Big Slick Tournament

[John Saunders]

GM Simon Williams' new event, held at the Big Slick Poker Club (Unit 10, Royal Oak Centre, Brighton Road, Purley, Surrey CR8 2BG) got underway today. I haven't been yet but I hope to go tomorrow. The tournament runs 27 June - 5 July.

Simon has sent out the round 1 games of the GM event (category 6: Arkell, Gormally, Galego and Cherniaev are the GMs)

Here is a link which I have put up at BritBase:

http://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/2009bigslick.html - round 1 games are there.

I'll try to keep this reasonably up to date though I might not be able to do so next Tuesday/Wednesday as I shall be elsewhere those days.

Round 1 results: Gormally ½-½ Cherniaev, Ansell 0-1 Slavin, Galego 1-0 Eames, Poobalasingam ½-½ Arkell, Rudd 1-0 Kjartansson. I'm told Jonathan Rowson drew in the first round of the open but have not seen the pairings.

The official website is at http://www.gingergm.com/big-slick-chess/

[James Coleman]

Hi John

Thanks for posting the games. The first round pairings are at http://www.gingergm.com/2009/06/25/1st- ... e-section/

Cheers

James

[Matthew Turner]

John,
Thanks for the games, it looks like it was a hard fought first round. I sense this is going to be a very interesting tournament.

[David Sedgwick]

It was actually Round 3 in which Jonathan Rowson was held to a draw - by Jorge Rodriguez-Fonseca (2051).

Paul Dupre is sole leader with 3/3 and is currently in play against Mark Ruston.

Simon Williams can be very pleased with his efforts so far.

[Ben Purton]

Arkell beat rudd, Draw in Luis V Slavin.........

Rowson and one of Rich and Ruston will win the open with 4.5/5 , I think Rich declined a draw.

Bit of a funny game because Ruston is a Sambuca Shark and Rich is a Drunken Knight so loyalties divided!.

Good event.

I only got 3/5

Ben

[Matthew Turner]

Ben,
Any info on any games, particularly Bob Eames vs Peter P.?

[John Saunders]

I went along this afternoon to take some pictures but I didn't stay for the end of the round. I'll get some photos to Simon at some point so he can put them up somewhere (or I might just put them on the web myself).

One really excellent thing about the venue is the air conditioning! It's a scorching hot day in South London and I really noticed the difference when I left the venue and returned to my car.

[Ben Purton]

Hi matt

Peters game was well weird at the end, literally both sides had 2 pawns on the 7th rank to queen with B and Rook, I thought he was better...

Sarah is a WFM!!! she got her title at the tourn.

Ben

[Matthew Turner]

Ben,
Thanks for updates. Please pass on congratulations to Sarah. Very interesting news from you earlier about the Salomé Neuhauser match.
Matt

[Gavin Strachan]

Just wondering if this should be put in the Congress Section?

[Matthew Turner]

This is a new event with a new organiser and it is an International event in the South East. I think this of greater importance than a normal congress and is, I hope, of general interest.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Well, much the same was true of Sean Hewitt's tournaments? I think the high profile of this one owes more to the GM celebrity of the organiser than anything else. I think it would be best put in the Congress section, with just a flag in the General Chat section to guide people to it.

I' m surprised to learn that Sarah Hegarty was not a WFM already - she is surely about as strong as most WIMs?

[Gavin Strachan]

You are right that this is important. I just think that this, the London Tournament and any other future events go into a new section called "Current Tournament News" rather than be somewhat lost in the rather generic "General" with a menagerie of threads.

[David Sedgwick]

I think the high profile of this one owes more to the GM celebrity of the organiser than anything else.

And there was I thinking it was due to the exceptional distinction of the arbiter.

When a talented young GM turns his hand to organising, is not the resulting event deserving of a high profile?

If all continues to go well, I hope to be able from time to time to report points of interest on this thread (wherever it ends up).

If there should be any problems, I'm likely to be otherwise occupied, of course.

[John Upham]

Can anyone point me at the completed results crosstables please?

I should have gone to Specsavers no doubt!