s Under 1600, and Ron’s Under 1000. It starts July 23 and ends August 27 with two half-point byes available. Most recent “live” US Chess regular ratings used for all sections to ensure close match-ups. You must play in the section determined by that rating. There is one round each Tuesday night and games start at 6:45 pm. The Club opens at 6:00 pm. Time control is Game/90 min. with 5 second delay. Total prize fund to be determined based on entries. Registration closes at 6:30 pm. All players must be SGVCC members and have current USCF memberships.

    Standings here


    Mount Lowe Swiss
    09/10/24 – 10/02/24

    We kick off September with a four round Swiss in three sections. It starts September 10 and ends October 2.



    Standings here


    4th Altadena Swiss
    10/8/24 – 10/29/24

    This is a four round event in three sections. It starts October 8 and ends October 29.  Total prize fund to be determined based on entries. One half-point bye is available and any additional byes will be 0 point byes.  Either the September Supplement or a player’s most recent “live” regular rating will be used at the TD’s discretion. There is one round each Tuesday night and games start at 6:45 pm. The Club opens at 6:00 pm. Time control is Game/90 minutes with a five second delay. The entry fee is $30 and should be paid online. Advance registration is required. If you have trouble registering online contact us and we can register you. Advance registration closes at 5:00 pm on October 8. All players must be SGVCC members and have current USCF memberships. You can join our renew your SGVCC dues online at our website or in person. You can join after the first round has started but you must contact the TD per below. You can renew or join the USCF at our registration link. We meet at Altadena Community Church in Heicher Hall, located at 943 East Altadena Drive, Altadena, CA 91101. For more information contact TD John Wright at 626/864-5744 or at wright.john82@yahoo.com.

    Register here.

    Standings here.


    Holiday Swiss
    11/12/24 – 12/10/24

    This is a five round event in three sections. It starts November 12 and ends December 10. Two half-point byes are available. Either the November Supplement or a players most recent “live” regular rating will be used at the TD’s discretion. There is one round each Tuesday night and games start at 6:45 pm. The Club opens at 6:00 pm. Time control is Game/90 minutes with a five second delay. The entry fee is $35 and should be paid online. Total prize fund to be determined based on entries. Advance registration is required. If you have trouble registering online contact us and we can register you. Advance registration closes at 5:00 pm on November 12. All players must be SGVCC members and have current USCF memberships. You can join our renew your SGVCC dues online at our website or in person. You can join after the first round has started but you must contact the TD per below. You can renew or join the USCF at our registration link. We meet at Altadena Community Church in Heicher Hall, located at 943 East Altadena Drive, Altadena, CA 91101. For more information contact TD John Wright at 626/864-5744 or at wright.john82@yahoo.com.

    Register here.

    Standings here.


    December 17 Blitz event
    12/17/24

    Details to follow. For more information contact TD John Wright at 626/864-5744 or at wright.john82@yahoo.com.

    Register here.

    Standings here (Under construction).



    Feel free to contact us with any questions.

    Chess Club News
    Webster and Vieregg Share First at the Holiday Swiss

    The Holiday Swiss concluded on December 21st and saw Wilton “Will” Webster and Craig Vieregg go 3.5 out of 4 to share first place. It was a Tale of Two Tournaments due to the accelerated pairing format and it would have been fun to see the two winners play each other had there been one more round. This was Craig’s second strong showing and no one is likely fooled anymore by his old 1517 rating from yesteryear. In only nine games over two SGVCC events he has gained 163 rating points!

    Webster, on the other hand, was playing in his first SGVCC event and a bit of a chess enigma. A check of his USCF profile showed a near Master rating of 2143 based on only 23 games. Quite the affable fellow upon meeting him, the mystery became a bit clearer when he shared that he had a British Chess Federation rating from his days in college at Sussex and had put in a lot of work playing online games. Nevertheless, quite impressive. But his path to victory was anything but smooth. As he himself put it:

    “One could also argue that the story line of my tournament was fighting on until things broke my way (drawing a losing position, winning a forcibly drawn position, and then winning two completely lost positions), but anyone who’s read my previous write-ups will already know that my proclivity toward swindling people after blundering is the rule, rather than the exception.”

    Indeed! The two “completely lost positions” were in rounds 3 & 4, first against Raymond Armagnac (2159) and then NM Karl Tolentino. Raymond sacrificed material for a vicious attack but Will found a saving perpetual with his Queen. Never one to settle for the half point the “Big A” refused it and pushed on only to blunder later. In the final round Tolentino was up the exchange and again had what looked like an unstoppable mating attack. But Karl missed the one lone shot Black had with a knight check and resigned immediately. Such is chess.

    A few other notable performances were David Faulkner, who won his last three games to finish at 3 points and 10 year old Ashley Lin. Lin went an undefeated 2.5 and earned draws against Class A player Nathan Gan and 1700+ rated David Munoz, raising her own rating from 1139 to 1320. Twenty eight players competed and not a bad turnout for an event in December. The Echo Mountain Open is currently underway.

    Enjoy Will’s annotations:

    Chess Club News
    Experience Prevails at Altadena Open

    Top rated Karl Tolentino won the five round Altadena Open with a score of 4.5 holding off several young challengers along the way. He took one bye and won the rest of his games. Learn from Karl’s instructive comments:

    Sharing second were “veteran” players Raymond Armagnac and Tim Thompson at 4-1. With so many events dominated by young players these days our winners likely boosted the confidence of their peers.

    Still, youth definitely made its presence felt. The Champ had to hold off Nathan Gan (see game) and Benjamin Teng to close the deal. Teng had beaten strong Expert Hamlet Tovmasyan in the penultimate round to set up a showdown with Tolentino. The 12 year old appeared to have a promising position as Black but got in time trouble and the National Master showed his mettle. Also deserving recognition were youngsters Ashley Lin (10) and Evelyn “Evie” Hsing (8), who both scored wins over higher rated opponents and netted over 100 rating points each.

