In week 3 of the North American Corporate Chess League’s season 3, Deloitte maintained their lead over season 2 champions Google at the top of the team standings.
At the halfway mark, besides Deloitte (20.5 points) and Google (20 points), Qualcomm (18), Susquehanna International Group (17.5), DRW (17), Jane Street (17), and Peak6 Investments (17) round out the top 7 teams. With every game affecting the individual and team standings and half the season’s games in the books, there is still a lot to play for! The full team standings can be found here.
Individual Standings
In the individual standings, FM Igor Tsyganov (DRW) and NM Kevin Bu (Peak6 Investments) have a perfect 6/6 score. Many players have excellent scores of 5/6 and 5.5/6!
Kyron’s Corner
IM Kyron Griffith (Lyft) annotates 4 games each week of the NACCL.
Annotated games Week 3:
Use dropdown menu above to select between the 4 games.
Play an interesting game in the NACCL? Share it with Kyron via a lichess message @ kyrongriffith
Live Commentary & Lectures
Replay FM Peter Giannatos’ week 3 Twitch commentary here. Every Monday, we have our free improvement seminar featuring GM Daniel Naroditsky.
Note: The NACCL does not spam its members via Linkedin messaging nor do we share personal contact information with any external companies. Should players, companies, or other entities wish to read out to us, please contact us at [email protected]
In the second week of the North American Corporate Chess League, Deloitte overtook the sole lead with 16 points out of 16. Now in NACCL’s fourth season, this is the first time that a team has emerged unscathed after two weeks (four rounds).
“Checking in” for a week means that you be paired for 2 rapid games played at a time control of 15 minutes + 5 second increment. Players skipping rounds will receive up to four half point “byes” for any games they miss throughout the season.
What sets the NACCL apart from other leagues is that all players must work for their company, so there are no professional chess players. However, the competition is always quite strong, with many titled players (International Masters, FIDE Masters, and National Masters) at the top of the list.
Individual Standings
11 players remain with perfect 4/4 scores in the individual standings, including IM Kyron Griffith (Lyft), who will be analyzing four games each week from the league. Here are his selections and notes from this week:
Did you play an interesting game in the NACCL? Share it with Kyron via a lichess message @ kyrongriffith
Team Standings
After four rounds, only Deloitte remains at a perfect team score of 16 points. The top 4 players per team form the team score, and Deloitte’s FM Benjamin Moon, NM Saumil Padhya, NM Lihong Tang, and Sohail Shaikh each started off 4-0.
Traditional powerhouse Google is in second place with 14.5 points, followed by Susquehanna International Group (13), Qualcomm (12.5), Capital One (12.5), and a few teams at 12 points. The full team standings can be found here.
Live Commentary
NACCL Director FM Peter Giannatos had the call on week 2 commentary, which can be replayed here. Coming up on Monday is our improvement seminar with GM Daniel Naroditsky which is free for all NACCL participants and is well-received by players of all levels.
Note: The NACCL does not spam its members via Linkedin messaging nor do we share personal contact information with any external companies. Should players, companies, or other entities wish to read out to us, please contact us at [email protected]
Season 4 of the North American Corporate Chess League is here! With 39 teams and 475 players, this is one of the largest seasons to date. The NACCL is always held on the popular free and open-source chess site, lichess.org, and is the largest seasonal corporate chess league in the world. Online corporate chess is here to stay!
There are many returning teams including traditional powerhouses Google (Season 2 and 3 Champions) and inaugural winners, Susquehanna International Group. There are also many new teams and players, including many titled players.
As always, the NACCL features an inclusive, easy-to-understand, and flexible format. An overwhelming number of the players in the league are casual players – there are no Grandmasters this season. The top four scores from each company comprise a team’s score, so recreational players can compete without the fear that they are “bringing down” their colleagues. There are also individual standings and prizes, plus weekly chess improvement seminars for all participants.
With a simple online check-in process and no downloads, roster submissions, memberships, or powerhouse chess teams from within the industry, the NACCL is very accessible and straightforward, meanwhile emphasizing engagement, team building, and the popularization of chess.
Individual Standings
352 of the 475 players checked in for week 1, which consisted of two games of 15+5 (15 minutes plus 5 second increment per move). Top players this season are IM Kyron Griffith (Lyft), IM Ritvars Reimanis (Google), FM Benjamin Moon (Deloitte), NM Saumil Padhya (Deloitte), and FM Varun Krishnan (Lyft), each rated over 2300.
