Oxford University Rapidplay.

[Eoin Devane]

The 7th Oxford University Rapidplay took place on Saturday at Lincoln College, Oxford. Before giving a brief report, I'd like to say how grateful we are, as usual, to Priscilla Morris and Tim Dickinson for their tremendous job controlling the two sections.

The U170 section proved to be very close, with the prize winners not being decided until the last few minutes of the final round. Indeed, for a while it looked possible that we might end up with a four-way tie for first place! However, Graham Alcock (Didcot) managed to pull through in his game against Ti Chen (Oxford University) to cap a magnificent 6/6 performance and take the victory. Ed Farrington (Oxford University) and Gary Jackson (Banbury) also managed to win tight games in the final round to secure joint second place between them. An impressive four straight wins to finish gave Tom Rixon (Hemel Hempstead) the U145 grading prize. Full results from this section are available here.

The Open was just as interesting, with numerous talented juniors competing with some established names. In the end, the top seed, GM Alexander Cherniaev (Hackney) conceded just two draws, to Thanasis Tsanas (Oxford University) and James Holland (Maidenhead), on his way to claiming first place. The decisive result turned out to be Cherniaev’s impressive win against one of England’s most promising juniors, Brandon Clarke (Littlethorpe), in the penultimate round. Second place was shared by Holland, who was awarded the U190 grading prize, Tsanas and Clarke. A full crosstable is available here.

[John Hickman]

Thanks Eoin and all concerned in running this congress. I was only my second ever rapidplay and I had a good time.

Below is the game I played against Ed Farrington, who won all of his other games and could well have won this one had he found the follow up to his Rook sac combo on move 24 after coming at me like a pawn saccing maniac right from move one

[Event "Oxford University Rapidplay Major"]
[Date "2009.11.07"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Hickman, John"]
[Black "Farrington, Ed"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A04"]
[Annotator "Hickman,John"]

1. Nf3 e5 2. Nxe5 Nc6 3. Nxc6 dxc6 4. d4 Nf6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 Be7 7. e3 Be6 8.
Bd3 Qd7 9. Nd2 O-O-O 10. Qe2 Rhe8 11. O-O g5 12. Bg3 Bg4 13. f3 Be6 14. a3 h5
15. b4 h4 16. Bf2 g4 17. Bxh4 Rh8 18. Bxf6 Bxf6 19. f4 g3 20. hxg3 Bg4 21. Qf2
Qd5 22. c4 Qh5 23. Qe1 Rxd4 24. Ne4 Rxe4 25. Bxe4 Re8 (25... Qh2+ 26. Kf2 Rh3)
26. Bf3 Bxa1 27. Qxa1 Rxe3 28. Bxg4+ Qxg4 29. Qh8+ Kd7 30. Qd4+ 1-0