Category: Season 9

Overview

In championship week of the North American Corporate Chess League’s season 9, Symetra held onto their sturdy lead to secure their second consecutive title.  Former NACCL champions Capital One, Deloitte, Google, and the Susquehanna International Group also competed this year.

Symetra tied their own record from last season, achieving 57.5 team points.  They were bolstered by four very strong titled players: GM Andrey Stukopin, GM Vladimir Belous, IM Yannick Kambrath, and IM Irakli Beradze.

In second place was Jane Street, and Google finished in third place.  Rounding out the top 5 are PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young.
Plaques are awarded to the top 10 teams (including those tied for 10^th place), as well as the top two small companies (Major League Rugby and Arthur AI).  The full team standings and awards can be seen here.

Individual Standings

Symetra also dominated the individual standings, taking the top 3 spots (IM Irakli Beradze – 16 points, GM Andrey Stukopin – 15 points, GM Vladimir Belous – 14 points).  In a tie for fourth place were GM Andrey Baryshpolets (PwC) and FM David Peng (Jane Street).

Plaques are engraved and mailed to the top 15 players overall, as well as top 3 in each rating category: Expert, Class A, Class B, Class C, Class D, Class E, Under 1000, and Unrated.  Here are the top players in each rating category:

Game Analysis

IM Kyron Griffith (Lyft) annotates 4 games every week.

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

Commentary and Lectures

FM Peter Giannatos had the call on week 6 commentary, which can be replayed here.

Season 9 Partners

Season 10

Season 10 promises to be even bigger and better. We plan on mixing up the format a bit to make the finals more exciting. Stay tuned for season 10 coming up in Fall 2024.

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]

Overview

After five weeks of the North American Corporate Chess League’s eighth season, Symetra maintains a sturdy lead in an otherwise competitive league leaderboard.

With 48.5 team points, Symetra leads ahead of second place – Jane Street with 43 points.  In third place are previous champions Google (42 points), while PricewaterhouseCoopers (41.5) and Ernst & Young (40) round out the top 5.

Symetra will vie for its second consecutive title, while PwC and Jane Street can all become brand NACCL champions.  Other previous NACCL champions include Google, Deloitte, Capital One, and the Susquehanna International Group.

Check out the full team standings here.  The top four scores for each company make up the team score.

Individual Standings

At the sole lead of the individual standings is IM Irakli Beradze of Symetra with 14.5 points out of 15, just taking one bye on Thursday night but emerging victorious from his other games.In second place is GM Andrey Stukopin (Symetra) with 12.5 points, while GM Andrey Baryshpolets (PwC) and FM David Peng (Jane Street) are in third place with 11.5 points

Game Analysis

IM Kyron Griffith (Lyft) annotates 4 games every week.

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

Commentary and Lectures

FM Gauri Shankar commentated live, which you can replay here. Don’t miss our final weekly improvement seminar with GM Ashwin Jayaram’s Monday at 8:00pm Eastern!

Season 9 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]

Overview

Week 4 of the North American Corporate Chess League’s Season 9 is in the books, with Symetra (41.5 points) maintaining a solid lead over Jane Street (36), Ernst & Young (35), Google (33.5), PricewaterhouseCoopers (32.5), and many other strong teams in the team standings.

Symetra’s lead is not insurmountable, but they are certainly the team to beat in the final 2 weeks.

Individual Standings

In the individual standings, IM Irakli Beradze of Symetra maintained his winning ways, blazing to a perfect 12/12 score.  GM Andrey Stukopin (11 points) is in second place, followed by GM Vladimir Belous (Symetra) and Saikat Nath (EY) at 10 points.  In fifth place by himself is NM Matias Shundi (Jane Street) with 9.5 points.

Game Analysis

IM Kyron Griffith (Lyft) annotates 4 games every week.

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

League Puzzles

SEE PUZZLES FROM WEEK 4 HERE

Play a nice tactic in the league? Send it to Grant Oen @go2006

Commentary and Lectures

FM Gauri Shankar commentated live, which you can replay here. Don’t miss GM Daniel Naroditsky’s Monday Chess Improvement lecture at 8:00pm Eastern!

Season 9 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]

Overview

At the halfway mark of the North American Corporate Chess League’s ninth season, Symetra stands atop the leaderboard at an impressive 31.5 points.  This is an amazing score, bolstered by four very strong players on the Symetra team: GM Andrey Stukopin, GM Vladimir Belous, IM Irakli Beradze, and IM Yannick Kambrath.

The star of the show is IM Beradze, who was the only player to start Thursday with a 6-0 score, and he was able to maintain perfection with wins over IM Kyron Griffith (Lyft), GM Andrey Baryshpolets (PricewaterhouseCooper), and NM Matias Shundi (Jane Street).  With a 9/9 score and having already faced many of the titled players in the league, Beradze seems to be an unstoppable force for Symetra.

Many other top companies are by no means out of the race for first place.  There are many other strong players competing in season 9, who will be certain to make their presence remembered in the second half of the season.In second place is Jane Street, with 27.5 points.  With multiple titled players on their team, they will be the ones to watch to catch up to first place.  Tied for third place are Ernst & Young and PwC with 26 points, while Google rounds out the top 5 with 25 points.  The full team standings at “half time” can be seen here.

