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Go players at Crux, October 2025

Go players at Crux, October 2025 — Go still finds a home at the club, even in a year without Go Quads.

2026 kept the club busy despite challenges changing to Thursdays & then back to Wednesdays, disrupting many members’ ability to attend — 200+ games were played between the 25 players who took part in Quads this season, with the title race coming down to a single Championship Point on the final month.

Go Quads remained inactive throughout 2026, so this year’s awards and profiles are Chess-only.

The Club also congratulates its 2026 Chess Champion — read about Zach’s title race and every other player’s season in the Player Profiles section, below.

Pre-Season 2025

Loren S and Joey S face-off in a friendly game on the new table-layout at Crux

Loren S and Joey S face-off in a friendly game on the new table-layout at Crux, October 2025.

For the first time, the club ran a Pre-Season — a single, long-running Quad-Season spanning October through December 2025, rather than the usual month-by-month format. Late-summer and autumn attendance was always harder to predict, with travel and holidays pulling people away from the board, so a 3-month format gave everyone more chances to actually finish their games before the new year. It was the first year we’d tried it, and it worked well enough that we’d happily run it again.

Three quads played it out: a 7-player 1st Quad, and 8-player 2nd and 3rd Quads.

Quad Winner Score
1st Quad Daniel B 7.5/10
2nd Quad Matt B 4.5/10
3rd Quad Loren S 5.5/10

Pre-Season wasn’t just a warm-up — placement carried real stakes into January. Finishing position set each player’s starting seed for the new year, and crucially, the winner of the 2nd Quad seeded into 8th place overall — a seat in the Challenger Quad for the opening month of Quad-Season proper. It made for a built-in leapfrog for an up-and-coming player to jump straight into the Championship scene. That year’s example is right there in the results above: Matt B won the 2nd Quad, seeded into the Challenger Quad for January — and by April had rewritten his season entirely (see his Player Profile, below). Pre-Season’s Holiday Grand-Prix score also carried forward as the tie-break for the Winter Grand-Prix (January through March), rewarding players who showed up often and scored well before the new year even began.

Max S receives an honorary Holiday Grand-Prix trophy from Dean C

Max S receives an honorary Holiday Grand-Prix trophy from Dean C — a discretionary honour on top of the numeric standings above, presented alongside Joey S’s runner-up trophy after Daniel B’s strong season had already been recognised elsewhere.

Joey S receives an honorary Holiday Grand-Prix runner-up trophy from Dean C

Joey S receives his honorary Holiday Grand-Prix runner-up trophy from Dean C.

A difficult few months

Pre-Season also played out against a bumpier scheduling backdrop than usual. For a stretch, Wednesday evenings stopped being available to us, so in late November the club moved to Thursdays while we figured out a longer-term answer — a switch that unfortunately cut off many members mid-Pre-Season, since Thursdays simply didn’t work for their schedules, and attendance took a while to recover.

By April, a welcome change in priorities meant Wednesdays opened back up, and we were thrilled to be welcomed back right away — our long-standing partnership with Crux is as strong as ever. It was still a disruptive few months for the club, though, and we know a number of members are still working out how to get back to a regular Wednesday night with us. If that’s you: we’d love to see you back at the board.

2026 Quad-Season Awards

Zach C addresses the club at The Commons to present this year's Quad-Season Awards.

Zach C addresses the club at The Commons to present this year’s Quad-Season Awards.

2026 Champion Race

2026 Chess Champion Zach C receives his trophy from Dean C

2026 Chess Champion Zach C receives his trophy from Dean C.

Congratulations to Zach C, Bend Chess & Go Club’s 2026 Chess Champion. Zach kept his spot in the Championship Quad for all six months of the season and finished with 21 Championship Points to Joey S’s 20 — the tightest title race in the club’s recent history, decided only in the final month.

