Capital One won the North American Corporate Chess League Season 12, its second title since the league’s inception. IM Craig Hilby led the team on board one, along with Maury Ahram, Alex Cook, Marco Flores, and Haider Munir on the tiebreak board.
Meta—FM Roland Feng, Francisco II Guadalupe, Gene Cherkansky, Stuart Abrams, and William Brown—finished second, while Anduril—Sanjay Praveen, Warren Wang, Mika Laitinen, Kosta Kalenteridis, and Mihir Salunke—came in third.
Knockout Bracket
The North American Corporate Chess League is a recreational chess league for companies headquartered in the U.S.A., Canada, and Mexico. The event started on October 2 with a six-week qualifier, which ultimately gave us eight teams for the Knockout.
Thirty-eight teams participated in the qualifier and play2ed three games per week at a 10+2 time control. The “Elite Eight,” so to speak, were Anduril, Susquehanna, Databricks, Meta, Capital One, Janestreet, IBM, and PWC.
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Capital One’s Hilby won all three of his games on board one—against FM Jacob Furfine (2426), Sathvik Singireddy (2154), and Sanjay Praveen (2327)—and joined for a brief interview. About winning the tournament, he said, “I did not expect it at all,” and on a personal note, “I’m just really happy with myself right now,” sharing that he struggled in the qualifiers but played convincingly in the Knockout.
Hilby explained that, due to the number of chess fanatics at his company, they held an internal round-robin to determine the five boards. “With a stroke of luck, we got the right people at the right time at the right place, and we just happened to go all the way, win all three matches today.”Â
With a stroke of luck, we got the right people at the right time at the right place.
—Craig Hilby
Talking about the work-chess life balance, Hilby said that he’s still in a good spot and is an active tournament player. He referenced playing at the Charlotte Center’s ALTO tournament in April and that he’ll travel to the U.S. Masters 2025 at the end of this month. He said, “I’m kind of still trying to be pretty serious about my chess career, at least making the push towards GM, and honestly the work-life balance is pretty great and it does allow me to do that.”
His win against FM Furfine, his highest-rated opponent, came in the first round. It was a pretty dry game from the opening, but a single mistake saw Hilby pounce on the only move to win a pawn. 25…a5! took advantage of the pin, and he converted smoothly from there.
In his last game, Hilby’s unusual 9.Ne5!? in the King’s Indian Attack impressed commentator GM Kayden Troff. White doubled the black c-pawns and applied maximum pressure to them in Nimzo-Indian style.
Meta’s Feng led the team to the runner-up spot. In the Semifinals against Anduril, board one featured an incredible defense shown by the computer. 23…Bxb2+!! might be found out of desperation, since everything else loses, and the engine points out that it’s even Black who has the better chances in the end. In the game, Praveen (board one of the third-place team) won the house.
Despite that loss on board one, Meta just barely won the match. With a 2-2 tied score, it was Mihir Salunke who won the match for Meta on board five.
While the above brilliancy existed only in the theoretical sense, Feng did execute a brilliant finish to his attack in his first game.
Congratulations to the winners and thank you to all the participants!
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The North American Corporate Chess League, which takes place from October 2 to November 13 on Chess.com, is a recreational chess league for companies headquartered in the U.S.A., Canada, and Mexico. Each season lasts two weeks, with three games per week. The time control is 10+2. Eight teams qualify for the season-end Knockout, a one-day event on November 13. Teams have four main boards and a fifth board that serves as a tiebreaker, where Black plays with less time and draw odds. Participants can win plaques according to their performance.
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