Last night was yet another superb night for the club as the final rounds (No 5 & 6) took place in both of our Annual Swiss Rapidplay competitions.
There was a record attendance of club members with 49 in total, comprising 46 players, 1 controller and 2 members playing social chess.
Firstly looking at the Open rated section, we had 6 players who started the night in the joint lead on 3 out of 4 pts as reported in last week’s News Item. Only two of the six managed to win in Round 5 with Martin Burns and Cyrus Pereira being successful, while defending champion Carmel Barwick could only draw with Martin Frisher to leave them both on 3.5pts together with Andy Raeburn. So the scene was set with Martin B playing Cyrus in a winner takes all clash on board 1, while Martin F, Carmel and Andy hoped the top board would produce a draw to allow them to all potentially finish on 4.5 pts. However Martin Burns held his nerve to beat Cyrus and emerge as the sole winner with the only unbeaten record in the competition of four wins and two draws. Carmel finished as runner-up after her win in the final round, to end on 4.5 pts.
Turning attention to the U1600 event, 12 year old Jamie Roberts started the night as the leader with 3.5pts, with five players just behind on 3pts. Jamie won his game in Round 5 to maintain his lead as James Marshall won to stay on his tail just half a point behind, and Finn Charbonneau also won to move into 3rd place on 3.5pts. As Jamie had played James in an earlier round this meant Jamie would play Finn in the final round, with these three now the only possible winners. James played Julian Bulbeck on board 2 and came unstuck to finish on 4pts meaning Jamie needed just a draw to win the competition, while Finn needed a win to catch Jamie and then see how the tie break would work. In a cracking game Finn built up a ferocious King side attack that put Jamie deep in time trouble. Under pressure Jamie sacked a piece, but Finn kept his head to set up a mating attack after his own piece sacrifice and win the game. With Jamie and Finn both finishing on 4.5 pts, the tie break of Direct Encounter worked in favour of Finn to leave him as the winner.
Congratulations to Martin and Finn who will be awarded their trophies at the forthcoming AGM, with their names now added to the Club website’s Honours List.