Lavery Grabs Honours

Rapidplay

For some, the competition was a little too soon after an early summer holiday but for most it was game on. The field may have been short on numbers but it was a relatively high average rating.

Not surprisingly, round 1 played out more or less by rating as top half of players faced the bottom half. Shock of the day was a resounding loss by Mark Newman to a 1200 player; admittedly it was David McAlister who evidently has been working at his game.

Round 2 was more of the same except at the bottom of the pile with Drew Ferguson blundering to Geoff Hindley. Matches were a tight 15 minutes with no increments; it was do or die and plenty of flags were falling in the sluggish atmosphere.

Next round 3 saw a few more wobblies: Top boards of the competition played off very early with Nick Pilkiewicz besting Damien Lavery. Mark Newman got the better of Steve Eachus while David McAlister scored another win scalping Robert Lavery. And again at the bottom, Drew Ferguson crashed & burned to Adrian Donford.Smith. It looked like Nick was in for a clean sweep while Drew chased the wooden spoon.

Nothing changed in round 4 with all games playing out to ratings. Round 5 saw a few balanced matches raise the odd eyebrow. David McAlister continued his return from the doldrums by winning against Steve Eachus. Adrain Donford-Smith took a good win against Geoff Hindley while Drew Ferguson spoiled his duck with an unexpected win against Peter Wilson.

The final round finished the competition with a spectacular win from Robert Lavery against leader Nick Pilkiewicz. Mark Newman held Damien Lavery to a draw on board 2. On board 3, Peter Wilson drew in a fluctuating encounter with David McAlister. Bottom board Drew Ferguson had Alan Burns under the cosh angling for a mate till a horrible blunder gifted the game to Alan.

All in all, a fine afternoon's chess.

Winner: Nick Pilkiewicz	Runner-up: Damien Lavery	Grading prize: Robert Lavery

1. Nick Pilkiewicz (winner)
2. Damien Lavery (runner-up)
3. Robert Lavery (grading prize)

Grand Prix

Robert Lavery may have had little competition at the start of this final event, but the senior position could have been anyones. On the day, with Mike Redman unavailable and Cal Leitch a no show, it was down to Nick Pilkiewicz to show his worth which he did in fine style boosting his ranking by 10 full points. And not far behind him was NICS own veteran campaigner, Alan Burns who claimed the "best NICS player" prize.

Robert Lavery	Nick Pilkiewicz	Alan Burns

1. Robert Lavery (junior & outright winner)
2. Nick Pilkiewicz (senior winner)
3. Alan Burns (best placed NICS player)

Links

• Final Rapidplay Standings
• Grand Prix Standings
• 3rd Rapidplay
• 2nd Rapidplay
• 1st Rapidplay