The race had an earlier chapter, though. January and February saw Zach C and Blake S as the season’s early rivals for the title — Blake led 5 to 3 after January, and the two were tied at 8 apiece by the end of February. March tipped the balance: Zach pulled ahead 13 to 10, and it proved to be Blake’s final month in the Quads before he stepped away from competition for the year. From April on, with Blake’s tally frozen at 10, the race became a straight fight between Zach and Joey S. And Joey didn’t just stay in touch — he won the Championship Quad outright in April, May, and June, three months running, at one point sweeping Zach 2-0 in May. Counting his January win in the Challenger Quad before his promotion, that’s four separate months Joey won his quad outright — the most of anyone in the club this season. Zach, by contrast, only won his own quad twice all year (February and March); the rest of his title defense was built on placement points against the rest of the field rather than outright quad wins, but it held up in end. Zach’s lead narrowed steadily, from 6 points in April down to just 1 by June, but it never quite ran out.

A line chart showing Zach C, Joey S and Blake S's cumulative Championship Points from January through June 2026

Zach C, Joey S & Blake S’s Championship Point race, January–June 2026. Blake’s tally goes flat and dashed from March, marking his departure from the Quads.

Zach’s full season is told in his Player Profile, below.

2026 Championship Points Standings

Every player who earned at least 5 Championship Points this season:

Rank Player Championship Points
1 Zach C 21
2 Joey S 20
3 Daniel B 10
3 Blake S 10
5 Dean C 9
5 Andrew M 9
7 Thomas F 8
8 Matt B 6
8 Loren S 6
8 Joe M 6
11 Mike S 5

Chess Awards

📈 Most Improved Player: Matt B

Matt B receives the Most Improved Player award from Zach C

Matt B receives the Most Improved Player award from Zach C.

Matt B opened the year at 1368 and closed it at 1529 — a +161 point gain across the full season, the largest of any full-season player. The turning point was April: after three quiet months bouncing between the Challenger and 3rd Quads, Matt B produced a perfect 10/10 in the 3rd Quad, a performance rated 1887, and never looked back. That single month alone gained more rating than his entire season’s net total of +161 (the rest of the year was actually net-negative), and it doubles as his Best Lower-Quad Performance award, below.

🎯 Most Consistent Player: Daniel B

Daniel B posted the lowest performance rating standard deviation of any full-season player this year — just 75.1, well clear of the next-most-consistent (Zach C, at 109.2). It’s a pointed contrast with 2025, when Daniel won the Rollercoaster award for the opposite reason. His season wasn’t kind to his rating (1892 → 1826), but month to month he performed within a strikingly narrow band, holding his own in the Championship Quad for four of six months and dropping to the Challenger Quad only twice (March and June) — both times performing close to his usual level rather than collapsing.

Performance Difference vs Expectation

Ranked highest (most volatile) to lowest (most consistent):

Rank Player Std Dev Avg Rating Normed Std Dev
1 Loren S 249 1,006 24.8%
2 Weston L 177 820 21.6%
3 Max S 265 1,336 19.8%
4 Matt B 256 1,392 18.4%
5 Joe M 200 1,108 18.1%
6 Andrew M 256 1,778 14.4%
6 Quinn R 215 1,496 14.4%
8 Brad S 211 1,525 13.8%
9 Mike S 153 1,297 11.8%
10 Thomas F 172 1,524 11.3%
11 Alex K 108 962 11.2%
12 Dean C 166 1,835 9.1%
13 Chris H 122 1,506 8.1%
14 Blake S 161 2,025 8.0%
15 Joey S 140 1,833 7.6%
16 Connor W 63 914 6.9%
17 Zach C 109 1,909 5.7%
18 Daniel B 75 1,869 4.0%

🎢 Rollercoaster Award: Dean C

Dean C receives the Rollercoaster Award from Zach C

Dean C receives the Rollercoaster Award from Zach C.

Dean C’s season was the choppiest ride in the club: flip-flopping between the Championship and Challenger Quads three separate times — never dropping further than the Challenger Quad, but never settling either. His June was a particularly rough patch (1/6 in the Championship Quad), a reminder that even a title-contending club officer has off months.

