Six players competed in a five round five minute tournament at the club on Tuesday 18th Jan. There were many mistakes, dropped pieces, losses on time when equal or better and even some draws! The first round went according to rating with wins for Gary, Martin and Pete over Richard John and Shane. Gary moved into sole first place in round 2 after Martin had to give a perpetual to avoid losing a rook to Pete. In round three Gary was heard to offer Martin a draw after an exchange of queens in the first 30 seconds! Martin declined the offer but later lost leaving Gary on 3/3. Wins for Pete 2.5/3 and Richard 2/3 left Martin 4th at this stage with 1.5/3 Shane and John were yet to score.
The battle for first and last place was seemingly decided in round 4. John beat Shane to get off the bottom and Pete beat Gary to go into the lead on 3.5/4. Meanwhile Martin lost on time in a complex position against Richard leaving the latter and Gary tied on 3/4. In the final round Gary won to reach 4/5. Pete v Richard was a wild game with a violent attack by white[Richard] not breaking through. White lost the exchange to a knight fork black returned the compliment to leave white a pawn up in a rook and pawn ending. Unable to make progress without worsening the position there was a 3fold repetition leading to a draw. Final scores Pete [the only player undefeated]4, Gary 4, Richard 3.5, Martin 2.5, John 1, Shane 0.
Thanks to all who played the tournament in good spirits and contributed to the end of round banter whilst I checked on the results and then the pairings for the next round. Commiserations to Shane who had some promising positions against much stronger players. However hopefully he will find the next tournament a 20 minute handicap tournament on 1st Feb more to his liking.
Just to recap on the handicap rules. Players are placed in groups according to ratings . Players in the same group get 10 minutes each. 1 group difference 12mins v 8mins. 2groups difference 15minsv5mins and the really exciting one 3 groups difference18mins v 2 mins. This is usually a fun event with a lot of laughter and criticism of the handicapper [me] whose decision is final!
Hope to see you there. Richard.