By now, it’s practically a tradition: every year, we host a Christmas tournament. But this year, on December 4th in HG E41, there was a twist—a new time control of 3+2! How would this shake things up? Well, 38 players were about to find out.
Now, normally, I’d take you through a dramatic account of the tournament—round by round, game by game, full of tension and triumph. But today? I’m not feeling it. Let’s blame the lack of creative energy on all those prize chocolates I didn’t eat. Instead, I’ll give you something that’s a bit easier for me to talk about: what’s it like to organize one of these events? Spoiler alert: there’s a surprising amount of cardio involved.
The Morning Marathon
My day started with a trip to the Migros at HB to stock up on snacks and drinks. It’s Christmas, so naturally, I aimed for Christmas prizes—only to discover Migros had a serious Christmas chocolate shortage. Okay, so let’s improvise. I grabbed some Lindt chocolates for the main prize instead, which, honestly, probably worked out better.
Next, I hauled a modest 12 kilos of snacks and drinks up to my office in CAB. Carrying all that food up the stairs at 9 a.m. had me rethinking my life choices, cursing Kasparov for saying that chess isn’t a sport. Snacks secured, the only prep left was starting up the pairing software, entering player registrations, and monitoring my inbox for last-minute cancellations.
The Pre-Tournament Workout
Fast forward to 5:30 p.m.: time to fetch the boards from the G-floor of the main building. And of course: the elevator was broken. So, what does an organizer do? Strap in for some impromptu weightlifting—40 kilos of boards, snacks, and drinks down the stairs. It’s moments like these that really drive home Kasparov’s point.
By 6:00 p.m., people started showing up. Thankfully, they’re helpful types, so setting up the boards became a team effort.
The Actual Tournament: Low-Stress, High Stakes
Here’s the thing about organizing chess events: it’s pretty chill. People know the drill. The software practically runs itself. My main job? Looking busy while occasionally chatting, answering questions, and memorizing names so regulars can just say “I won” instead of giving me the full board-and-color breakdown (it’s part of the job).
During the games, I had time to spectate a bit. Anton was absolutely on fire today, scoring a perfect 7/7. A guest even called his play “like a GM,” which was a nice touch. As I always do to keep myself busy, I rooted for the underdogs at the top boards—but the underdogs seemed a bit cursed today: the favorites knew what they came for, winning.
The Wrap-Up
Once the games were done, I had to say a few words, hand out the prizes, and clean up. Chess tournaments don’t leave much of a mess (thankfully), so that part was quick. But then came the dreaded task of carrying everything back up to the G floor. (Why did I forget about the broken elevator?!)
Organizing these tournaments isn’t much work in the grand scheme of things—buy snacks, set up software, shuffle some tables, and look like you’re doing something important. But people genuinely appreciate it, and that’s what makes it worth it. It’s hands-down the best benefit-to-effort ratio of any volunteering gig I’ve ever had.
And that’s it! No dramatic play-by-play this time—just a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into running the event. Scroll down for the final rankings and a few pictures I snapped during those rare moments when I remembered I was supposed to be doing something productive.
| Rank | Name | Rating | Score | BH | BH-C1 | Performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anton Hul | 2208 | 7.0 | 33.0 | 29.0 | 2369 |
| 2 | Subramanian Ramasubramanian | 2075 | 6.0 | 25.5 | 25.5 | 2111 |
| 3 | Max Baharev | 1936 | 5.0 | 29.5 | 26.5 | 1936 |
| 4 | Fabian Fong Schmid | 1884 | 5.0 | 27.5 | 25.0 | 1989 |
| 5 | Philip Olson | 1883 | 5.0 | 24.5 | 23.0 | 1853 |
| 6 | Federico Guglielmotti | 1708 | 5.0 | 22.0 | 20.5 | 1819 |
| 7 | Yven Kius | 1990 | 4.5 | 36.0 | 32.0 | 2037 |
| 8 | Marco Pastore | 2020 | 4.5 | 32.5 | 29.5 | 2020 |
| 9 | Yun Pan | 2027 | 4.5 | 27.5 | 24.5 | 1866 |
| 10 | Max Newsome | 2072 | 4.5 | 27.0 | 24.0 | 1883 |
| 11 | Florian Stäuble | 1854 | 4.0 | 30.0 | 28.0 | 1854 |
| 12 | Menderes eroğlu | 1825 | 4.0 | 30.0 | 28.0 | 1795 |
| 13 | Mark Shen | 1708 | 4.0 | 29.0 | 26.0 | 1823 |
| 14 | Marcus Imris | 1790 | 4.0 | 25.5 | 23.5 | 1719 |
| 15 | Fabio Rentsch | 1668 | 4.0 | 25.5 | 23.0 | 1690 |
| 16 | Krithik Chockalingam | 1725 | 4.0 | 24.0 | 22.5 | 1725 |
| 17 | David Oort ALonso | 1557 | 4.0 | 22.5 | 20.5 | 1737 |
| 18 | Michael Schröder | 1652 | 3.5 | 25.5 | 23.5 | 1652 |
| 19 | Lorenzo Benedetti | 1484 | 3.5 | 17.5 | 16.0 | 1484 |
| 20 | Zoran Dragnic | 1528 | 3.0 | 26.5 | 23.5 | 1495 |
| 21 | Malik Ibrahim Awad | 1497 | 3.0 | 26.0 | 24.0 | 1592 |
| 22 | Asaf Amitai | 1572 | 3.0 | 26.0 | 23.0 | 1602 |
| 23 | Dorian Quelle | 1822 | 3.0 | 25.5 | 23.5 | 1565 |
| 24 | Chris Hartl | 1535 | 3.0 | 25.0 | 23.0 | 1535 |
| 25 | Stefano Rossi | 1528 | 3.0 | 24.5 | 22.5 | 1573 |
| 26 | Oliver Eggenberger | 1529 | 3.0 | 24.0 | 22.0 | 1529 |
| 27 | Tetsu Guadagni | 1494 | 3.0 | 23.5 | 22.0 | 1494 |
| 28 | Noah Meyer | 1541 | 3.0 | 22.5 | 19.5 | 1604 |
| 29 | Martin Soldani | 1438 | 3.0 | 18.0 | 18.0 | 1433 |
| 30 | Neryvaldo Galvao | 1352 | 3.0 | 17.5 | 17.5 | 1324 |
| 31 | Benedict Himp | 1457 | 2.0 | 25.5 | 23.5 | 1457 |
| 32 | Noé Stammbach | 1216 | 2.0 | 21.5 | 19.5 | 1256 |
| 33 | Onno Riedel | 1560 | 2.0 | 21.0 | 19.5 | 1223 |
| 34 | Tom Claikens | 1094 | 2.0 | 20.5 | 20.5 | 1094 |
| 35 | Emilio Grandinetti | 1556 | 2.0 | 18.0 | 18.0 | 1248 |
| 36 | Florian Landis | 1207 | 2.0 | 15.5 | 15.5 | 1207 |
| 37 | Michiel Swerts | 1100 | 1.0 | 8.0 | 7.0 | 1100 |
| 38 | Julius Diem | 798 | 0.0 | 20.5 | 19.0 | 798 |