Quad Trajectories, ranked by total movement

Every player who played 2+ months this season, ranked by total quad-tier movement (Championship=1 through 4th Quad=4). Range is the widest tier gap touched; Reversals counts direction changes (e.g. down-then-up).

Player Total Move Range Reversals Trajectory
Dean C 4 1 3 Jan:C1 → Feb:C2 → Mar:C1 → Apr:C1 → May:C2 → Jun:C1
Andrew M 3 2 1 Jan:C2 → Feb:C2 → Mar:C3 → Apr:C2 → May:C1 → Jun:C1
Daniel B 3 1 2 Jan:C1 → Feb:C1 → Mar:C2 → Apr:C1 → May:C1 → Jun:C2
Matt B 2 1 1 Jan:C2 → Feb:C3 → Mar:C3 → Apr:C3 → May:C2 → Jun:C2
Mike S 2 1 1 Jan:C3 → Feb:C2 → Mar:C2 → Apr:C3 → May:C3 → Jun:C3
Max S 2 1 1 Jan:C3 → Feb:C3 → Mar:C2 → Apr:C2 → Jun:C3
Joey S 1 1 0 Jan:C2 → Feb:C1 → Mar:C1 → Apr:C1 → May:C1 → Jun:C1
Chris H 1 1 0 May:C3 → Jun:C2
Alex K 1 1 0 Jan:C3 → Feb:C4 → Jun:C4
Connor W 1 1 0 Jan:C4 → Feb:C3
Zach C 0 0 0 C1 all six months
Thomas F 0 0 0 C2, all months played
Brad S 0 0 0 C3, all months played
Quinn R 0 0 0 C3, all months played
Joe M 0 0 0 C4, all months played
Loren S 0 0 0 C4 all six months
Sophie S 0 0 0 C4, all months played
Weston L 0 0 0 C4, all months played
Blake S 0 0 0 C1, all months played

🎯 Best Championship-Quad Performance: Blake S in January

With a single-month performance rating of 2224 on a 5.5/6 score in January’s Championship Quad, Blake S’s opening month was the single best performance anyone in the top quad produced all season — ahead of Zach C’s own season-best (2051, February).

🎯 Best Lower-Quad Performance: Matt B in April

A perfect 10/10 in April’s 3rd Quad, rated performance 1887 — over 500 points above his rating entering the month. It’s the same result that earns Matt B the Most Improved award above, and deservedly so: it’s the best month anyone had all season. Honourable mention to Matt B’s own March, where he scored a huge win over Andrew M, the second-biggest upset of the year behind only the Giant Killer result below.

🥊 Most Solid Player: Thomas F

Thomas F never left the Challenger Quad in the four months he played (January through April) — the only full repeat of his 2025 Most Solid award, in the same quad both years. He picked up two genuine giant-killer results of his own along the way: scoring 2-0 over Andrew M in January, and another big upset by rating win over Dean C in February. Whatever Thomas F is doing in the Challenger Quad, it continues to work against much higher-rated opponents.

🎭 Spirit of the Quads: Loren S

Loren S receives the Spirit of the Quads award from Zach C

Loren S receives the Spirit of the Quads award from Zach C.

Loren S repeats her 2025 Spirit of the Quads award, and for the same reason: nobody brings more fight to the 4th Quad, month after month, whatever the scoreline. She played all six months (24 games), and nobody in the club had a more nail-biting run of finishes. Her quad score was tied for the month lead three separate times this season, with each one going down to a tiebreak. Joe M got the better of her all year, going 8-2 across their many 4th Quad meetings, but she went unbeaten against Sophie S (4-0) and gave both Weston L match-ups everything she had, even in defeat.

