Report – 8 February 2008
Lightning Tournament
Three players – Mark, Jonathan and Matthew – did not show up this Friday which left eight players in the tournament and lots of bye and forfeits each round.
The tournament’s outcome was settled early in the night when Garvin beat Brian’s two closest rivals Andrew and Brendan in consecutive games. These games were not without incident. Garvin called time on Andrew with only Garvin’s bishop on the board against Andrew’s single pawn. After some moments of uncertainty, Garvin resolved the matter in his favour and claimed victory which Andrew confirmed. This is a correct interpretation of the Laws of Chess (as borne out in this nocturnal conversation).
However the current Laws of Chess in this regard do seem absurd. For example, why should a player with no material whose time has elapsed gain a draw against a lone knight, but lose if they retain a rook? To the layman, the old rules make far more sense –that is, any material wins except a lone bishop, a lone knight, or two knights.
Back to the tournament.. Brendan had two setbacks, firstly when he lost to Garvin pursuant to a gross blunder, and then when he lost to Brian. Against Brian, Brendan forgot the golden rule of blitz chess: that you don’t play to push a small advantage through to a win in complex situations against the tournament leader with less than 30 seconds on the clock. Such a small rule, but one easily forgotten in the heat of battle!
Brendan had a third setback in the game that decided the second/third/fourth places. In this game he allowed Andrew to get two rooks on the seventh rank, and the game won itself after this. Garvin’s fine finish on the second night allowed him to claim third place, meaning that the top three were the same for 2008 as in 2007.
A final note of congratulations to Nathan who set himself a target of stunning mediocrity for one of his talent (a 50% score) and managed to not only to meet it, but to significantly exceed it.
Lightning 2008: Final standings
All players to play 20 games
|
No. |
NAME |
POINTS |
PLAYED |
|
1 |
Brian Thomas |
19.5 |
20 |
|
2 |
Andrew Robinson |
16.0 |
20 |
|
3 |
Garvin Gray |
15.5 |
20 |
|
4 |
Brendan Griffen |
15.0 |
20 |
|
5 |
Nathan Shaw |
12.5 |
20 |
|
6 |
Mark Taylor |
8.5 |
20 |
|
7 |
John Roper |
6.5 |
20 |
|
8 |
Thomas Robinson |
5.5 |
20 |
|
9 |
Mark Borill |
4.0 |
20 |
|
10 |
Jonathan Bester |
4.0 |
20 |
|
11 |
Matthew Bester |
0.0 |
20 |
Lightning Tournament 2008 results in detail
Week two results
No. Player Rating 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Total
1 Mark Taylor 1058 X X 1F 0 ½ 0 1F 1 0 0 1F 1 5.5
2 BYE X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
3 Jonathan Bester Unrated 0F X X 0F 0F 0F 0F 0F 0F 0F 0F 0F 0.0
4 Nathan Shaw 1241 1 X 1F X 0 ½ 1F 1 0 0 1F 1 6.5
5 Andrew Robinson 1526 ½ X 1F 1 X 1 1F 1 0 0 1F 1 7.5
6 Brendan Griffen unrated 1 X 1F ½ 0 X 1F 1 0 0 1F 1 6.5
7 Mark Borrill 852 0F X 0F 0F 0F 0F X 0F 0F 0F 0F 0F 0.0
8 John Roper 826 0 X 1F 0 0 0 1F X 0 0 1F 1 4.0
9 Garvin Gray 1242 1 X 1F 1 1 1 1F 1 X 0 1F ½ 8.5
10 Brian Thomas 1896 1 X 1F 1 1 1 1F 1 1 X 1F 1 10.0
11 Matthew Bester unrated 0F X 0F 0F 0F 0F 0F 0F 0F 0F X 0F 0.0
12 Thomas Robinson unrated 0 X 1F 0 0 0 1F ½ 0 0 1F X 3.5
|
Round |
Week two – Pairings |
|||||
|
1 |
12-1 |
11-2 |
10-3 |
9-4 |
8-5 |
7-6 |
|
2 |
7-12 |
6-8 |
5-9 |
4-10 |
3-11 |
2-1 |
|
3 |
12-2 |
1-3 |
11-4 |
10-5 |
9-6 |
8-7 |
|
4 |
8-12 |
7-9 |
6-10 |
5-11 |
4-1 |
3-2 |
|
5 |
12-3 |
2-4 |
1-5 |
11-6 |
10-7 |
9-8 |
|
6 |
9-12 |
8-10 |
7-11 |
6-1 |
5-2 |
4-3 |
|
7 |
12-4 |
3-5 |
2-6 |
1-7 |
11-8 |
10-9 |
|
8 |
10-12 |
9-11 |
8-1 |
7-2 |
6-3 |
5-4 |
|
9 |
12-5 |
4-6 |
3-7 |
2-8 |
1-9 |
11-10 |
|
10 |
11-12 |
10-1 |
9-2 |
8-3 |
7-4 |
6-5 |
|
11 |
12-6 |
5-7 |
4-8 |
3-9 |
2-10 |
1-11 |
Quote of the night
“That sux!” – Brendan’s reaction to losing on time to Brian after he had mistakenly focussed on winning on the board rather than the clock during the last 30 seconds. Being a lightning tournament, he wasn’t the only one!