Fisherwick Spring Tournament 2008
The joint winners, Woodfield and Millar, contest an October league game
The tournament may have lasted over a month, but the leading places were only to be decided in the final minutes of the concluding round.
It appeared that a two horse race was emerging as early as round 3, with Chris Millar of QUB and Fisherwick's Ian Woodfield moving clear at the top with 100% records. After then drawing their own encounter, both drawing with Neil Green and beating Norman McFarland, the two Division 1 players entered the final round on 5/6 - a full point clear of the chasing pack.
At this stage though, fortune favoured Woodfield. His scheduled round 7 opponent - the extremely solid and experienced Gerry Pollock - didn't show. This left a 1.5 tournament point and 750 grading points upfloat for Kevin O'Neill. Ian dispatched his opponent cleanly and convincingly, leaving Chris to slog it out for a win against Bernard Jaffa for a share of the 1st place prize money and trophy.
After a highly untheoretical opening from Jaffa, Millar blundered and suddenly found himself looking on the worse side of the complications in an open position. It looked highly likely that a tactical bolt from the blue would provide a middlegame knockout for either side, yet play finally reached what seemed a very drawn rook and pawn endgame. Bernard, perhaps encouraged to fiddle by his opponent's dwindling time, put a foot wrong by conceeding a tempo and the exchange of rooks. When Jaffa then lost another tempo by gobbling an apparently free pawn, he was then ruthlessly ground out in what had become a won endgame for the QUB student.
This final action left Chris Millar and Ian Woodfield as joint winners - sharing the prize money and trophy - with each earning an unbeaten 6/7 score.
Kevin O'Neill claimed the grading prize, finishing with 3.5 points via wins over David Seaby and Cathal Murphy, plus a travelling and full point bye.