    But the early surprise was Craig Vieregg, who entered with an old 1517 rating form the year 1998. And after three rounds he had beaten one Expert, drawn another, and was tied for first! In Round 4 he faced Arturo Armagnac and had two passed pawns in a Queen ending. Never one to give up, Arturo found a perpetual check with his Queen and split the point. Thompson handed Vieregg his only loss in Round 5 but it was hard fought and quite a performance by Craig. Beware of old ratings! Online chess has shown that you can make big improvements without playing over the board chess.

    This was our first event at our new location in Altadena and a pleasant surprise was the addition of 17 new SGVCC members. The event also had a number of unrated adults playing their very first rated event. So thank you to everyone for participating and getting us off to a good start! Our next event will be the Holiday Swiss, a four rounder starting November 30 and you can sign up here:

    https://caissachess.net/online-registration/index/1263

    Chess Tournaments
    Louis Pasteur Memorial Round 3: Openings gone wrong

    In this round we were treated to some very good games. Randy and Artem worked together to create this beautiful cluster of knights in the center.

    You can find the pairings for the last round here:

    https://caissachess.net/live/1027

    The pairings will be finalized on Tuesday evening, so for the moment these pairings you find there are preliminary.

    The winner and the top <1800 player will get prizes. Since we might resume over the board chess games soon again we probably won’t have time for a tiebreaker this time.

    Some of the players joining our online tournaments live too far away to join us for OTB tournaments and some players might not be ready yet for indoor meetings. If there is some demand I am more than happy to continue to offer online tournaments. We might have to opt for another time though. Please let me know what you think and send an email to: sgv.chessclub@gmail.com

    Here are the annotated games of round 3:

    Chess Tournaments
    Louis Pasteur Memorial: The first two rounds

    The first two rounds of the Louis Pasteur Memorial saw some exciting chess and some upsets. In round 1 David Faulkner narrowly missed a win and allowed Kevin Zhang to escape with a draw. In round 2 Kevin’s brother Arthur Zhang played a beautiful Italian and beat me quite convincingly.

    Things obviously went wrong for me. How did Arthur finish the game in style?

    Artem Aleksenko showed some good fighting spirit in both of his games. In his game against John Wright Artem kept pushing in a drawn rook ending and John, under time pressure, went wrong. In the second round Artem defended with a minute left against Gerald Ruiz assault and the game ended in a draw. Earlier Gerald, true to his name, sacrificed his queen and got very close to winning the game. Artem’s active defense muddied the waters enough to escape with a draw.

    Larry Stevens is faithfully sticking to the Queen’s Gambit Accepted. Manu Prasad went for 3. Nc3

    This is an inaccuracy. Larry treats us to a masterclass on how to exploit this.

    The pairings for round three will be published on Tuesday evening at the usual place:

    https://caissachess.net/live/1027

    Round 1 games:

    Round 2 games:

    Chess Tournaments
    Manu Prasad wins the Aulia Arena Blitz

    Manu played a close to perfect tournament. As usual he was one of the players with most games and he won almost all of them. Chris went berserk and almost caught Manu but fell one point short.

    This Friday we have another blitz event, the La Bourdonnais Arena, the link is:

    https://lichess.org/tournament/1bQ6I2lW

    and the password is as usual:

    sgv

    We are in trying to sort out things with the YMCA. But it seems they need some time to get up and running again. We will let you know when we can resume over the board tournaments. If there is sufficient interest we could have another G60 online tournament, perhaps three rounds in two segments. Let me know what you think.

    Chess Tournaments
    Petrosian Blitz Tiebreakes This Friday

    Last Friday was the last round of the Petrosian Open and as usual we will have a two hour blitz arena event for tiebreakers.

    The name for the blitz arena is Aulia and the link is:

    https://lichess.org/tournament/lF8Uw2LP

    password: sgv

    The fight for first place was decided in the last round. Ariel came close to getting a big advantage against me on board one and catching me before the finish line. Gerald and Arthur are shared second and third. You can check out the final standings here:
    https://caissachess.net/live/995

    The prize fund for this tournament is: 

    1. $30
    2. $20

    This time we will also have a $20 prize for the winner of the Blitz Arena (Players that won money in the main event are not eligible for this).

    The annotated games of the last round can be found here:

    Stay tuned for updates. L.A. county is entering the yellow tier, hence the Mark Rothko picture. We are in contact with the YMCA to figure out what the next steps are.

    Chess Club News
    Mieses Arena Blitz Tournament

    On Friday, Sept 11 at 7.10pm, we will be having our first blitz tournament on Lichess. Participation is restricted to members of our lichess team. So, make sure you request membership asap.

    https://lichess.org/team/san-gabriel-valley-chess-club

    Once a member of our team you can see the link for the tournament on the team site, see link above. Alternatively use the following link to join the tournament:

    https://lichess.org/tournament/LVdxP3Um

    This is a private tournament and it is password protected. After clicking join a pop-up window will appear and ask for a password. The password is

    SGVCC

    On the tournament site you will also be able to see all the rules. It’s a 2h arena tournament. After your game you are paired as quickly as possible, so no need to wait too long, games are G5+5. The winner is whoever collects most points at the end of the 2h period. A win yields 2 points, a draw 1 point and a loss 0 points. While on a winning streak the points are doubled. In addition to this rule which we know from chess.com already. Players also have the option to go Berserk at the beginning of the game. This reduces their time to half of the initial time and the player also won’t get any time increment. In return a win yields an extra point.

    Now, head over to lichess and sign up for the team and tournament:

    https://lichess.org/team/san-gabriel-valley-chess-club