💥 Giant Killer: Max S

The single biggest upset of the season: in March, freshly promoted into the Challenger Quad, Max S (1320) beat Daniel B (1873) — a 553-point rating gap, and by a wide margin the largest upset by rating of 2026. The closest any other player came to matching it: Matt B’s own huge upset by rating win over Andrew M, that same month in the 3rd Quad — March 2026 was evidently a month for giant-killing across both the Challenger and 3rd Quads.

🤝 Best Sportsmanship: Joe M

Joe M receives the Best Sportsmanship award from Zach C

Joe M receives the Best Sportsmanship award from Zach C.

An eternally cheerful member of the club, Joe is most certainly the winner of our Best Sportsmanship award. Chess is a tough game that can bring out the competitor in all of us, but Joe is relentlessly positive regardless of the result. He made every game, win or lose, a little more fun. He was promoted to Club Deputy in March 2026, recognition that extends beyond the board to how he shows up for the club week to week. On the board, his season backs it up: a 76.47% record in the 4th Quad (13 from 17), the best win-rate of any full-season regular.

Grand-Prix Winners

The Grand-Prix rewards players who play games & score points, and therefore describes players actively playing and out-performing themselves as they do!

Holiday 2025 🎄❄️

October-thru-December

♟️ Chess Player Score
🏁 Daniel B 23
2nd Loren S 22
3rd Joey S 20
4th Matt B 19
5th Max S 16

Winter 2026 🎿⛄🌄

January-thru-March

♟️ Chess Player Score
🏁 Max S 37
2nd Joey S 35.5
3rd Blake S 35
4th Daniel B 33.5
5th Thomas F 32.5

Spring 2026 🐣🌷☔

April-thru-June

♟️ Chess Player Score
🏁 Joey S 37.5
2nd Matt B 33
3rd Andrew M 29
4th Loren S 27
5th Joe M 26

Annual (rolling) 🏁

Holiday-thru-Spring

♟️ Chess Player Score
🏁 Joey S 93
2nd Matt B 81.5
2nd Daniel B 81.5
4th Loren S 69.5
5th Mike S 62
5th Max S 62

Player Profiles

A note before diving in: the club’s schedule moved between Wednesdays and Thursdays more than once this year (see Pre-Season 2025, above), and attendance was harder to predict for many members as a result — sometimes directly, sometimes because a player’s usual opponents couldn’t make a given night. Where a season below reads as quiet or short on games, that’s rarely down to one person alone.

Note: Don’t see your profile? We limited the list to those who’d played 5 games across the season, sorry if we missed you.

Chess Players

♟️ Zach C (Chess Champion)

Zach C and Joey S do battle in February's Championship Quad

Zach C and Joey S do battle in February’s Championship Quad, at Crux — the two would fight for the title all the way to June.

Zach C’s precision and positional verve have grown each season — the players who troubled him one year would find themselves on the back foot the next. His diligence, preparation, and practical attacking instincts always made the title feel inevitable, yet in both 2024 and 2025 a rival pipped him at the post. Not in 2026: dramatic wins and turnaround victories, including a 6-1-1 vanquishing of former rival Dean C, let him build and hold a lead all season, and the trophy he takes home was earned in over-the-board struggles won week after week.

Joey S had earned his own place in the fight, though, and turned the race into a season-long scramble — but after two years as runner-up (2025 and 2024), this was finally Zach’s year, the margin just a single Championship Point at the last. Six months in the Championship Quad backed it up. Zach’s best month was February, a 2051 performance rating on 4/6, closely followed by March (2039 performance rating, also 4/6) — but it was his rivalry with Joey S that defined the year: 6 wins to 4, with no draws, across their ten meetings. He was similarly dominant against Daniel B (5-0-3), and everywhere except against Blake S (1-5 before Blake’s March departure) and a rough June, where Andrew M swept him 2-0, a genuine upset by rating. Zach’s rating actually dipped slightly over the year (1905 → 1899) — the title was won on consistency and Championship Points, not on rating gain.