John Gruska (1812) of Google showed some nice tactics in his round 1 game against Alexander Sorokin (1455) of Airtable:
As is the nature of rapid games, there were a few upsets up and down the crosstable. Many expert (2000+) rated and other strong players did not get through 2 rounds unscathed.
Team Standings
In the team standings, only 3 teams scored the maximum 8 points – Google, Qualcomm, and Deloitte.
Susquehanna International Group and Hewlett Packard Enterprise have 7.5 team points, and Citadel Securities and Lyft round out the top 7 with 7 points. The top four player scores within each company contribute to the team standings. With only 3 teams on a perfect score after just 1 week, this looks to be the most competitive season yet.
Prizes
In addition to team prizes, the league offers individual prizes for the top performers. 67 players move to 2-0 on the individual standings, but with an accelerated pairing system and closer matchups coming up in week 2, the number of perfect scores will be whittled down quickly. Players who skip an early week earn half point “byes” so as to help their team a bit even if they must miss a week or two. Individual standings can be found here.
Live Commentary
FM Gauri Shankar commentated live on week 1’s games, which you can replay here.
Note: The NACCL does not spam its members via Linkedin messaging nor do we share personal contact information with any external companies. Should players, companies, or other entities wish to read out to us, please contact us at [email protected]
The sixth and final week of the third season of North American Corporate Chess League featured lots of action, with many ups and down throughout the final night.
Team Standings
Glancing at the final team standings, it would seem that Google was dominant throughout season 3 of the NA Corporate Chess League. 37.5 points is the highest team score ever achieved (Google scored 36 in season 2, and season 1 winners, Susquehanna International Group,scored 37 points in season 1).
However, things were not as clear as they seemed, as many teams were in contention for the season 3 title, most notably Deloitte (finished in 3rd place with 33.5 points), Jump Trading, and Airbnb (tying for 4th-5th place with 33 points). With a strong week 6 performance, SIG passed many teams to land in clear second place with an impressive 35.5 points. The complete team standings, with prizes for the top 10 teams and some special category prizes, can be found here.
Individual Standings
Critical to Google’s victory was the dominant performance by their top player, NM James Sun, who amassed an amazing 11/12 score, defeating many masters and top players on his way to first place in the individual standings. Tying for second place, in tiebreak order, were: NM Saumil Padhya of Deloitte, Benjamin Stern of Google, and FM Andrey Krasnov of Jump Trading.
Class Prizes
The top 15 players overall, plus the top 10 rated under 1700, under 1100, and unrated, earn a plaque. A large pack of players were in the tie for fifth place with 9 points, including top Unrated player Raj Ray Chaudhury (SIG). The top player under 1700 was Anthony Sandrin of Jane Street, and the top player under 1100 was Thomas Bao of Airbnb.
Analysis
Deloitte was staging a large comeback at the end of this season and were in hot pursuit of Google. Their hopes were pinned on the top board of the final round, where Deloitte’s FM Benjamin Moon faced off against Google’s leader in NM James Sun.
Special Thanks
A special thanks goes to our sponsors Aimchess and Chessable for supporting additional prizes and promotions for league members.
Next Season
Congratulations to all the winners – see you for season 4 in early 2022! Expect some in-between season events to be announced soon!
Note: The NACCL does not spam its members via Linkedin messaging nor do we share personal contact information with any external companies. Should players, companies, or other entities wish to read out to us, please contact us at [email protected]
North American Corporate Chess League Week 5 – Up for Grabs
After five weeks of the North American Corporate Chess League’s third season, longtime frontrunner Google took the lead with 31.5 points. Their lead is certainly not insurmountable, as Deloitte (30.5), AirBnb (30.0), Susquehanna International Group (29.0), DRW Holdings (28.5), and Jump Trading (27.5) will certainly fight for the top prizes in the final week.
Team Standings
Team Standings after Week 5
Rank
Team
Team Points
Top Scorer(s)
1
Google
31.5
NM James Sun (9.0)
2
Deloitte
30.5
FM Benjamin Moon, NM Saumil Padhya (8.5)
3
Airbnb
30.0
NM Anna Matlin (8.0)
4
Susquehanna International Group
28.5
Ella Papanek, Raj Ray Chaudhury (7.5)
5
DRW Holdings
28.0
NM Nicholas Desmarais, FM Igor Tsyganov (8.0)
6
Jump Trading
27.5
FM Andrey Krasnov (7.5)
7
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
25.5
Brian McCabe (7.0)
8
Jane Street
25.0
Dyland Xue (7.0)
9
Qualcomm
24.5
Shailesh Maheshwari (6.5)
10
ThomsonReuters
24.5
Sarah Budow (7.0)
With only 4 points separating first and sixth place, there is a lot to play for in the final week. Prizes are not only awarded to the top 10 teams, but also the top 2 small companies (<50 employees), top financial service company, top IT company, and top law company – there is something for everyone to play for in week 6. See the prize list here and team standings here.
