Sister Club Collaboration

Good morning chess players, we’re back for another week of chess. Our sister club Sapphics Chess Club, who meet at the neighborhood’s Bush Dyke Bar will be joining Bushwick Chess tonight 7pm for our first collaboration. Sapphics Chess Club, led by NYCR’s Sam Sharf at the 2025 NYCR Chess Club Olympiad, invite queer chess players/allies to our Rapid Tournament, a 10|2 five round two section rapid with a casual friendly u1400 limit alongside an Open tournament for stronger players. Casual Club will run free to play all night. All donations and a portion of tournament entries will be donated to the Black Trans Liberation

Sapphics Chess Club Rapid, 10|2 five round rapid tonight at Nook. $20 with prizes for all. Casual Club will run free to play all night.

We’re also covering last weeks June Club Rapid, ushering in the end of the Spring Season. Who’s on top going into Summer Season?

Bert Leonard Wins June Rapid Open

At last weeks June Rapid Open, 38 players gathered across two sections to end Spring Season ‘26. The Open section consisted of 13 players, averaging at 1778 NYCR. Top seed WFM Devina Devagharan stood alone in the 2000+ category, rated 2083 NYCR after winning the Woman’s Championship in April.

But, after five rounds of rapid it was 1967 NYCR Bert Leonard from Prospect Park Chess Club who took home Top Player, scoring 4.5/5 drawing top seed Devagharan in the fourth round. WFM Devina secured Second Place with 3.5/5. Third Place went to 1867 NYCR Jack Nugent with 3.5/5. U2000 went to 1867 NYCR Kirill Agishev on 3/5, while U1800 went to 1724 NYCR Nirupam Kushalnagar, along with the Upset prize for a surprising win against WFM Devina in round 1.

The U1600 section saw a whopping 25 players with an average rating of 1368 NYCR compete, with six newcomers. After five rounds 1536 NYCR Wei Chen placed first with 4.5/5. Second Place went to 1475 NYCR Justin Choi with 4/5. Third Place went to Chess Forum regular, 1435 NYCR Jesse Fast with 4/5. Top Unrated went to Carmen Garcia-Quiorez with 3/5, finishing rated 1432 NYCR. You can find the full cross table HERE.

Who’s in the Lead at NYCR?

We’re watching the best play their chess across the city with the new stats page for NYCR. Players have been competing across Bushwick, Williamsburg and Astoria. Below you can see the top ten players play performance:

All rapid games in the NYCR are hosted at Bushwick Chess, so 2378 NYCR FM Juan Pereyra bested the field in almost all of his games, losing only to 2014 NYCR Gautam Narula in March.

In the Blitz section all three clubs have multiple entries, with 2486 NYCR GM Nico Chasin scoring nearly perfectly in both of the Williamsburg tournaments losing only to FM Pereyra in the Williamsburg Winter Blitz.

And that’s it for this week chess players! Join us tonight for more chess and be sure to check our socials HERE. Much love chess players, see you over the board soon. You can find your updated NYC Rating HERE.