Monday League Ladder Blog brought to you by Scott Stewart @ ballarat chess club
MNCL Wraps Up
It has been a fun 2 seasons of handicapped chess arena's on chess.com, but with attendance this season averaging around 6 players a week the point of continuing the league as is loses it's glitter. The League this season was won by Nigel Barrow. Overtaking the tenacious fighter Patrick in the last round. If Nigel would like a book prize let me know by sending me your postal address. So what next for Mondays, the chess will not end. There will be an event to play in every Monday night. What form that will be I can't say for sure. I will create a survey and ask members what they think.
MNCL: Week 8 Link
Monday night league link
https://www.chess.com/live#r=1053431
Two hour Arena this week will be a 12m 2s.
Be there at 7:30 pm!
MNCL Week 7 Wrap
Monday night Arena went ahead with 6 players. Nigel has won his 3rd week straight and overtaken Pat to lead the League but only 2 points separate the top 3 players.
MNCL: Week 7 Link
Monday night league link
https://www.chess.com/live#r=1007691
Two hour Arena this week will be a 9m 5s.
Be there at 7:30 pm!
MNCL Week 6 Wrap
I have had to format my HDD on my laptop so my lovely tables need to be reconstructed when I find the time. The low down of the relevant positions on the league ladder are as below.
Pat has retaken the lead in a 3 chess player race. As I will be travelling from Melbourne on Monday evenings for the rest of this semester I unfortunately am not able to compete.
peacook23 - 54
AustraliaRob - 53
BaronWrigle - 53
ScottAStewart - 42
Pauldao3 - 41
BasvR12 - 14
MNCL: Week 6 Link
Monday night league link https://www.chess.com/live#r=971663 Two hour Arena 5 m + 10 secs: be there at 7:30 pm!
MNCL Week 5 Wrap
5 weeks into the second season of the Monday Night League a new leader has emerged with Rob pushing Pat aside and leading by a solitary point, but he is not alone with 3 chasers all within 3 points. The star of the night was Gavin who out performed his rating and took home a whopping 13 points and was the clear winner of the night on handicap. In 1st place on the night was Nigel who took home 11 league points.
MNCL: Week 5 Link
Monday night league link https://www.chess.com/live#r=945978 two hour Arena 15 m + 0 secs: be there at 7:30 pm!
MNCL Week 4 Wrap
With a 5 day lockdown in force, Week 4 saw 10 players take part in the evening's chess. Scott won his 3rd Arena in a row slowly narrowing the gap on the League leader, Patrick. Paul had a good night going undefeated 4 draws and 2 wins including knocking off Scott, collecting 10 points and 2nd place on the night. Next week let's play a 15 0 Arena.
MNCL: Week 4 Link
Monday night league link https://www.chess.com/live#r=943500 two hour Arena 10 m + 2 secs: be there at 7:30 pm for some lockdown fun!!!
MNCL: Week 3 Wrap
Here is the updated ladder following Monday's Arena, Only 6 players turned out for the Arena. Scott won the Arena and collected 10 league points, Nigel came in 2nd also taking in 10 points after division adjustment. Pat maintains his lead 2 points clear from Rob. Monday night will be a 10 2 Arena, hopefully see a few more of you there especially considering the 5 day lockdown we are currently enduring.
MNCL: Week 3 Link
Tonight is week 3 of the Monday Night League. We will be playing an arena event consisting of 9 minutes plus 5 seconds per move. See you at 7:30pm.
https://www.chess.com/live#r=920528
MNCL: Week 2 Wrap
Monday night was an exciting event contested between 10 players. Rob, Pat and Scott each took home 10 league points. The event itself saw Pat off to a flying start building up an impressive lead with a 5 game streak. Rob caught and chased him down with a 5 game streak of his own. Scott off to a slow start also put together a 5 game streak and in the dying seconds drew with Nigel securing 1st place just one point clear from Rob and Pat. Pat and Rob have a 4 point lead on the field after 2 rounds.
MNCL: Week 2 Link
Tonight is week 2 of the Monday Night League. We will be playing an arena event consisting of 5 minutes plus 10 seconds per move. See you at 7:30pm.
https://www.chess.com/live#r=896551
MNCL: Week 1 Wrap
We had 10 players on Monday night battling it out for league points. Current scores and division assignments are listed below, More to come when I have time. The Arena was won by George, Rob and Pat after all 3 took last second draws to secure =1st as the Arena clock ticked down.
Week One Link: https://www.chess.com/live#r=893366
Season 2 starts Monday Jan 25
From the 25th of January the second season of the Monday Night Chess League will begin. The league will run from the 25th January to the 29th of March
EVENT TYPE: Tournaments will be Arena formats of varying rapid time controls. Running for 2 hours from 7:30pm to 9:30pm. Come along for a couple of games or for the whole 2 hours. Totally up to you.
LEAGUE LADDER: I will publish the league ladder weekly before Thursday night club meets.
THE POINTS SYSTEM: While each Arena is a stand alone event of it's own complete with chess.com Trophies etc. The points system for the league will have a handicap structure so the race for the top is as wide open as possible. Players will be assigned into divisions and point adjustments allocated depending on the division they occupy. The only change I will experiment with is the maximum amount of points a player can win in any round is 15, though that would take a division 6 player finishing in 1st place .
HOW TO PARTICIPATE:
To participate nothing changes, Ballarat Chess Club Members and Online members just pop in to chess.com on a Monday night and joint he scheduled Monday night tournament.
LEAGUE DETAILS:
BASE TOURNAMENT POINTS AWARDED
1st - 10 points 2nd - 9 points 3rd - 8 points 4th - 7 points 5th - 6 points 6th = 5 points
7th = 4 points 8th = 3 points 9th = 2 points 10th = 1 points.
RATING DIVISIONS AND CORRESPONDING POINT ADJUSTMENTS (Slightly modified from Last Season)
Over 2400 -> -3 points || U/2400 -> -2 points || U/2200 -> -1 points || Division 1 = U/2000 no adjustment || Division 2 = U/1800 +1 point || Division 3 = U/1600 +2 points || Division 4 = U/1400 +3 points || Division 5 = U/1200 +4 points || Division 6 = U/1000 +5 points.
DIVISION ASSIGNMENTS: Division assignments are based on best chess.com rapid ratings over previous 90 days unless there is a huge discrepancy with ACF or FIDE then organiser reserves the right to assign players to divisions. Assignment ratings can also be taken from other sources and will be considered in this order if rapid rating is not reliable. ACF -> FIDE -> chess.com blitz
PRIZES: Prizes will be organised and announced soon. I owe Leo a book prize if he forwards me a postal address I can get it out to him.
A Master winning all 10 tournaments would likely still win the event --- maybe But it opens the door for anybody no matter what strength with regular attendance and consistently good performances to be in a position to take final honours as Monday Night League Champion keeping in the spirit of the fun atmosphere the events has fostered to date.