Bangor Chess Club 20th Annual Chess Congress

This event, held at Bangor Grammar School, was a 6 round Swiss Rapidplay (30 minutes for each player) with 2 sections. The event was controlled by Neil Green, assisted by Bangor members Richard Proctor, Martin Rogers and Tony Beckett.

SENIOR: 16 COMPETITORS

1^ST STEVE SCANNELL 5½/6
2^ND= GARETH ANNESLEY, MICHAEL HOLMES AND RICHARD MCMASTER 4½
(GARETH ANNESLEY RECEIVED THE GRADING PRIZE)
5^TH= JOHN STRAWBRIDGE, PAUL MCLOUGHLIN AND RAY DEVENNEY 3½
8^TH= NEIL FISHER, TONY PARKER AND STEVE MCCANN 3

JUNIOR: 19 COMPETITORS

1^ST= DAVID COLLINS, LOUIS HOLMES AND SEAN LINTON 5/6
4^TH= NEIL COOPER, IAN WOODFIELD AND JONATHAN WOODFIELD 4
7^TH SAM LYNN 3½
8^TH= MARK SEIDMAN, ED MORGAN AND KENNY MCCARTAN 3

PRIZE MONEY SHARED; TROPHY TO SEAN LINTON ON TIE-BREAK

GRADING PRIZES TO IAN WOODFIELD AND NICOLA HOOD

Report and annotated games from Steve Scannell:

I was fortunate enough to win the Senior Section for the third successive year with five wins and a draw. However there were a couple of tense moments; a fourth round dramatic time scramble with John Strawbridge and a tough final round draw with Gareth Annesley. My thanks on behalf of all the competitors to Cooper Technology for kindly sponsoring the event, to the members of Bangor Chess Club for all their hard work and to Bangor Grammar School for hosting the event for the last three years. Also congratulations to Alan Burns of CIYMS who has attended the Congress every year. Way to go, Alan!

Going into a rapidplay tourney like this I always ask myself "What does it take to do well." I always feel that more emphasis is placed on your instincts since lengthy analysis is out of the question. Quick opening play is essential combined with good endgame knowledge which enables you to switch on to auto-pilot with seconds to spare. Also the intangibles like space, pressure and the initiative tend to make themselves felt in quicker time controls. I also feel a more classical style of play with direct occupation of the centre is maybe more suitable under such conditions. For me, it takes more time to find that subtle positional move in a hypermodern opening than in say a Queen’s Gambit.

Enough theory, here are two of my games from the event.

• Newman,M - Scannell,S
  
• Annesley,G - Scannell,S