Start-of-Semester Tournament 2026

Two months went by without chess at our university. An absolute disgrace, and it was clear from the solemn and depressed vibe hanging around the lecture halls during these months that people were craving chess, as it most definitely had nothing to do with exams. It is therefore not surprising that no less than 49 people attended our start-of-semester tournament, consisting of seven rounds with a 5+3 time control. This event lifted ETH once again from the darkness that is a university without chess. The beauty that lifted the spirits of our attendees was so inspiring that I made ChatGPT write a poem about it:

Winter lingered in corridors of chalk and weary light,
Till sixty-four small galaxies ignited Wednesday night.
Clocks drummed like eager hearts, bright sparks in measured rhyme,
And every move rewrote the hush that exams had carved in time,
Checkmate fell like sunrise, and the whole campus felt right. ♟️

(Well, at least that monstrosity makes it clear that AGI has not yet been achieved…)

As usual, many new players arrived on the scene this time. One of them, a player by the name of Amirali, took away the win. However, the victory of our hero of the night did not come without significant struggle. While I have spoiled the end of his amazing journey, it is the journey that is most interesting and will therefore keep the readers of this amazing blog post tied to their screens as they get ready to hear his story.

Walking in, our hero must have looked around and seen that significant talent had gathered that night. Everyone had weathered the cold outside to arrive in the room that has become the castle of chess here at ETH: HG E41. Happy smiles and competitive frowns spread around the room, while the writer of this blog post was the cheerful narrator who ensured our hero could face his opponents over the board and emerge victorious.

Amirali was clearly not impressed by what he saw. After four rounds of chess, it was clear he came to win the coveted prize of some nice chocolates, the dream prize of any hero in any story. Not a single opponent escaped without a thrashing, and Amirali became the sole leader. But then, in round five, the nemesis of our hero arrived. Aleksandrs managed to beat him in a well-fought battle that tied the score among several players, increasing the importance of the last two rounds of the tournament. Aleksandrs himself finished third this evening, only losing to Lorenzo and drawing against Owen. While Amirali managed to win his sixth round, there were still three other players who could stand in his way at the start of the final battle: Márk, Lorenzo, and Olivier, all on 5 out of 6. Amirali managed to beat Márk, while Olivier beat Lorenzo. Luckily, the tiebreak favored Amirali, making him the winner of the evening just ahead of Olivier.

If you are still reading this, congrats, but you should probably get a life. The entirely uninteresting story of Amirali, as told by someone with the writing talent of a toddler, should not have kept you reading this long. But oh well, to thank you for your patience, here is the final ranking and some pictures of the evening, in case you were just looking for those.