45 Minute Tournament
Results:
Marty Chadwick 1 Ray Adams 0
Stuart Wilson 0 Zoltan Vasahelki 1
Shane Martin 0 Andrew Robinson 1
Mick Waters 1 Tim Johnson 0
Tim Johnson 0 Harvey Quaresmini 1
Harvey Quaresmini 1 Mick Waters 0
Ray Adams 1 Debbie Jenkins 0
Marty was in good form tonight and beat Ray in a solid performance that leaves Marty the only unbeaten player in Group A. Ray beat Debbie later in the evening to keep his own chances of winning the group. Debbie said she has not been in great form the past week (she plays on the Internet from home), but the win throws the group wide open with four players still with realistic chances of progressing to the final. Zoltan won his game very comfortably.
Group B held no surprises, however Shane played very strongly to push Andrew all the way. At one stage the position was: [W: Kf3 Rg1 Bd5 Bg5 a2 b3 c4 h4; B: Ke7 Rd8 Bf6 Nb4 a6 c5 d4 h5]. Play then proceeded with: 1 Ke4 Nxa2; 2 Bxf6+ Kxf6. Following up with Rg5 would have put white in a very strong position following 3 Rg5 Nc3+; 4 Kd3 Nxd5; 5 cxd5 (not Rxd5). The difference in the game turned out to be endgame experience, together with Shane’s time trouble in the closing stages. Harvey won his two games on the night, leaving three players unbeaten in the group: Andrew, Harvey and Mark (who attended tonight but didn’t end up playing a tournament game).
This year there seems to be a healthy interest in the 45 Minute tournament that was somewhat missing in previous years. As a curiosity there have been three previous play-off finals and all three matches have been disappointing affairs. For example, in the 2001 play-off Patrick Tao claimed that he was not aware that his game with Harvey was the tournament’s play-off final, had ‘forgotten’ that it was scheduled, and played recklessly as a result, treating it as a social game! Links to the news reports for previous finals are below:
Let’s hope this year’s final is befitting of a tournament decider!
45 Minute 2005: Current standings
Players to play 4 games in Group A and 5 games in Group B
Group A
|
No. |
NAME |
POINTS |
PLAYED |
|
1 |
Ray Adams |
3 |
4 |
|
2 |
Marty Chadwick |
2 |
2 |
|
3 |
Zoltan Vasahelki |
1 |
2 |
|
4 |
Debbie Jenkins |
0 |
1 |
|
5 |
Stuart Wilson |
0 |
3 |
Group B
|
No. |
NAME |
POINTS |
PLAYED |
|
1 |
Andrew Robinson |
3 |
3 |
|
2 |
Harvey Quaresmini |
2 |
2 |
|
3 |
Mark Taylor |
1 |
1 |
|
4 |
Mick Waters |
1 |
4 |
|
5 |
Shane Martin |
0 |
1 |
|
6 |
Tim Johnson |
0 |
3 |
45 Minute Tournament 2005 in detail
Quote of the night
“Queens off the board. That’s good for the Republic” – Zoltan, while playing Marty