Start Rating Final Rating Rating Change Average Perf. Score Games Record Champ Points
1905 1899 -6 1915 21 36 58.33% 21

♟️ Joey S

Joey S receives recognition for his Championship Quad-winning run from Dean C

Joey S receives recognition for his Annual Grand Prix Award from Dean C.

Joey S, also a Madras player like Chris H and Brian M, made the opposite call to them when Bend’s meeting night swapped to Thursdays — he chose to keep chasing the Bend Championship title rather than stay home for Madras, and played every single month as a result. Joey came within a single Championship Point of the 2026 title, and did it from an unlikely starting position: he opened the season by winning the Challenger Quad outright in January (5/6, enough to earn promotion) and held the Championship Quad every month from February on. His January-through-March form was mixed (a rough Feb/Mar patch: 2.5/6, then 1/5), but Joey turned it around emphatically. With Blake gone, Joey won the Championship Quad outright three months running — April (2019 performance rating), May, and a season-best June (5/6, 2037 performance rating, one of the strongest months anyone in the Championship Quad produced all year, behind only Blake S’s January and Zach C’s own February and March). He even swept Zach C 2-0 in May. Counting January, that’s four quads won outright in a season — more than anyone else in the club. It wasn’t quite enough, though: Zach’s results against the rest of the field held firm each month even as Joey passed him in the quad (Zach himself won his own quad only twice all year). His head-to-head with Zach C (4-6) was the closest title-race rivalry of the season, and he also won the Spring and Annual Grand-Prix boards.

Start Rating Final Rating Rating Change Average Perf. Score Games Record Champ Points
1825 1885 +60 1874 21.5 35 61.43% 20

♟️ Matt B (Most Improved Player, Best Lower-Quad Performance)

Matt B’s season started with a leap: he won the 2nd Quad in Pre-Season, earning the seed that leapfrogged him straight into the Challenger Quad for January (see Pre-Season 2025, above). What followed his season pivots entirely on one month, though. January through March were quiet — a scoreless January in the Challenger Quad, then two modest months down in the 3rd Quad. Then April: a perfect 10/10, a performance rating of 1887 (over 500 points above his rating), and upset by rating 2-0 sweeps of both Quinn R and Brad S, on top of (most notably) a huge upset by rating win over Andrew M in March that presaged the run. That single month drove his rating from 1330 to 1556 and secured both his Most Improved and Best Lower-Quad Performance awards. He settled back into the Challenger Quad for May and June with quieter results, but the season’s story was already written in April.

Start Rating Final Rating Rating Change Average Perf. Score Games Record Champ Points
1368 1529 +161 1427 14 32 43.75% 6

♟️ Daniel B (Most Consistent Player)

Daniel B’s rating slid across the season (1892 → 1826), but his performances didn’t waver nearly as much — the lowest month-to-month variance of anyone in the club this year, earning him Most Consistent honours as almost a mirror image of his 2025 Rollercoaster award. He held the Championship Quad for four of six months, dropping to the Challenger Quad only in March and June, and even there his results stayed close to his level (5/6 in March, 3/4 in June). The season’s low point was the Giant Killer result of the year (a 553-point upset loss to Max S in March), followed by a further upset by rating loss to Chris H in June — a month that finished so close the Challenger Quad ended in a dead-even 3-3 tie between the two of them, resolved only on tie-break. Dan’s dynamic and attacking play means that he can beat anyone at the club, including a memorable long term piece sacrifice that eventually resulted in a beautiful checkmate against the club’s highest rated player, Blake S. Instead of sticking to consistent opening play, Dan used many different (and often rather dubious) lines to keep his opponents off guard, sometimes resulting in a time advantage and disarray for opponents (other times to less promising effects).