Individual Standings
Still at the top of the individual standings is Google’s NM James Sun (9 points). Several players are right behind NM Sun with 8.5 points: NM Saumil Padhya (Deloitte), and FMBenjamin Moon (Deloitte). See the full individual standings here.
Games
In an exciting game which was critical for Deloitte’s chances to clinch the title, FM Benjamin Moon (Deloitte) fended off an interesting piece sacrifice and attack conducted by Kathan Shukla of Google.
SIG’s Andy Lee played an interesting endgame against Janusz Kudelka (Airbnb) in round 9:
Note: The NACCL does not spam its members via Linkedin messaging nor do we share personal contact information with any external companies. Should players, companies, or other entities wish to read out to us, please contact us at [email protected]
After four weeks into season 3 of the North American Corporate Chess League, the team and individual standings are packed at the top. While Google leads the team standings with 26.5 points, there are many teams a couple points behind, including Susquehanna International Group (24.5), Jump Trading (24), Airbnb (24), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (23.5), and DRW Holdings (23.5).
With two games played every week, the standings are completely in flux, and we can expect many changes by the end. Although Google’s lead resembles their performance from season 2, the season 1 champions, Susquehanna International Group, did not lead the standings after any week except the last!
Games
While James Sun leads the Google team as their top scorer, Google also have many other strong players adding to their lead. Kathan Shukla (Google) scored the following win over NM Christopher Yang (Jane Street) in round 8:
In the individual standings, NM James Sun of Google continues to lead with a perfect 8 points. Three players are tied for second place with 7 points – Parth Patni of Hewlett Packard Enterprises, NM Yi Song of Educational Testing Service, and Shane Brown of DigeTekS Games. There is a large pack of titled and untitled players at 6.5 and 6 points. Most of these leaders will face each other in weeks 5 and 6, so we can look forward to a photo finish.
Live Commentary
IM John Bartholomew had the call this week – replay his commentary here.
Weekly Improvement Seminar
GM Daniel Naroditsky led the Monday lecture this week. Improvement seminars are held every Monday during the league from 8-9pm Eastern.
Special Thanks
A special thanks goes to our sponsors Aimchess and Chessable for supporting additional prizes and promotions for league members.
Note: The NACCL does not spam its members via Linkedin messaging nor do we share personal contact information with any external companies. Should players, companies, or other entities wish to read out to us, please contact us at [email protected]
In week 3 of the North American Corporate Chess League’s season 3, Google joined week 2 co-leader Airbnb at the top of the team standings with 20 points. With half the season’s games in the books, the standings are very close and there is still a lot to play for.
“Checking in” for a week means that you be paired for 2 rapid games played at a time control of 15 minutes + 5 second increment. Players skipping a few rounds will receive up to four half point “byes” for any games they miss throughout the season.
Games
In a pivotal game for Google’s chances, NM James Sun (Google) defeated NM Anna Matlin (Airbnb):
James Sun would go on to defeat FM Igor Tsyganov (DRW Holdings) to move to a perfect 6/6 score.
Ella Papanek (Susquehanna International Group) played a quick, efficient game against Satish Grandhi (Qualcomm).
At the halfway mark, Google and Airbnb lead with 20 points, but with such a competitive league, there are many teams just behind them: SIG and Jump Trading have 19 points, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise rounds out the top five with 18.5 points. The entire team standings can be found here.
Individual Standings
NM James Sun (Google) and Anway De (Jump Trading) lead the way with perfect 6/6 scores. Following closely behind are Parth Patni (HPE), Andy Zhang (Peloton), and Raj Ray Chaudhury (SIG) with 5.5/6. All individual standings can be be found here.
Live Commentary
You can replay FM Peter Giannatos’ live Twitch commentary had the call on week 2 commentary, which can be replayed here.
Weekly Improvement Seminar
IM John Bartholomew covered last week’s seminar as GM Daniel Naroditsky was participating in the US Chess Championship. GM Naroditsky will be returning for the next lecture.
The improvement seminars are held every Monday during the league from 8-9pm Eastern.
Links for the seminar are sent out in the NACCL weekly newsletter.
Weekly Tactics Test
Special Thanks
A special thanks goes to our sponsors Aimchess and Chessable for supporting additional prizes and promotions for league members.
