Category: NACCL News

Championship week of the North American Corporate Chess League’s season 5 featured top level action, with many leadership changes and exciting games through the final two rounds of play.

Team Standings

The second half of season 5 featured a competitive “rivalry” between Google and the Susquehanna International Group (SIG).  With strong teams such as FINRA, Nvidia, DRW Holdings, Milliman, Qualcomm, and many others close on their heels, every single game would matter in this championship week.

In the end, just as in season 3, Google won in a thrilling final, scoring 36.5 team points.  Close behind were SIG at 34.5 points, and Nvidia took the bronze with 33.5 points.  The full team standings and prizewinners can be found here.

Google had a well-balanced team with strong performances by:

• Arunava Bhattacharjee – 9.5 points
• Yash Shah, Ravi Khanna, Thomas Hoekman – 9 points

SIG’s second place squad were bolstered by:

• GM Andrew Tang – 11 points
• Cory Reigelhaupt and Peter Williamson – 8.5 points
• Bryce Streeper and Aranav Baid – 7.5 points

Briefly in title contention but settling for a very solid third place are Nvidia, who were led by:

• Michael Lu – 9 points
• Anil Gahlot – 8.5 points
• Matthew Mendell and Rahul Malayappan – 8 points

Plaques are awarded to the top 10 teams, in addition to the top IT Company (Google), top Financial Services Company (SIG), 1st and 2nd Small Company (Neuroastronomy and Arthur AI), and Top Law Company (Sullivan & Cromwell).

There were many teams in contention for the NACCL title, but congratulations to Google, the first repeat champions!

Individual Standings

The individual standings were much of a one man show, with GM Andrew Tang (SIG) scoring a perfect 10/10, plus one skipped round (earning two byes) for a total score of 11 points out of 12.  Tied for second place at 9.5 points are Arunava Bhattacharjee of Google and NM Kevin Bu of Peak6 Investments.

Overall, there were awards for the top 15 players overall, plus the top 10 rated under 1700, top 10 under 1100, and top 10 unrated.  Each of these prizewinners will earn a plaque.

Kyron’s Corner

IM Kyron Griffith (Lyft) annotates 4 games each week of the NACCL. See those games with his comments below:

If you feel as though you played an interesting game. Please feel free to send Kyron a link to the game via lichess. His account is @kyrongriffith

Peter’s Puzzlers

FM Peter Giannatos provides puzzles from games played in the NACCL. These are great tactical warmups and you never know when your game will appear here!

If you had an interesting tactic in your game. Please feel free to send Peter a link to the game via lichess. His account is @Giannatos

Commentary and Lectures

NACCL Director FM Peter Giannatos had the call on the final week, which can be replayed here.  A special thanks to GM Daniel Naroditsky who conducted live, weekly, improvement seminars for participants in the league.

Thank You!

Thank you to our sponsors, staff, and partners, and congratulations to all the winners!  See you for season 6, beginning in November 2022!

Follow the League

Keep up with updates via this blog, our LinkedIn group, and Facebook page.

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 5 weeks (10 rounds) of the North American Corporate Chess League’s fifth season, longtime frontrunners Google and the Susquehanna International Group (SIG) are tied at the top of the leaderboard with 29.5 points.  However, many teams are right behind them, most notably:

• Tied for 3^rd Place: FINRA – 28 points
• Tied for 3^rd Place: Nvidia – 28 points
• Tied for 5^th Place: DRW Holdings – 27.5 points
• Tied for 5^th Place: Milliman – 27.5 points
• Tied for 5^th Place: Qualcomm Inc. – 27.5 points
• 8^th Place: Accenture Federal Services – 27 points
• Tied for 9^th Place: Hewlett Packard Enterprise – 26.5 points
• Tied for 9^th Place: Peak6 Investments – 26.5 points

None of the teams ranked in 3rd through 10th place have ever taken down a NACCL title, and undoubtedly that will be the goal for these strong players and teams in week 6.

With each of the top 4 individual scorers on a team forming that company’s team score, lead changes and surprise winners will be the name of the game in the final championship week.  A few close games can affect the entire leaderboard in the final two weeks!  Check out the full team standings here.

Individual Standings

At the sole lead of the individual standings is GM Andrew Tang (rated 2605) of SIG with 9 points out of 10 – his only “blemishes” are two skipped rounds (half-point byes).  Putting up a strong performance to put himself in clear second place after 10 rounds is Max Berube (1986) of Milliman who has 8.5 points out of 10.  Rounding out the top 5 with 8/10 points are Srinath Gnanassegerane (HPE), Tristan Gruska (Palantir), and NM Francisco Guadalupe (Anduril).

With many team and individual prizes and such tight competition, there is everything to play for in the final week!