Start Rating Final Rating Rating Change Average Perf. Score Games Record Champ Points
1892 1826 -66 1761 15.5 30 51.67% 10

♟️ Andrew M

Andrew M’s season was a genuine comeback arc: Challenger Quad in January and February, a demotion to the 3rd Quad in March, then a two-tier climb back to the Championship Quad by May — where he stayed for June, capping the run by sweeping Zach C 2-0, a huge upset by rating. His best month statistically was April, a perfect 4/4 in the Challenger Quad (1751 performance rating) that set up the promotion push. He also went 3-1 against Matt B and 3-3 against Thomas F across the season, but it was Thomas F who got the better of him in January, sweeping him 2-0 as a big underdog by rating. Given his choice, Andrew will play quieter positions where he will find a concrete advantage and then exploit it to its fullest, but that sort of approach was not what his opponents saw for much of the year. Andrew has spoken about how he has intentionally played some of his antistyle openings this year in an attempt to shore up some of his weaknesses, and it seems like that effort paid off in the second half of quads.

Start Rating Final Rating Rating Change Average Perf. Score Games Record Champ Points
1798 1778 -20 1650 16 28 57.14% 9

♟️ Dean C (Rollercoaster Award)

Dean C’s season bounced between the Championship and Challenger Quads three separate times, flip-flopping back and forth all year — the choppiest trajectory of anyone in the club, earning him the Rollercoaster award. The swings were real: a 5/6 in February’s Challenger Quad (1791 performance rating) and a perfect 2/2 in May (1956 performance rating, his best of the season) sat alongside a rough January (1/4) and a difficult June (1/6) back in the Championship Quad. Zach C dominated their season series (1 win, 1 draw, 6 losses in Zach’s favour), results Zach used to secure his own place in the Championship Quad, while making it almost impossible for Dean to do the same. It was a different story against Joey S, though — a genuinely even series, 2 wins, 2 draws, and 2 losses apiece, including the only two games all season that were drawn by the same pair twice. Dean did manage a big upset by rating win over Blake S in March, and genuinely should have scored both wins against him, instead of just one. Equally comfortable attacking or defending, Dean will play the position in the way that he thinks it calls for, instead of searching for tactics or positional blows. This means that while he may not regularly find brilliancies or launch diabolical combinations, he rarely beats himself, and any win against Dean is one that you can feel proud of.

Start Rating Final Rating Rating Change Average Perf. Score Games Record Champ Points
1876 1808 -68 1767 13 28 46.43% 9

♟️ Mike S

Mike S spent the season moving between the 3rd and Challenger Quads, with January his standout month: 5/6 in the 3rd Quad (1532 performance rating), including a big upset by rating win over Quinn R and a 2-0 sweep of his son, Max S. The rematch came in March, in the Challenger Quad, and this time it was Max’s turn to sweep — right as his own breakout month was taking off. His most emphatic upset by rating result came in April against Brad S (a 2-0 sweep), as part of an extended 2-2 series with him across the season. Mike’s rating climbed steadily all year (1260 → 1315, +55) — a quieter gain than Matt B’s headline-grabbing season, but a continuation of real form: Mike won this exact award in 2025 for a +133 surge, and 2026 makes it back-to-back improving seasons.

Start Rating Final Rating Rating Change Average Perf. Score Games Record Champ Points
1260 1315 +55 1386 11.5 28 41.07% 5

♟️ Loren S (Spirit of the Quads)

Loren S is a repeat Spirit of the Quads winner for the same reason she won in 2025: nobody brings more fight to the board, month after month, than she does. She played all six months, 24 games in the 4th Quad. Her season had real highs (a perfect 2/2 in March, 1236 performance rating, and 3/4 in May), alongside quieter months in February and April. Her toughest recurring opponent was Joe M, against whom she went 2-8 across their many 4th Quad meetings — 10 games, tied with Zach C/Joey S for the most-played pairing of the entire season, though where that rivalry went down to the final point, Loren and Joe’s never wavered: he had her number every month they were both around. She went unbeaten against Sophie S (4-0), at least. Nobody in the club had a more nail-biting run of finishes: Loren’s 4th Quad score was tied for the month lead three separate times this season (January with Connor W, May with Joe M, and June with Joe M again), each one decided on tiebreak.