Individual Standings

In the individual standings, besides the aforementioned incredible performance by Irakli Beradze, GM Andrey Stukopin (Symetra) maintains an excellent score of 8.5/9, good for second place, while Saikat Nath (EY) is by himself in third place at 8 points.  There are many players with great performances just behind on 7.5 and 7 points.

With so much to play for in the final three weeks, we expect the NACCL to continue producing very high-level games and results!

Replay your games, your teammates’ games, or any other NACCL games here.

Game Analysis

IM Kyron Griffith (Lyft) annotates 4 games every week.

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

League Puzzles

Play a nice tactic in the league? Send it to Grant Oen @go2006

Commentary and Lectures

FM Gauri Shankar commentated live, which you can replay here. Don’t miss GM Ashwin Jayaram’s Monday Chess Improvement lecture at 8:00pm Eastern!

Season 9 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]

Overview

After week 2 of the North American Corporate Chess League’s eighth season, Symetra established an early lead.  The defending champions, Symetra is led by four very strong players who represent the Washington-based insurance subsidiary: GM Andrey Stukopin, GM Vladimir Belous, IM Irakli Beradze, and IM Yannick Kambrath.  With 22 points already, Symetra will surely be the team to beat in the final four weeks.

In second place with 19 points are Jane Street, a recent powerhouse team led by FM Jacob Furfine, FM David Peng, NM Christopher Yang, and NM Matias Shundi.  As Jane Street have never won an NACCL title, with tough matchups ahead, there is plenty of hope for the strong aspirers.

Also with 19 points are previous champions Google, topped by strong performances by Ravi Khanna and Thanga Manickam.  In a tie for 4^th place with 18.5 points are three teams who are chasing their first NACCL title: Jump Trading, DRW Holdings, and Lyft.  Many other strong teams round out the top ten – see the current team standings here.

The NACCL’s format gathers the top four individual scores within a company’s team to form the team score.  Accelerated pairings are used in the early rounds to promote close game matchups.

Individual Standings

In the individual standings, just one player is off to a perfect score of 6/6 – Symetra’s Irakli Beradze, but the cadre of strong titled players with 5.5 and 5 points is no less impressive.    In addition to team prizes, there are plenty of individual prizes to play for in every season of the NACCL, including rating-based prizes which allow players of any skill level to win a plaque!

Replay your games, your teammates’ games, or any other NACCL games here.

Game Analysis

IM Kyron Griffith (Lyft) annotates 4 games every week.

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

Commentary and Lectures

FM Gauri Shankar commentated live, which you can replay here. Don’t miss GM Daniel Naroditsky’s Monday Chess Improvement lecture at 8:00pm Eastern!

Season 9 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]

Overview

Thursday evening, the North American Corporate Chess League returned for season 9.  With 450+ players representing 34 company teams, the NACCL continues to be the largest corporate chess league in the world!

All five previous NACCL champions have returned to seek another title: Susquehanna International Group (SIG) (Season 1 Champions), Google (Seasons 2, 3, and 5), Deloitte (Season 4), Capital One (Season 7), and Symetra (Season 8).  As with every season, there are many new teams and hundreds of new players.

The league features an inclusive and easy-to-understand format.  An overwhelming number of the players in the league are casual hobbyists, but they are joined by a strong internationally titled players who have a professional job: GM Andrey Baryshpolets (PwC), GM Andrey Stukopin (Symetra), GM Vladimir Belous (Symetra), GM Andrew Tang (SIG), IM Irakli Beradze (Symetra), IM Michael Bodek (Lyft), IM Yannick Kambrath (Symetra) IM Craig Hilby (Capital One), IM Kyron Griffith (Lyft), FM Jacob Furfine (Jane Street Capital), FM David Peng (Jane Street Capital), FM Andrey Krasnov (Jump Trading), FM Igor Tsyganov (DRW Holdings) as well as many National Masters.

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.

322 players played at least 1 game this week.  As is the nature of rapid games (10 minutes plus 2 second increment), there were a few upsets up and down the crosstable.  Many strong players did not get through 3 rounds unscathed.

Team Standings

In the team standings, just 2 teams scored the maximum 12 points – defending champions Symetra, as well as Lyft, who are yet to clinch a coveted NACCL title.  Two other yet unheralded teams scored an impressive 11 points out of 12 – Jane Street Capital and DRW Holdings, who are tied for third place.  After week 1, rounding out the top 10 teams are Ernst & Young (10 points), Accenture Federal Services (10), Jump Trading (10), Google (9.5), PwC (9.5), and Capital One (9.5).

Individual Standings

In addition to team prizes, the NA Corporate Chess League offers individual prizes for the top performers.  27 players move to 3-0 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 few weeks.

Replay your games, your teammates’ games, or any other NACCL games here.

Game Analysis

IM Kyron Griffith (Lyft) annotates 4 games every week.

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

Commentary and Lectures

FM Gauri Shankar commentated live, which you can replay here. GM Ashwin Jayaram gave the weekly improvement lecture on Monday!

Season 9 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]