Special Announcement

The NACCL and the Charlotte Chess Center’s free Qualifier tournaments to the 2022 Fischer Random World Championship continue on lichess for several more days – check out CCC News Article and Lichess Announcement (updated).

Kyron’s Corner

IM Kyron Griffith (Lyft) annotates 4 games each week of the NACCL. See those games with his comments below:

If you feel as though you played an interesting game. Please feel free to send Kyron a link to the game via lichess. His account is @kyrongriffith

Peter’s Puzzlers

FM Peter Giannatos provides puzzles from games played in the NACCL. These are great tactical warmups and you never know when your game will appear here!

If you had an interesting tactic in your game. Please feel free to send Peter a link to the game via lichess. His account is @Giannatos

Commentary and Lectures

NACCL Director FM Peter Giannatos had the call on week 5 commentary, which can be replayed here.  Each Monday is our weekly improvement seminar with GM Daniel Naroditsky.

Season 5 Partners

Follow the League

Keep up with updates via this blog, our LinkedIn group, and Facebook page.

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 week 4 of the North American Corporate Chess League’s season 5, Google and the Susquehanna International Group (SIG) are tied for the lead. 

While GM Andrew Tang of SIG was not able to join for this week’s games, he (as well as all other players who have not exceeded 3 skipped weeks) will receive two “byes,” good for half a point each.  Thus, Google (25 points) was able to make up some ground at the top of the team standings, as Teddy Katz (6.5 points), Felipe Mira (6.5), Ravi Khanna (6.0), and Benjamin Stern (6.0), are the top four contributors to the team score.

SIG’s squad also sits at 25 points, with Andrew Tang sitting at 7 points, along with Nalin Khanna, Bryce Streeper, and Aranav Baid each at 6 points.  Just behind these two NACCL powerhouses are Nvidia, a new team to the league.  Despite not having any titled players, the Nvidia team are playing inspired chess, as they are led by Anil Gahlot (7.0), Matthew Mendell (6.5), Michael Lu (6.0), and Abhishek Dutta (5.0).

FINRA (23.5 points) are in 4th place, while DRW Holdings rounds out the top 5 at 23 points.  The full team standings can be found here.

Individual Standings

In the individual standings, GM Andrew Tang (SIG), Tyler Geonetta (Airbnb), and Anil Gahlot (Nvidia) top the leaderboard at 7 points out of a possible 8.  They are closely followed by a pack of 8 players at 6.5 points, including FIDE Master Andrey Krasnov (Jump Trading) and National Master Andrew Lu (DRW Holdings).

Although each player and team will be playing to win in the final two weeks, there is always an extensive prize list in the North American Corporate Chess League.  For the team prizes, custom plaques are awarded to the top 10 overall teams, as well as the top 2 small companies (under 50 employees), top financial service company, top IT company, and top law company.  For the individual prizes, custom plaques are awarded to the top 15 overall finishers, as well as the top 10 players rated under 1700, top 10 players under 1100, and top 10 unrated players.

Special Announcement

The NACCL and the Charlotte Chess Center’s free Qualifier tournaments to the 2022 Fischer Random World Championship continue on lichess for several more days – check out CCC News Article and Lichess Announcement (updated).

Kyron’s Corner

IM Kyron Griffith (Lyft) annotates 4 games each week of the NACCL. See those games with his comments below:

If you feel as though you played an interesting game. Please feel free to send Kyron a link to the game via lichess. His account is @kyrongriffith

Peter’s Puzzlers

FM Peter Giannatos provides puzzles from games played in the NACCL. These are great tactical warmups and you never know when your game will appear here!

If you had an interesting tactic in your game. Please feel free to send Peter a link to the game via lichess. His account is @Giannatos

Commentary and Lectures

NACCL Director FM Peter Giannatos had the call on week 3 commentary, which can be replayed here.  Each Monday is our weekly improvement seminar with GM Daniel Naroditsky.

Season 5 Partners

Follow the League

Keep up with updates via this blog, our LinkedIn group, and Facebook page.

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]

At the halfway mark of the North American Corporate Chess League’s season 5, the Susquehanna International Group (SIG) overtook Google’s early lead. 

While SIG is a familiar team in the NACCL, especially as the Season 1 Champions, their intern GM Andrew Tang has set a blazing pace at 6/6.  Tang, a popular streamer and very talented blitz and bullet specialist rated near 2600 USCF, is the only player to have a perfect score.  He is joined by his colleagues Nalin Khanna (5 points), Aranav Baid (5), and Peter Williamson (4.5). 

In a tie for third place at 19 points are DRW Holdings led by Paul Mannino and Max Rans with 5 points, and Season 4 Champions Deloitte, who have Benjamin Blium (5.5), Rozi Amin (5), and Dipan Saha (4.5) as their top scorers.  Nvidia rounds out the top 5 with 18.5 points.  The full team standings can be found here.

