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Fusion so far: Rapid and Freestyle Chess

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Fusion: Our innovative event blending Rapid and Freestyle Chess Written by Rock Yu “Fusion” is the name we have given to our series of seven Friday evening events comprising five games of FIDE rapid and a single game of Freestyle (AKA Fischer random/960). On Friday 24th April, we ran our second iteration of the year at our Potters Bar venue just off the M25. The “normal” FIDE rapid element of the first Fusion event, on Friday February 13th (AlphaChess isn’t superstitious), was won by Beni Sisupalan, who was delayed by traffic but won the four games that followed his subsequent first-round bye. He took home first prize cash and the first of the seven trophies. Congratulations to Beni! Beni was third seed for Fusion II and performed respectably but it was CM Lion Lebedev who won the trophy and first prize cash this time in the FIDE rapid. Well done to Lion! After the FIDE rapid, there was a single game of Freestyle Chess, which is a variant with a surprisingly rich history. Although many...
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London Chess Classic: Emirates Team Blitz

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Emirates Team Blitz On Friday 5th December, AlphaChess put together eight teams (for a total of 32 players) competing in the 2025 XTX Markets London Chess Classic Team Blitz at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, a fantastic venue for team chess. How did they do? Two of our teams meeting in a time scramble AlphaChess Marauders got off to a great start, with a 4-0 win, while AlphaChess Plunderers got a fantastic 2-2 draw against a much higher-rated team. Owenians,  First Wednesday, Firestorm and Nefarious Knights all lost while AlphaChess Futures (eight and nine year olds) pulled off a noteworthy draw against AlphaChess Vandals, one of our stronger teams.  AlphaChess Vandals (l) vs AlphaChess Marauders (r) The first round of a Swiss is always difficult for the teams in the lower half and it got better and more evenly matched from then on. Even so, there were some standout moments, including the top board of the Marauders holding a draw against one of England’s top GMs. It was a nine-ro...
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Triathlon: A UK first

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Triathlon: a UK first AlphaChess want to be innovative and bring something new to the UK chess scene so we were hopeful that our vision would gain some traction among players. In August 2025, we launched the country’s first ever FIDE Triathlon. How was it received? We came up with the formula of three standard (two to start Saturday, one on Sunday morning), six rapid (Sunday afternoon) and nine blitz games (Saturday evening), weighted differently to give a maximum total points of 72. Players were divided into two Pools for the standard games but the blitz and rapid were accelerated opens with some forbidden pairings at the beginning to limit multiple games over the weekend between the same players. Eighteen FIDE-rated games over the weekend was a lot. One piece of useful feedback was that we should allow a little more time between games - which we will do. Otherwise, when it was all over, six players had won trophies and everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves. We’ll be running more...
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AlphaChess at the Global Chess League

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AlphaChess at the Global Chess League On Saturday the 5th October 2024, AlphaChess participated in their first ever event. We brought a team of 31 to the Open Blitz run by the Global Chess League, boasting a £1000 prize fund. This is how we did. AlphaChess was delighted to be invited to enter a team in the open event at the Global Chess League, the world’s first official franchise chess league. The first round of the League, which features the biggest names in chess playing in six teams of six, started on Thursday 3rd October at Friends House, Euston. Two days later, our team, made up of 30 chess lovers from the London & Hertfordshire area, competed (in black) against Hammersmith Sharks, Eton College, King’s College London, Warwick Chess Society, She Plays to Win, UK Armed Forces and Durham Alumni in a 3+2 blitz arena on chess.com to reach an OTB final with a cash prize.   The arena tournament is one in which players are paired with other available players from different t...
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