It Was Always About the Chess
Club Chess, Largest Bushwick Chess Tournament and Spring's Awakening.
By Micah Jameson
We’re waking up from our three-month winter slumber to a new year full of possibilities on and off the board. Along with Bushwick Chess’ recent 44 player Club Rapid Tournament, our sister clubs are seeing record highs as chess has never been sexier. Let’s take count of last week’s events and make a little room for the Spring Equinox which lands gracefully this week.
Club Chess Is So Back
While the well to do Club Chess has been throwing events, Bushwick Chess players stormed the capital of fashion-meets-chess this weekend for a night of high intensity music and even hotter games of chess. Crammed in the tiny basement of Sangs, with only some ten chess sets in total across the two floors, players pushed into one another for a shot at glory. Bushwick’s players saw the likes of Woman’s Rapid participants Anna Gordon, Sam Sharf and Miriam Kagan dressed to the dimes (not square) while two-time Top Unrated player Taylor Bagley took down many foes, me included. Check out some of the fits that slayed below.
Club Rapid Sees Highest Turnout of 2025
With the spring weather letting up the cool nights, seating is expanding for players on both casual night and tournaments. At last week’s March Club Rapid, 44 players proved the point. At an average rating of 1590 and a top ten average of 1945, the whole house saw upsets galore. 1885 NYCR Gautam Narula drew 2324 FM Juan Pereyra in round 4 with a brilliancy (always take on f7), Chess Forum’s 1495 Ian Goldman-Sanderson bested Top Woman 1877 Najee-Ana Walthrust in round 1 to take home the upset prize and Lichess Bundesliga strongman 1493 Matthew Grimaldi grabbed a win off two-time NYCR Olympiad champ 1804 Nick Marino.
While upsets flew throughout the night, Top Player still went to FM Juan Pereyra with a score of 4.5/5 after two newcomers drew in the final round. Second place and u2000 went to Gautam Narula who also landed 4.5/5 while third place and Top Unrated went to Hoang Huynh with 4.5/5.
1781 NYCR Adi Kumar played a strong tournament as well with 4/5 in seventh place, taking home u1800 while returning player 1579 Massey Cashore scooped up u1600 with 4/5 as well in eighth place. u1400 went to 1257 Aakaash Saraiya who finished with 2/5. See the full results, links to game analyses and rating changes HERE.
Keeping It Casual, But Not at the Marshall
It’s no secret that plenty of Bushwick Chess names show up on the weekly tournaments at Marshall Chess Club, and this week was no exception. Reykjavik Open players representing Bushwick filled the house Thursday for the Weekly Open and Thursday Action tournaments, including Bundesliga Captain George Rodnikoff, fourth place finisher NM Aakaash Meduri, NM Alex Fikiet and a plethora of players all grinding their hearts out.
Speaking of out of the office events, congrats to Bushwick’s best for dominating the field at the Astoria Club Blitz last Wednesday as well! NYCR is open for all tournaments in the city, get yours rated today by contacting at bushwickchess@gmail.com
And that’s it for this week, come by for casual club tonight at Nook 7-11pm and keep up with us on Instagram and Discord. Check out game one of the March Club Rapid below on our Youtube and be sure to subscribe for daily games from recent club nights. Much love chess players, see you over the board soon!