2014 British Universities' Championship

[Alex Holowczak]

The tournament starts tomorrow, with 10 teams in the Championship, and 15 in the second tier Plate competition, for 2nd, 3rd etc. teams and teams whose average grade is below 140. The entry of 25 teams is a modern-day record.

The teams can be seen here: http://www.buca.org.uk/news/2014-buca-team-championship

The breaking news is that Cambridge, hitherto the number 2 seeds, have lost Yang-Fan Zhou on Board 1 of their 1st team.

Imperial are the highest-graded team as they prepare to defend the title they won in 2013.

[Peter D Williams]

The breaking news is that Cambridge, hitherto the number 2 seeds, have lost Yang-Fan Zhou on Board 1 of their 1st team.

Wonder why Yang-Fan is not playing for Cambridge? He still goes to the university.

Well it soon be time for chicken wrapped in bacon with new potatoes and a nice glass of white wine.

[Alex Holowczak]

Wonder why Yang-Fan is not playing for Cambridge? He still goes to the university.

He does indeed go to the University, and was indeed on their original registrations. I am sure he has his reasons, but it's not really any of my business.

Well it soon be time for chicken wrapped in bacon with new potatoes and a nice glass of white wine.

Fish and chips here for me!

[raycollett]

The tournament starts tomorrow.

I'll look forward to reports

[Alex Holowczak]

In a further development, Imperial's 1st team board 1 has dropped out, but a replacement within about 20 ECF points has been found, and they remain number 1 seed. Having done the draw (but not published it!), this latter point was a very welcome piece of information...!

[MartinCarpenter]

Imperial clearly doing astonishingly well for chess players right now! Anything can happen over 4 boards of course

Too many teams I could support so think I'd best stay neutral. Great to see it doing so well.

[Alex Holowczak]

Predictably, the last team to turn up were Birmingham - the team with the least distance to travel.

All 13 matches are now well underway. No results in yet, but that's because I haven't wandered upstairs to get any. Suppose I better had...

[Alex Holowczak]

Into Round 2. Results will (hopefully!) appear on the website when the webmaster finishes his game...

[Alex Holowczak]

Round 3. Cambridge, Imperial and York lead on 4 MPs.

Selected pairings:
(1) Imperial 1 [4] v Cambridge 1 [4]
(2) York 1 [4] v Edinburgh [2]
(3) UCL [2] v LSE 1 [2]

Birmingham, now that they're here, lead the Plate on 4/4 along with Imperial 2. That match is the top pairing in the Plate.

[Alex Holowczak]

Round 4. The top match sees York 1 taking on Imperial 1, both on 6 MPs. Cambridge 1 and LSE 1 are in the chasing pack.

[Paul Dargan]

Cant see any update since Saturday night on the BUCA site? Did imperial retain the title then?

[Alex Holowczak]

Yes, I was rather too busy to comment on here today. The time I spent commenting yesterday, I spent today watching Canada v Sweden in Sochi...

Imperial did indeed retain their title, with 10/10. Imperial 2 also won the Plate, beating Imperial 3 in the final round.

The webmaster assures me that all results and tables are on the website. I've not actually checked, but I've no reason to doubt him!

[Alex Holowczak]

The webmaster assures me that all results and tables are on the website. I've not actually checked, but I've no reason to doubt him!

Turns out, I have a reason to doubt him.

[Paul Dargan]

Thanks Alex - no doubt there'll be a celebratory email from Luke with the details shortly. Well done on re-invigorating the event, seems to be healthy again now.

Paul