Week Three League News!

We're down to the final week of the Fall Chess League, and we have Mario Homer in the lead with 3/3 points, and Jason Barton close behind with 2.5/3 points after round three.

Current Standings:

Link to full league details: 2025 CCC Fall Chess League

This week is the last round of this league's tournament. The final standings depend on the game at board one, between CCC Summer League first-place winner Mario Homer and CCC Summer League third-place winner Jason Barton! The result of their game will affect the possibilities of the winner at board two, either the late entrant Anthony Thompson or Lenden Rhodes.

If Mario wins, he'll guarantee himself first place with a perfect 4/4 points, leaving Jason in contention for second place. Second place will then need to be decided by the game between Anthony Thompson and Lenden Rhodes. 

If Jason wins, he'll guarantee himself first place with 3.5/4 points. This will drop Mario to second with 3/4 points, requiring Lenden to win their game against Anthony Thompson to split second place with Mario Homer.

Week three had some wild games. At board three, Anthony Rhodes goes for a risky fork on a king and rook, rather than a free bishop. Drew Peck allowed some tactics, but finds some of his own and makes a comeback. Unfortunately, Drew’s time ran out and the forced mate wasn’t found at the board, giving Anthony the win.

At board two, Trey Opp opens by grabbing space and trades his bishop for a knight early in the game. Lenden Rhodes was able to use their bishop pair advantage after breaking white’s pawns down to three pawn islands, then control of the open files/diagonals to gain an advantage to win.

And at board one, Mario Homer wins an early pawn but allows Yuun Kim to win it back and build a queenside attack. Mario gets aggressive and tries to open up the kingside and does so after Yuun trades off the queens to possibly fight off the attack, but this allows white to open up the black kingside and finish with a mate in two.