Thursday evening, the North American Corporate Chess League returned for season 8. With 528 players representing 38 company teams, the NACCL continues to be the largest corporate chess league in the world!
All four 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), and Capital One (Season 7). 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 (PricewaterhouseCoopers), GM Andrey Stukopin (Symetra), GM Vladimir Belous (Symetra), GM Andrew Tang (SIG), IM Irakli Beradze (Symetra), IM Michael Bodek (Lyft), IM Craig Hilby (Capital One), IM Kyron Griffith (Lyft), and IM Ritvars Reimanis (Google A), as well as many FIDE Masters and 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.
397 of the 528 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, no team scored the maximum 12 points! Three teams did score an impressive 11 points out of 12 – Google A, Symetra, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. They are tied for first place after week 1, but there are strong teams just behind them, including Google B (10.5 points), Jane Street (10), Ernst & Young (10), Capital One – A (10), PWC (10), FINRA (10), DoorDash (10), Deloitte (10), Capital One B (10), and Red Ventures (10). This is certainly the most competitive season yet!
Replay your games, your teammates’ games, or any other NACCL games here.
Individual Standings
In addition to team prizes, the NA Corporate Chess League offers individual prizes for the top performers. 32 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.
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
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 Grant Oen a link to the game via lichess. His account is @go2006
Commentary and Lectures
FM Gauri Shankar commentated live on week 1’s games, which you can replay here.
Don’t miss Monday’s lecture with GM Daniel Naroditsky, September 18, 8:00-9:00pm.
Fair Play
Although we only require Zoom for the top 10 boards, there is robust fair play detection at all levels of the league. Do not risk your professional reputation by cheating in the NACCL.
Season 8 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]