Prize Night
Tonight’s prize night was held in the wake of Doug Foster’s funeral which was held the day before. Many past and present members of The Gap Chess Club were present, as well as people who had known him otherwise through the Queensland chess scene. And there were many present who knew him through his manifold other passions including (foremost) musical instrument making, but also cycling, bushwalking, bird watching, cricket - even archery was mentioned. And of course, his family was there. Brian Willcock gave a tribute to Doug on behalf of the club, and it is hoped that a transcript of this tribute will appear in some form on this website in the weeks to come, as it encapsulated many of Doug’s great qualities, and reminded us of the many things Doug has for our chess club over the years.
Handicap Lightning Tournament
To start the night there was a series of friendly games. Then, in a brief ceremony, the prizes were awarded to the winners of the club’s 2002 tournaments and competitions. Following the awarding of prizes, the traditional handicap lightning tournament was held, as occurs each year on prize night. In place of the traditional “Knight’s Move” portrait which Doug had always supplied to the club, a small trophy with a chess motif was up for grabs tonight.
The Handicap Lightning tournament started tonight with a preliminary round in 2 groups. The top 2 in each group progressed to the semi-finals. The handicap system is based on a system of handicaps awarded on playing strength. The handicaps are determined by rating, with 1600+ players having a zero handicap (‘playing off scratch’), 1500-1599 having a ½ point handicap, 1400-1499 1 point etc etc, down to a player under 999 has a 3½ point handicap. Before each game the difference between the 2 players’ handicaps is calculated, with the lower rated player having 5 minutes in the game to make all move, the higher rated player having 5 minus the handicap difference. There is speculation that this is all designed to give the DOP the maximum headache!!
|
Group A |
POINTS |
Handicap |
|
Paul Evans |
4 |
(1.5) |
|
Brian Willcock |
4 |
(2.0) |
|
Steve Peters |
3 |
(0.0) |
|
John Guest |
3 |
(0.0) |
|
John Curran |
1 |
(3.0) |
|
James Hiller |
0 |
(3.5) |
Paul beat Brian in what they mutually agreed was a ridiculous game, with Paul losing a queen early but Brian managing to throw away this advantage (no doubt upset at the copyright infringment!). Steve was making his first appearance at the club, and managed to make 2 mistakes before the competition started. Firstly he admitted to a British rating equivalent to about 1800. Secondly he slaughtered Andrew in a warm-up 5 minute game. This saddled Steve with a scratch handicap which left him with insufficient time to overcome Paul and wily veteran Brian Willcock. However, Steve did show a good knack for winning a few close games with seconds left on his clock. John Guest, ex-president of the club and famous for winning the Flood Cup in 1979, marked his return to the club with some fine play, and probably unnerved a few opponents with his insistence on playing standing up in the more gripping finales to his games. His complaint about having to use an analogue clock in his important clash with Steve was remedied in later games when a digital was provided. John won his play-off with James in a hard fought tussle and almost had Steve on time (although Steve was easily superior on the board). James once again voiced to the DOP his concern about being placed into a “Group of Death”, and was reminded that this was not a World Cup Finals football competition!
|
Group B |
POINTS |
Handicap |
|
Andrew Robinson |
4 |
(0.0) |
|
Gabriel Boross |
4 |
(1.5) |
|
Harvey Quaresmini |
3 |
(1.0) |
|
Debbie Jenkins |
3 |
(3.5) |
|
Michael Hussey |
1 |
(3.5) |
|
Peter Hiller |
0 |
(2.5) |
Gabriel beat Andrew (who failed to see a one-move B-Q mate on the diagonal very early on), but was well beaten by Harvey and had to accept joint first in the group. Harvey’s ambitions were thwarted by Andrew, and surprisingly by Debbie who, playing in her first over-the-board tournament, had managed to arrive at an even position on the board after 5 minutes of play. Despite Debbie being a novice in these situations, Harvey played on for over a minute after his flag had fallen. This prompted lots of coughing from the gallery (semi-permissible in this less serious tournament) which woke Debbie to Harvey’s fallen flag – and Harvey received a scolding for his troubles! Michael beat Peter on the clock, a similar circumstance to when these great rivals clashed in the epic Maiden Trophy play-off last year.
Semi Finals
Andrew beat Brian after getting some very active endgame rooks and picking up a piece. Paul and Gabby seemed headed for a draw with both players having a rook and a pawn and no one making headway. The clock wound down with this situation on the board, and Paul’s clock fell first giving the game to Gabby.
‘Plate’ and ‘Bowl’ semis were also held so that everyone could keep playing:
5th to 8th:
Debbie Jenkins 0 Steve Peters 1;
John Guest ½ Harvey Quaresmini ½ (John won a 2 minute play-off game)
9th to 12th:
John Curran 1 Peter Hiller 0;
James Hiller 0 Michael Hussey 1
Final
With Gabby having white and 5 minutes in the final against Andrew’s 3½ it looked all over early on when Andrew had failed to castle and was in terrible positional strife. However he managed to arrive at the endgame just a pawn down which played out to a position where Gabby had just a pawn on e6 protected by his king, while Andrew had his king on e7 blocking the pawn. This is of course a drawn situation without a horrible blunder by black, and so Andrew offered a draw. Gabby refused saying he had 2 minutes versus 40 seconds and was going to win on time – and stated this was allowed under the rules. Andrew briefly mentioned that FIDE’s chief arbiter disagreed – the rules allow a draw claim on repitition in blitz - and anyway is this any way to win a game of chess? The lightning-paced-moves/clock-smashing continued, then a player at the next board jumped in and started to give his opinion on the situation. Perhaps these conjectures from the neighbouring board affected Gabby’s concentration, because during the frantic final moves Gabby’s king moved to c5 which allowed Andrew’s king to capture the pawn on e6 and the game was drawn. Gabby then complained (correctly) about discussions going on during play. (The offending parties were then given a warning about this).
So after 5 minutes to cool off, the game was replayed with Andew white this time around. Gabby blundered in midgame so that Andrew ended up with 2 rooks plus a knight v 2 rooks (both sides had pawns). During the endgame Gabby’s concentration slipped, affected by the outcome of the previous game. Gabby ended up forced to resign in a hopeless position, and went home saying he was still unhappy about the outcome of the first game. And this was unfortunately how the tournament ended.
Other results:
3rd place play-off: Brian Willcock 1 Paul Evans 0
5th place play-off: John Guest 1 Steve Peters 0
7th place play-off: Debbie Jenkins 0 Harvey Quaresmini 1
9th place play-off: Michael Hussey 1 John Curran 0
11th place play-off: James Hiller 0 Peter Hiller 1
Past winners of the Handicap Lightning tournament
Transfer
Transfer continued after the prize night tournament from about 11.30pm until 12.45am. Before this Andrew had played John Guest in a series of lightning games which John won 2-1 (although the last game was won by John by capturing the king – very controversial!!) Andrew teamed up with James in transfer against Paul and Peter, then Paul and Harvey, and managed to win the first 2 games, before a never-ending series of losses. Then Andrew and Peter took on Paul and Harvey with results about even, or did Andrew & Peter win 3-2? Why is it always so difficult to keep a track of the transfer results? Perhaps it is the anarchic spirit of the game?
Other news: A single game was played in the regular lightning tournament:
Harvey 1 Gabriel 0