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]