Exciting News The Eglantine Summer Tournament Starts

For an organiser the summer tournament is always a challenge. Alex Beckett ran this tournament for several years and was quick and excellent at making the draws - made it look easy. I am never quite as good as Alex was but I try!

The first night is usually reasonably straightforward - I pair players with the next person rated above them, giving the lower rated player white. So looking at the door and checking names off my list of players in rating order the time ticked on and a draw had to be made.

With two top players present - Nicholas Pilkiewiez (1883) and Sergio Esteve Sanchez (1858). The pairing was changed so that the match between them was delayed to a latter evening.

It was 7:40 and time for the pairings: starting from the lower rated players up.

White                            Black

Mary McCabe            James Fairley

Daniil Zelenchuk       Barney McGahan

Derek Trusdale         Geoff Hindley

David Seaby              Dmitry Zelenchuk

Roy Stafford               Ram Rajan

Stewart McConaghy Bernard Jaffa

Chris Armstrong        John McKenna

Richard Gould           John Bryars

Robert Lavery            Sergio Esteve Sanchez

Mikhail Pavlov           Nicholas Pilkiewiez

and the games began

Daniil won a pawn and swapped down to a won endgame. Excellent Chess mastery.

Mary had James on the ropes but then let his Queen into the Kings space and James won.

Mikhail and Nicholas game went the full course being one of the last to finish. With Kings Pawns and Opposite coloured Bishops a draw seemed likely. But Nicholas pushed his King Rook pawn to get pressure with a passed pawn but also let Mikhail have a passed pawn. and this is what in the end won Mikhail the game - having two pawns opposite sides of the board - too far apart for both to be stopped an excellent bishop ending.

I saw some of Roberts and Sergio's game - lots of tactical lines a brilliant game of King in the Centre, Rook underdeveloped, extra piece against better development and attacking pieces - a difficult/challenging position to calculate - absolutely brilliant chess. and in the end a draw was agreed!

Chris Armstrong was in a difficult position, it looked like John McKenna would win but never take your eye off the clock. Tick tick and the flag falls - unfortunately for John it did and Chris breathed a sign of relief.

A night full of action. The final results:

Looking forward to this weeks competition on Weds - see you there if you dare....for a great game of chess.