Note: The NACCL does not spam its members via Linkedin messaging nor do we share personal contact information with any external companies. Should players, companies, or other entities wish to read out to us, please contact us at [email protected]
In the second week of the North American Corporate Chess League’s season 3, Airbnb and Deloitte moved to the lead with 14.5 points out of a possible 16. With 460 total players competing this season, the competition is really starting to heat up.
“Checking in” for a week means that you be paired for 2 rapid games played at a time control of 15 minutes + 5 second increment. Players skipping a few rounds will receive up to four half point “byes” for any games they miss throughout the season.
Games
As always, the competition is quite strong, with titled players already facing each other! NM Anna Matlin (Airbnb) defeated IM Kyron Griffith (Lyft) in round 4:
Another important game for both the individual and team standings was the tactical skirmish between Brian Luo (Susquehanna International Group) and Geoffrey Beck (Jane Street Capital):
After four rounds, there are no teams with perfect team scores of 16 points. While Airbnb and Deloitte lead with 14.5 points, there is a large chasing pack just a point behind at 13.5: Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, SIG, and Compass. The full team standings can be found here.
Individual Standings
17 players remain with perfect 4/4 scores in the individual standings, including National Masters Anna Matlin (Airbnb) and James Sun (Google). These perfect scores will continue to be whittled down in future weeks.
Live Commentary
NACCL Director FM Peter Giannatos had the call on week 2 commentary, which can be replayed here.
Weekly Improvement Seminar
IM John Bartholomew covered last week’s seminar and will be covering this weeks as well. GM Daniel Naroditsky will resume the seminars when he gets back from the US Chess Championship.
The improvement seminars are held every Monday during the league from 8-9pm Eastern.
Links for the seminar are sent out in the NACCL weekly newsletter.
Weekly Tactics Test
Special Thanks
A special thanks goes to our sponsors Aimchess and Chessable for supporting additional prizes and promotions for league members.
Note: The NACCL does not spam its members via Linkedin messaging nor do we share personal contact information with any external companies. Should players, companies, or other entities wish to read out to us, please contact us at [email protected]
On Thursday, October 7, North American Corporate Chess League launched season 3, with 454 players and 35 teams. The NACCL, organized by the Charlotte Chess Center on the popular free and open-source chess site, lichess.org, is now a well-established online chess league with hundreds of players and dozens of company teams competing every season. It is the largest seasonal corporate league in terms of numbers of players.
Back for Season 3 are the inaugural winners, Susquehanna International Group, as well as Google, the season 2 champions. Perennial podium-finishing teams Deloitte, Qualcomm, Peloton, and Lyft will seek their first NACCL titles, as well as many new teams including Jane Street Capital and Logicworks.
As much of America returns to working in-person, it is very encouraging to see so many business professionals still representing their companies in serious online chess competition.
To set it apart from other leagues, the NACCL features an inclusive, easy-to-understand, and flexible format. An overwhelming number of the players in the league are casual players – only 13 of the 455 participants are titled players, and there are no Grandmasters in this season. The top four scores from each company comprise a team’s score, so recreational players can compete without the fear that they are “bringing down” their colleagues. There are also individual standings and prizes, plus chess improvement seminars for all participants.
With a simple online check-in process and no downloads, roster submissions, memberships, or powerhouse chess teams from within the industry, the NACCL is very accessible and straightforward, meanwhile emphasizing engagement, team building, and the popularization of chess.
350 of the 455 players checked in for week 1, which consisted of two games of 15+5 (15 minutes plus 5 second increment per move). The top-rated players competing are newly-minted International Master Kyron Griffith (2470) of Lyft and FIDE Master Benjamin Moon (2373) of Deloitte. There was a diverse yet strong player field in rounds 1 and 2, with many titled players representing their companies, many of whom did not get out unscathed.
Games
Battle of the Benjamins
Benjamin Stern, who led his team (Google) to season 2 victory with a strong individual performance, scored an upset win over FM Benjamin Moon (Deloitte) in round 2:
Players of all levels are competing in the NACCL, and with the rapid time control, there are many ups and downs! In round 1, Quintin Degroot (Novetta) and Tyler Nielsen (IBM), both unrated, played a thrilling game:
Team Standings
With two rounds in the books, seven teams scored the maximum 8 points – SIG, Deloitte, Jane Street Capital, Peloton, Qualcomm, Jump Trading, and IBM. Google and Airbnb are just half a point behind with 7.5 points. The top four player scores within each company contribute to the team standings, which can be seen here.