Individual Standings

In the individual standings, besides GM Andrew Tang at 6 points, FM Andrey Krasnov (Jump Trading) and Benjamin Blium (Deloitte) have 5.5 points, trailed by a large pack of players at 5 points.  GM Praveen Balakrishnan (Citadel Securities) and IM Kyron Griffith (Lyft), who were not able to play this week, top the players in the 4.5 score group.

Special Announcement

Just announced this week, the NACCL and the Charlotte Chess Center will sponsor several free Lichess Qualifier tournaments to the 2022 Fischer Random World Championship!  Check out CCC News Article and Lichess Announcement.

Kyron’s Corner

IM Kyron Griffith (Lyft) annotates 4 games each week of the NACCL. See those games with his comments below:

If you feel as though you played an interesting game. Please feel free to send Kyron a link to the game via lichess. His account is @kyrongriffith

Peter’s Puzzlers

FM Peter Giannatos provides puzzles from games played in the NACCL. These are great tactical warmups and you never know when your game will appear here!

Warning: difficult puzzles this week

If you had an interesting tactic in your game. Please feel free to send Peter a link to the game via lichess. His account is @Giannatos

Commentary and Lectures

NACCL Director FM Peter Giannatos had the call on week 3 commentary, which can be replayed here.  Each Monday is our weekly improvement seminar with GM Daniel Naroditsky.

Season 5 Partners

Follow the League

Keep up with updates via this blog, our LinkedIn group, and Facebook page.

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 5, Google overtook the sole lead with 16 points out of 16.  Google is a familiar face to long-time NACCL fans and players, as they were the Season 2 and Season 3 Champions.

“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 half point “byes” for up to 4 games they miss throughout the season.

What sets the NACCL apart from other leagues is that all players must actually work for their company, so there are no professional chess players.  However, the competition is always quite strong, with many titled players (Grandmasters, International Masters, FIDE Masters, and National Masters) at the top of the list.

Team Standings

After four rounds, only Google remains at a perfect team score of 16 points.  The top 4 players per company form the team score, and Deloitte’s NM Abhay Tamilselvan, Teddy Katz, Aseem Agrawal,and Anton Bobkov each started off with a perfect 4-0.

Newcomers to the league are Nvidia, who are the surprise second place team after two weeks, with a strong score of 14 points out of 16.  Their team is bolstered by Anil Gahlot (4 points), Matthew Mendell (points), and several players at 3 points.

In third place are traditional powerhouse and Season 1 Champions, Susquehanna International Group (SIG), with 13.5 points, led in no surprise by GM Andrew Tang (4 points), but also class players Aranav Baid (3.5), Jerrod Ankenman (3), Peter Williamson (3), Ross Berkowitz (3), and Nalin Khanna (3).

Tied with SIG at 13.5 points are Season 4 Champions in Deloitte, with Arun Iyer at a perfect 4 points and Benjamin Blium at 3.5, plus several players at 3 points.

In a large tie for 5th-8th place at 13 points are Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Raymond James Financial, Inc., FINRA, and DRW Holdings, while Accenture Federal Services (9th place, 12.5 points) and Qualcomm (10th place, 12 points) round out the top 10 in the team standings.

Individual Standings

In the very important individual standings, 14 players remain at a perfect 4/4 score, including the aforementioned GM Andrew Tang (SIG) and NM Abhay Tamilselvan, but also many lower rated and even unrated players.  GM Praveen Balakrishnan of Citadel Securities leads a pack of 7 players at 3.5 points, which also includes IM Kyron Griffith (Lyft), who will analyze several games each week as part of Kyron’s Corner!

Kyron’s Corner

IM Kyron Griffith (Lyft) annotates 4 games each week of the NACCL. See those games with his comments below:

If you feel as though you played an interesting game. Please feel free to send Kyron a link to the game via lichess. His account is @kyrongriffith

Peter’s Puzzlers

FM Peter Giannatos provides puzzles from games played in the NACCL. These are great tactical warmups and you never know when your game will appear here!

If you had an interesting tactic in your game. Please feel free to send Peter a link to the game via lichess. His account is @Giannatos

Commentary and Lectures

NACCL Director FM Peter Giannatos had the call on week 2 commentary, which can be replayed here.  Each Monday is our weekly improvement seminar with GM Daniel Naroditsky which is free for all NACCL participants and is well-received by players of all levels.

Season 5 Partners

Follow the League

Keep up with updates via this blog, our LinkedIn group, and Facebook page.

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]

Team Standings

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.

Follow the League

Keep up with updates via this blog, our LinkedIn group, and Facebook page.

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.

Follow the League

Keep up with updates via this blog, our LinkedIn group, and Facebook page.

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]