Start Rating Final Rating Rating Change Average Perf. Score Games Record Champ Points
1051 1029 -22 1000 11 24 45.83% 6

♟️ Max S (Giant Killer)

Max S’s season peaked in March with the single biggest result of the year: freshly promoted into the Challenger Quad, he beat Daniel B (rated 553 points above him, the year’s headline upset by rating), also beat Thomas F, another big underdog win, and swept his own father, Mike S, 2-0 for good measure, en route to a 4/6 score and a 1702 performance rating. February was also productive (5/8 in the 3rd Quad, 1440 performance rating, including a big upset by rating win over Quinn R), if a clear step below his March peak. His season cooled after that peak (a quiet April and a scoreless June back in the 3rd Quad), but the March run alone rewrote what anyone expected from him, and secured both the Giant Killer award and the Winter Grand-Prix. Worth noting: Max never solved Brad S all season, shut out 0-4 across their two meetings.

Start Rating Final Rating Rating Change Average Perf. Score Games Record Champ Points
1301 1394 +93 1375 12 23 52.17% 4

♟️ Thomas F (Most Solid Player)

Thomas F repeats his 2025 Most Solid award, having never left the Challenger Quad in any of the four months he played this season (January through April) — he stepped back after that by his own plan, not the schedule’s, with excellent news requiring him elsewhere. Congratulations, Thomas! It’s a well-earned title: he opened the year by sweeping Andrew M 2-0 in January, a huge upset by rating, followed it with another big upset by rating win over Dean C in February, and added a further win over Andrew M later that same month. His only real stumble was an upset by rating loss to Mike S in February — a reminder that the Challenger Quad punished complacency even for its most dependable resident.

Start Rating Final Rating Rating Change Average Perf. Score Games Record Champ Points
1466 1500 +34 1564 8.5 20 42.5% 8

♟️ Quinn R

Quinn R held the 3rd Quad all season, a stable presence even as her results varied: a strong January (4/5) included one blemish (an upset by rating loss to Mike S), before a tougher run through February (another upset by rating loss, to Max S) and April (swept 2-0 by Matt B, and beaten again by Mike S). He closed the season well, though, with 3/4 in June (1541 performance rating) and stayed a fixture of the 3rd Quad’s regular cast of Mike S, Brad S and Matt B, each faced multiple times across the year.

Start Rating Final Rating Rating Change Average Perf. Score Games Record Champ Points
1526 1450 -76 1428 10 19 52.63% 4

♟️ Brad S

Brad S joined the 3rd Quad in February and was a fixture there through June, closing the season strongly with 5/6 in June (1651 performance rating) after a difficult run through March and April that included repeated upset losses to Matt B and Mike S. He dominated his season series with Max S (4-0), even as the rest of his results were more of a mixed bag.

Start Rating Final Rating Rating Change Average Perf. Score Games Record Champ Points
— 1503 — 1439 11 18 61.11% 3

♟️ Joe M (Best Sportsmanship)

Joe M’s season on the board (76.47% record, the best of anyone with a sustained, multi-month presence this season) was matched by his contribution off it — he was promoted to Club Deputy in March 2026. He was a fixture of the 4th Quad all season, going 8-2 across 10 meetings with Loren S — tied with Zach C/Joey S for the most-played pairing of the year, but with none of that rivalry’s drama: Joe simply had her number, month after month. He posted his best performance rating in April (1510, on a perfect 3/3). His one rough patch was a big upset by rating loss to Connor W back in January.