Individual Standings
In addition to team prizes, the league offers individual prizes for the top performers. 70 players move to 2-0 on the individual standings, but with an accelerated pairing system and closer matchups coming up in week 2, the number of perfect scores will be whittled down within a few rounds. Any players who skipped this week earned half point “byes” so as to help their team a bit even if they must miss a week or two. Individual standings can be found here.
Live Commentary
NACCL Director and FIDE Master Peter Giannatos commentated live on week 1’s games, which you can replay here.
Weekly Improvement Seminars
IM John Bartholomew will be covering the Monday NACCL improvement seminar for the next two weeks until GM Daniel Naroditsky gets back from the US Chess Championship.
The improvement seminars are held every Monday during the league from 8-9pm Eastern.
Links for the seminar are sent out in the NACCL weekly newsletter.
Weekly Tactics Test
Special Thanks
A special thanks goes to our sponsors Aimchess and Chessable for supporting prizes for league members.
Note: The NACCL does not spam its members via Linkedin messaging nor do we share personal contact information with any external companies. Should players, companies, or other entities wish to read out to us, please contact us at [email protected]
The sixth and final week of the second season of North American Corporate Chess League featured lots of action, with many decisive games and a strong comeback attempt.
Team Standings
Google was a complete powerhouse this season, with a robust roster of players including four players who earned a strong 9 points out of 12 – Chuanqi Shen (2303), Andrew Latham (2031), Bret Bryan (1981), and Benjamin Stern (2109). The top four scores from each company form the team score, and Google’s score of 36 points was just enough for first place. As a comparison, Susquehanna International Group scored 37 points in season 1, just ahead of runner-up Wells Fargo.
A very valiant comeback was staged by Deloitte, who was neck-and-neck with Google throughout Thursday night, ultimately earning second place, just half a point short of first place. NM Saumil Padhya (9 points), Benjamin Blium (9), Pratik Thorwe (9), and Igor Alfimov (8.5) were Deloitte’s top scorers, earning a team score of 35.5 points.
Defending NACCL champions, Susquehanna International Group, settled for third place in season 2 with 33.5 team points, while Jump Trading (32.5) and Airbnb (32) round out the top 5. The complete team standings, with prizes for the top 10 teams and some special category prizes, can be found here.
Individual Standings
In season 1, the individual standings were dominated by GM Ashwin Jayaram (Wells Fargo), who amassed a perfect 12-0 score. This season was a bit different, with many strong expert and master players taking the lead in the individual standings at different times. In the end, NM Sameer Mujumdar of Ernst & Young finished in first place with 10.5 points.
GM Jayaram led the pack of players of 9.5 on tiebreaks, earning the second-place plaque. Janusz Kudelka (Airbnb) and FM Kyron Griffith (Lyft), also with 9.5 points, finished in third and fourth place.
In a big tie for fifth place were several players, including four Google players and three Deloitte players, and also NM Kevin Bu (Peak 6 Investments), NM Austin Jiang (SIG), NM Nicholas Desmarais (DRW Holdings).
Plaques are awarded to the top 15 players, on tiebreaks when necessary, but also the top 10 players rated under 1700, under 1100, and unrated.
In round 12, NM Sameer Mujumdar (Ernst & Young) played a very important game vs fellow National Master Saumil Padhya (Deloitte). With this victory, Mujumdar not only clinched first place for himself in the individual standings, but cost Deloitte the NACCL season 2 title – if Black had even drawn the game, Deloitte would have eclipsed Google in the final standings.
Google’s top performer on tiebreaks was Chuanqi Shen, a strong player with lichess blitz and bullet ratings over 2600. In the final round, Shen defeated Colin Diamond of Airbnb:
Commentary
The final week was absolutely thrilling. Rewatch the final week commentary with FM Peter Giannatoshere.
Weekly Tactics Test
Special Thanks
A very special thanks goes to New In Chess Magazine for sponsoring a free digital copy of their two most recent editions to all of players in the league.
To GM Daniel Naroditsky for leading our weekly improvement seminars.
And to GM’s Margvelashvili, Charbonneau, and Flores Rios for leading our “Chess and Business” seminars.
Players in the league may go back and rewatch all lecture using the link in the weekly newsletter.
Following the League + Next Season
Congratulations to all the winners! Thank you for an excellent second season of the North American Corporate Chess League. Season 3 will be in the fall of 2021, and we will have plenty of activities during the NACCL off-season!
Note: The NACCL does not spam its members via Linkedin messaging nor do we share personal contact information with any external companies. Should players, companies, or other entities wish to read out to us, please contact us at [email protected]
