By Benjamin Newbry
It seems like only yesterday that a small group of us chess players were consoling ourselves with tacos over the lack of turnout at Maya’s casual chess Tuesday. But that was over two years ago, and in the interim we’ve kept the tacos and tried to add some organization and consistency to make Maya Mondays something that every chess player would want to show up to. It’s worked out pretty well, too, with a player base averaging around 26 people per season.
This season is right on average, with 26 players signing up, including 5 new players that I’m really excited about. Headlining the new players is CM (Candidate Master for those wondering) Peng Shunkai. With a 2193 FIDE rating, Peng is officially the highest-rated player to join the league ever (our previous high was Johan Trens in season 1 for those keeping score). He comes in as an undeniable #1 seed and is the favorite to win the tournament this year. I’m personally excited, as I’m sure many league members are, for the chance to sharpen my skills against such a highly rated opponent.
Two more new players who could be in contention for first this season are Kevin (Iran) and Garry (China). I’ve seen Kevin play some really good chess at Park Tavern blitz, at the Lujiazui tournament and at the China vs. the World blitz match at Maya and I’m intrigued to see how he competes with the crowd at Maya this season (and with longer games). Garry is more of a wild card to me as I’ve only really seen a few of his games, but he certainly is strong enough to compete at the top of the league.
Our new players are rounded out by Luo Defeng (China) and Marco (Brazil). Luo Defeng is especially interesting as a player because I think based on his blitz performances at Park Tavern, people might underestimate him. His long game, however, seems much more developed than his blitz game and he’s shown it by getting some surprising wins at Park Tavern’s summer long game series.
Marco is exactly the kind of player we want at Maya. He’s somewhat of a chess beginner (1100-1200 approximate rating), but he has the desire to learn and improve. I’m excited to see the development that happens from this season, especially in light of our new features.
This season, like every season, has a heavy focus on learning and improving, and after 4 seasons of tinkering with different off-week activities and programs, I think we’ve come up with a more effective way of supporting individual improvement. With such a wide range in skill level at Maya, group activities always left a little to be desired, so this season we’re giving players the chance to schedule a time slot with our Arbiter/Coach FM Louis Sanchez to get 1-1 review of the previous week’s game. Hopefully players show the initiative to schedule these and get a lot out of them (I know I’ve gotten a lot of game reviews with Louis and others).
We’re also going to continue with the popular group analysis on a limited basis, having one person per week analyze a position or game on the projector before individual analysis with Louis begins. Stay tuned as well for a possible fun activity (does everyone know how to play bughouse?) at some point in the season.
As far as the tournament details go, we’re staying largely the same from the previous season, with a 7 round Swiss system utilizing the same simple pairing algorithm and tie break structure (found in our rules link on the website) as well as the same focus on flexibility so that all of us busy Shanghai-dwellers can miss a Monday without missing a game. Our initial player list is ranked according to last seasons finishing order with new players inserted at the low end of expectations for them.
Overall, we hope for another successful season at Maya in which we can all play some quality games, analyze and learn together, and knock back a tequila or two (make that a whiskey for Thomas). I’m excited to see how everyone does, and especially how everyone improves.