British Championship Thread

[Jonathan Bryant]

oops not sure what's happened here. How can I get rid of this post?

[Jonathan Bryant]

But the fact is you can't claim Conquest winning the title would not be justified because of rounds 1-9 opposition ...

Oh I can and do claim exactly that. I accept, of course, that not everybody agrees with me.

[Ian Lamb]

how come there no pgn files yet for round 9?

[David Haydon]

my predictions

1 Conquest, Stuart........ 2572 (6½) ..draw... Howell, David W L....... 2614 (7½) 2 1
2 Wells, Peter............ 2498 (6½) ..draw... Williams, Simon K....... 2527 (7) 7 5
3 Hebden, Mark............ 2468 (6½) 1-0..... Rendle, Thomas.......... 2377 (6½) 10 19
4 Hawkins, Jonathan....... 2325 (6) .0-1.... Jones, Gawain C......... 2554 (6) 25 3
5 Gordon, Stephen......... 2537 (6) ....1-0. Greet, Andrew N......... 2443 (6) 4 12


6 Palliser, Richard JD.... 2413 (6) .draw.... Summerscale, Aaron...... 2454 (6) 14 11
7 Littlewood, Paul E...... 2358 (5½) ..0-1... Gormally, Daniel........ 2490 (5½) 20 8
8 Rudd, Jack.............. 2326 (5½) ...0-1.. Trent, Lawrence......... 2471 (5½) 24 9
9 Zhou, Yang-Fan.......... 2265 (5½) 0-1..... Buckley, Graeme......... 2398 (5½) 31 15
10 Lane, Gary.............. 2379 (5½) ...1-0.. Fitzsimons, David....... 2167 (5½) 18 45

[Alex Holowczak]

Well, for Jonathan's sake, there are 32 teams in the NFL, split into 2 conferences of 16, which are again split into 4 divisions of 4. The Patriots are in the AFC East, the Giants in the NFC East. The Patriots won their division with 16-0, the Giants finished second in theirs and finished 10-6. They therefore only got into the playoffs as a "wildcard", one of the two best runners-up who didn't win their division.

Now, there are 32 teams and 16 games - therefore you do not play every team. The 16 games are composed by:
1. 6 games, home & away v the other teams in your division
2. 4 games, 2 home, 2 away v the teams in another random division in the same conference as you. So that you play every other team, this is on a 3-year cycle.
3. 2 games, 1 home, 1 away v two teams in the other divisions in your conference who finished in the same ranking as you in their division in the previous season.
4. 4 games, 2 home, 2 away v the teams in a random division in the other conference. So that you play every other team, this is on a 4-year cycle.

So, there is a lot of possibility that one team's schedule can be a lot easier than another's. That season, the Giants had a ridiculously strong schedule. Their division rivals had records of 13-3, 9-7, 8-8. Conversely, the Patriots' division rivals had records of 7-9, 4-12, 1-15. So the schedule would be easier for New England than New York. Indeed, the two teams played a very close game in Week 17 of the regular season (each team has a bye week, so there are 17 weeks, not 16). So although one team went 16-0 and the other went 10-6, the teams were of roughly the same standard.

This is comparable to a Swiss, where a player will most likely have a different schedule of matches to a rival - so I think the comparison to the NFL is an excellent one.

[Alex Holowczak]

I hope that Conquest wins, board 2 is a draw, Hebden, Jones, Summerscale all win. If that happens, there could be an awful lot of players in contention going into the final round.

[Ben Purton]

You have to respect the fryed liver. Top stuff by Conquest. brilliant

[Carl Hibbard]

You have to respect the fryed liver. Top stuff by Conquest. brilliant

Bd3 is the Nakamura line played recently isn't it?

[Jonathan Bryant]

Well, for Jonathan's sake ...

thanks alex, although that NFL teams don't play each other I already knew. I think we'll have to agree to disagree on whether the scale of variance in programme is similar.

[James Coleman]

It strikes me as being poor form (no disrespect intended Jonathan, just my opinion) to say that someone would not be justified in winning the title because of the strength of their opposition. As well as Ben's NFL example, there are many examples of athletes winning gold at the Olympics who would never have won had a "more deserving" competitor(s) not been injured, boycotting etc. Or did Federer never deserve to Wimbledon this year because all his opponents had to play Federer and he didn't ?

[Tim Lunn]

Just to point out, you are taking in only the opposition so far.
Should Conquest win the title he is likely to have played Howell and Williams.
Likewise, if Howell loses (to Conquest) then he will then have lower ranked players.
After 11 rounds, the winners run-in would look more favourable than present.

Also, if we're assuming Howell & Williams are most deserving (and therefore playing better), then for a player like Conquest to then beat Howell and Williams back-to-back, isn't that 'deserving' of the title?
Another minor point is that Conquest might in fact secretly be playing the better chess (after a slip-up) but hasn't had the opposition to prove it!

B-t-w, not suggesting Conquest will win. I think Howell. He deserves it!!

[Alex Holowczak]

It strikes me as being poor form (no disrespect intended Jonathan, just my opinion) to say that someone would not be justified in winning the title because of the strength of their opposition. As well as Ben's NFL example, there are many examples of athletes winning gold at the Olympics who would never have won had a "more deserving" competitor(s) not been injured, boycotting etc. Or did Federer never deserve to Wimbledon this year because all his opponents had to play Federer and he didn't ?

Or even, did Federer deserve to win the French Open (at last) because Nadal was crocked in his match against Soderling?

[James Coleman]

Yes I agree Howell would fully deserve it.

On another note is there something up with the Conquest game relay? He can't have been thinking for this long, Black's ...Nd5 is the main theoretical move and can't have come as a surprise...

[James Coleman]

OK it seems he's just moved, sorry

[Ian Lamb]

conquest like to think james a lot i seen him play many games where he thinks in the opening. also on the fryed liver horner tried it again lalic at last year British and got crushed with it i seem to remember at liverpool. i think fryed liver washed up myself