02.23.18 Two tournaments, ten players, and lots of laughs--that was the scene at the Bapst Impromptu Double Header played at John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor on Thursday, February 22, 2018. Ben Mock finished first in the opening six-player tournament and Dan Robbins rose to the top of the subsequent quad. Here's the details.

US Chess crosstable Bapst Impromptu 7

US Chess crosstable Bapst Impromptu 8

Thanks to Michael Dudley for contributing to this report.

Do you geek chess? If so, you may be interested in a question that came up in the second part of this double header: a G/25; d5, dual rated event. Namely, Would a G/1 minute; d29 second time control be considered a dual rated event?

US Chess has three ratable time controls: Regular, Quick and Blitz. Events are regular rated only if the total time for each player is greater than 65 minutes (mm+ss > 65) where mm is the main time control in minutes and ss is the delay in seconds written as minutes. For example, a G/65; d5 time control would be calculated thusly: (65+5=70). The total time for each player is 70 minutes therefore this event would be regular rated only.

There are also situations in which an event would be rated both as a regular and quick event; these events are called dual rated events. For an event to be dual rated, the total time for each player must be greater than 30 minutes but less than 65 minutes inclusive. An important caveat here is that for an event to be regular, duel, or quick rated, the primary time must be at least 5 minutes. For an event to be quick rated only, the total time for each player must be more than 10 minutes but less than 30 minutes and lastly, for an event to be blitz rated, the total time for each player must be from 5 to 10 minutes inclusive and the primary time control must be at least 3 minutes.

Because of the above caveat requiring dual rated events have a minimum primary time control of 5 minutes, the situation of a G/1 minute; d29 second time control would not be dual rated. Nor would that tournament be blitz rated. Recall that the primary time control for a blitz event must be at least 3 minutes.

US Chess does not, at this point, have a bullet-rated time control (that is, a ratable time control with primary time of less than 3 minutes).

So there you have it. If you are still reading this, it's safe to assume that you do, in fact, geek chess!

In the six-player Impromptu #7 event, Ben Mock inched his rating ever so close to 1600 with three wins over Wyatt Hendrix, Mike Dudley, and Kenneth Park to finish with an unbeaten and untied 3.0 points. Hendrix, with 1.5 points, was the only player in sight of Mock. Roger and Lois Morin both put up 1.0 point and Dudley and Park rounded out the crosstable with 0.5 and 0.0 points respectively.

Impromptu #8 turned out to be a quad with Dan Robbins showing his stuff to take first with 2.5 points in three games. Ben Mock did broach 1600 in this event with a win over Nathan Gates and a draw with Robbins. Wyatt Hendrix and Gates finished tied for third with 1.0 point apiece.

Thanks to all who participated and to Michael Dudley for organizing and directing these events.

Bapst Impromptu #7 winner Ben Mock (right) plays Nathan Gates.

Impromptu #8 quad winner Dan Robbins (right) tests his mettle vs Wyatt Hendrix.

The final position of the game Hendrix-Mock in Impromptu #7.

This was the final position after a triple repeat of position draw in the game Robbins-Mock in Impromptu #8.