Start Rating Final Rating Rating Change Average Perf. Score Games Record Champ Points
1108 1164 +56 1304 13 17 76.47% 6

♟️ Blake S (Best Championship-Quad Performance)

Blake S’s 2026 opened exactly where his dominant 2025 title-winning form left off: a 5.5/6 in January, performance rated 2224 — the best single-month performance of anyone in the club all year. February and March held up well too (1934 and 1956 performance rating respectively), and his head-to-head record against the entire Championship Quad was close to untouchable: 5-1 against Zach C, 3-1 against Dean C, 2-1-1 against Daniel B, and 1-1-1 against Joey S. The split behind those numbers is the real story — Blake was a perfect 8/8 as White all season, and it was only as Black (4/9, with two draws and four losses, one to each of his four rivals) that anyone managed to lay a glove on him. It was exactly this form that kept him locked in the title race with Zach C through January and February, tied at 8 Championship Points apiece, before Zach edged ahead in March. Blake S (in true Magnus Carlsen fashion) stepped away from his title defense after March, inspiring a fight between Joey S and Zach C that would come down to the wire! Whatever comes next, his January performance stands as the benchmark every Championship Quad player was chasing all year.

Start Rating Final Rating Rating Change Average Perf. Score Games Record Champ Points
2013 2022 +9 2038 12 17 70.59% 10

♟️ Alex K

Alex K, like Brian M and a handful of other members, struggled to maintain regular attendance after the switch to Thursdays, which makes for a light season across the 3rd and 4th Quads — results still finding their footing, with a winless January in the 3rd Quad, then an upset by rating loss to Weston L in February. Still early days for a fuller picture of Alex’s game.

Start Rating Final Rating Rating Change Average Perf. Score Games Record Champ Points
— 963 — 938 2 10 20% 0

♟️ Connor W

Connor W’s season was cut short by the same schedule disruption that hit much of the club (January and February only), but it still produced a genuine upset by rating win over Joe M in January, on the way to a +170 rating gain in just two months — among the largest short-term jumps of any player this season, even on a small sample.

Start Rating Final Rating Rating Change Average Perf. Score Games Record Champ Points
793 963 +170 942 3 10 30% 2

♟️ Weston L

Weston L, the Club’s youngest player, brings an appetite for risk that means none of his opponents get to relax for long — he strung together three separate giant-killer results this season: an upset by rating win over Loren S in January, another over Alex K in February, and a repeat win over Loren S in April. But that same appetite for risk seems to catch up with him sooner or later: across the four months he played, he never finished a month above break-even, closing the season at 3/9 despite the flashes of brilliance. None of the individual upsets challenged for the season’s Giant Killer award, but taken together they mark out a player capable of outplaying anyone in the 4th Quad on his day — even if the ledger doesn’t yet balance in his favour.

Start Rating Final Rating Rating Change Average Perf. Score Games Record Champ Points
808 840 +32 894 3 9 33.33% 2

♟️ Chris H

Chris H runs the Madras Chess Club, which meets on Thursdays — so when Bend’s own meeting night swapped to Thursdays this year, it cost him most of his season. He made it to three months in the end: a quieter April (2/4 in the 3rd Quad, including a shutout at the hands of Matt B), then a perfect 2/2 in May, and 3/4 in June that included a big upset by rating win over Daniel B — and revenge on Matt B, who he swept 2-0 in the rematch after that April shutout. A 70% season record across a short, disrupted season still reflects a player punching above his rating whenever he showed up.

Start Rating Final Rating Rating Change Average Perf. Score Games Record Champ Points
1657 1656 -1 1639 7 10 70% 4

♟️ Sophie S

Sophie S had a big year off the board, which kept her away from most of the Quad season before she returned to the 4th Quad in May. The results were a tough one on the scoreboard (winless across both May and June, and 0-4 against her recurring opponent Loren S), but coming back to the board at all deserves recognition, whatever the scoreline.

Start Rating Final Rating Rating Change Average Perf. Score Games Record Champ Points
986 940 -46 652 0 6 0% 0

♟️ Brian M

Brian M was unable to maintain regular attendance after the switch to Thursdays, along with Alex K and a handful of other members. What he did play was a single strong month: 4/5 in April’s 4th Quad, an 80% record and the only month he played this year. A short season, but an emphatic one.

Start Rating Final Rating Rating Change Average Perf. Score Games Record Champ Points
1251 1235 -16 1208 4 5 80% 2