Wed 1st March: The club reached a milestone of achieving its’ 50th current member at the Annual Swiss Rapidplay rounds 5 & 6, as four players were added to the competition and all under age 21 – boding well for the future.
Club chairman Dave Price was extremely proud as he encouraged the latest newcomers to join in the Rapidplay, as Events officer (David Hulme) tussled with the complications of adding the new players while dealing with a late bye request and a last minute non-appearance of one of the members. The Rapidplay now has 44 competitiors, even with a number of others who are unable to commit to the event or simply prefer to avoid Rapidplay.
As usual it was a chaotic start to the night, waiting for all players to arrive before play could commence, and then having to revise some pairings. As everyone sat down for Round 5, we had a new record attendance of 38 members, as our stock of chess clocks was pushed to the limit, with the playing room full of the buzz of excited anticipation in a set up superbly provided by our committed young steward Harry Gardiner. (I don’t think many appreciate what a job Harry does in setting up the club each week ready for everyone to come along and simply start playing with tables, chairs, boards, sets and clocks all in position).
As we commenced round 5 a few minutes later than planned, we had one player on 4/4 – first team captain and 2nd seed Martin Burns, with a one point lead over a gaggle of 6 players including No.1 seed Bart Fajfer, defending champion Jarek Czyz seeded 4th, Doug Barnett, Karl Lockett, Rick (the grenade) Renegade and Carmel Barwick. From this batch of players half were succesful in round 5 with wins for Martin, Jarek, Carmel and Rick, meaning Martin was now 5/5 with these three a single point behind. A further four players moved onto 3.5 pts being Dave Price, Harry, David Lambton and Adam Fields seeded at No. 32 punching well above his weight. Of the newcomers there were wins for Kruspin Kapusta and Antrea Bileros, with all of the newcomers given four half-point byes to join in the competition on the mid-score.
Round 6 saw the defending champion Jarek paired with leader Martin, and he stopped the leader in his tracks finding a mating attack after Martin missed a chance to secure a draw, and throw the competition wide open to share the lead on 5pts. Also moving into the joint lead is Carmel Barwick who managed to detonate Rick (the grenade) safely to also move onto 5 pts. David Lambton and Harry Gardiner hauled themselves into joint second place as they both finished the night on 4.5pts after back to back wins. We have five players still in contention for the trophy on 4pts – these are the previously mentioned Bart, Karl, Doug and Rick now joined by our outstanding 10 year old – Oskar Jarzynski – seeded at No 31.
With all 44 players on the scoreboard, it is hoped the final night will be another resounding success for the club, when it can be arranged. This is likely to be in May before we have a Wednesday night free of matches.
Finally I would like to say thank you to all of our members for participating in this event in such a sporting and friendly manner, as we apply some of our own club rules; and also to Marek Jarzynski for keeping track of all the scores to allow me to play and for taking pictures of the event. (to be added shortly)
Full scores can be seen using the link below
Written by David Hulme – Events officer