The NACCL Playoff Chase Intensifies: Week 4 Recap!
There are only two weeks remaining in the North American Corporate Chess League's regular season, and the playoff-caliber teams are finally beginning to distance themselves from the rest of the pack. Jane Street and Capital One have been battling for the top spot throughout the season, with the former taking a one point lead into week five. Only JPMorgan Chase is within striking distance of that duo, while the next ten(!) teams in the standings are all within two points of the playoff line. This should make for high drama down the stretch as teams compete to clinch their spots in the eight-team knockout playoff, scheduled for May 28.
The North American Corporate Chess League is a blended individual/team chess league, held right here on chess.com, for members of NA-based companies. Players represent their organization within a big open section, and try to score as many points as possible for their teams throughout the regular season. To compute a team's standing, the scores of its top four players are added up, with scores outside the top four contributing as potential tiebreakers. For further details about the rules of the NACCL, see the format page on the league website.
Jane Street's resurgence into first place is no shock, as the team boasts perhaps the most stacked lineup in the league. In past seasons, FM Jacob Furfine was Jane Street's headliner, but as of this writing, his score doesn't even contribute to the team's 37 points, as he ranks outside the top four. That in and of itself is a testament to Jane Street's depth, with FM David Peng, NM Christopher Yang, NM Matias Shundi, and Max Vaysburd all on 8.5 points or higher.
FM Peng posted a 2.5/3 score last Thursday to tie IM Craig Hilby for first in the individual standings, while NM Yang won all three of his games to ascend to third. Facing Philip Yu of Capital One, Yang unleashed a tremendous sacrifice:
Capital One is still very much in contention for the first seed, as the two teams have been flip-flopping near the top of the standings over the past few weeks. The above game helped give Jane Street the lead for now, but the race is still tight for the top spot, with both teams seemingly assured a playoff spot at this point in the season.
The aforementioned IM Hilby did cede a draw this week to Anduril's NM Francisco Guadalupe, but can count his lucky stars that he even survived at all! In a chaotic endgame, black narrowly held the draw down a piece:
While Capital One has relied primarily on IM Hilby and NM Handigol at the top of the lineup, third-place JPMorgan Chase may be the only other team in the NACCL with the depth to compete with Jane Street. We probably still haven't seen the best yet of IM Edward Song, who is overdue for better pairing luck after facing (and drawing) both of the top two players in the standings this past week. Meanwhile, NM Asuka Nakamura, FM Alex Bian, and FM Maggie Feng each have at least 9.5 points, giving JPMorgan Chase an outside shot of jumping to the top seed as well.
A storyline from last week was whether Neuroflow's NM Kevin Carl would be able to continue his excellent performance against tougher competition, as he now ranks just behind IM Hilby, FM Peng, and NM Yang individually. While he did lose a tough game vs Peng, he mostly held serve, including a win against NM Abhishek Handigol of Capital One:
Another story this past week was GM Parimarjan Negi, who missed most of the first two weeks but is back to his winning ways. Representing Databricks, Negi has scored six victories in a row, occasionally producing flashy sacrifices like this one:
As it stands right now, Jane Street, Capital One, and JPMorgan Chase are the only three teams that can be very confident in making the playoffs this season. The remaining five teams above the playoff line are Google, Databricks, Meta, DRW, and Susquehanna, but these teams are all within two points of being out. Just outside the top eight are PWC, Finra, Goldman Sachs, and Anduril, all within one point of the playoff line according to the latest team standings.
The "last team in" if the playoffs started today would be Susquehanna, who coincidentally was also the lowest-seeded team to make the playoffs last year. Susquehanna does not have any titled players in the lineup, but has received contributions from Andy Wu, who went 2.5/3 this week. That included this victory against Ashwin Agnihotri:
The playoff races are tightening, as there are only two weeks left in the regular season. Be sure to check in next week for more updates on the North American Corporate Chess League!
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NM Dennis Norman
Chess Coach - Club Journalist
