Road to Grandmaster

Discuss anything you like about chess related matters in this forum.
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Joey Stewart
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Re: Road to Grandmaster

Post by Joey Stewart » Mon Feb 28, 2011 11:23 pm

The commentators should check any of these incredible suggstions that get sent into them and then embarrass the sender by pointing out which engine they had referred to for their great wisdom.
Lose one queen and it is a disaster, Lose 1000 queens and it is just a statistic.

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Joey Stewart
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Re: Road to Grandmaster

Post by Joey Stewart » Mon Feb 28, 2011 11:25 pm

More to the point, actually, where is Will - we have'nt seen him around here for ages. I hope he is not letting his 'other' activities get in the way of responding to his fans - that is no way to go about becoming a grandmaster - he needs to know that with great power comes great responsibility.
Lose one queen and it is a disaster, Lose 1000 queens and it is just a statistic.

Will Taylor
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Re: Road to Grandmaster

Post by Will Taylor » Tue Mar 01, 2011 12:40 am

Joey Stewart wrote:More to the point, actually, where is Will - we have'nt seen him around here for ages. I hope he is not letting his 'other' activities get in the way of responding to his fans - that is no way to go about becoming a grandmaster - he needs to know that with great power comes great responsibility.
Hello Joey. Still lurking. :)
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Michael Jones
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Re: Road to Grandmaster

Post by Michael Jones » Tue Mar 01, 2011 9:49 am

Joey Stewart wrote:That should be a good test for your skills - there are some tough board ones at the universites
Tell me about it - as you'll no doubt remember, at the 2007 tournament I was top board for Warwick third team and spent most of the tournament getting caned by the board ones of everyone else's first teams!

Alex Holowczak
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Re: Road to Grandmaster

Post by Alex Holowczak » Tue Mar 01, 2011 9:57 am

Michael Jones wrote:
Joey Stewart wrote:That should be a good test for your skills - there are some tough board ones at the universites
Tell me about it - as you'll no doubt remember, at the 2007 tournament I was top board for Warwick third team and spent most of the tournament getting caned by the board ones of everyone else's first teams!
There were some very strong board ones this time. Aston came unstuck; usually in League games we can rely on Ryszard Maciol to win on 1 for us, but he could only get 3/5, 2/4 if you take out the scratch team (even they had a 200+ on board 1!).

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Joey Stewart
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Re: Road to Grandmaster

Post by Joey Stewart » Tue Mar 01, 2011 5:32 pm

I got 3.5/5 the year I played board 1 for warwick.
Lose one queen and it is a disaster, Lose 1000 queens and it is just a statistic.

Michael Jones
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Re: Road to Grandmaster

Post by Michael Jones » Wed Mar 02, 2011 1:18 am

I scored 1.5/6 - win against Reading (none of their players was graded - they'd only set up a club that year and did well to get a team out at all), swindled draw against Warwick 4 thanks to knowing an endgame trick my opponent evidently didn't, and losses to players graded 149, 185, 203 and 217 at a time I was 118 myself. The 149 was Warwick 2, the rest were all first teams.

On an incidental note, there were two players who played both the 2007 and 2010 BUCA - Ben Simpson (Warwick) and Kwesi Menyah (Imperial). I presume neither of them was still playing this year.

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Joey Stewart
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Re: Road to Grandmaster

Post by Joey Stewart » Sun Mar 06, 2011 8:49 pm

Is there not another player who has been in alot of inter university tournaments, who could still enter this year as well....?
Lose one queen and it is a disaster, Lose 1000 queens and it is just a statistic.

Geoff Chandler
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Re: Road to Grandmaster

Post by Geoff Chandler » Tue Mar 08, 2011 1:41 am

Hi Michael.

"....thanks to knowing an endgame trick my opponent evidently didn't."

Don't tease me like this. I collect these things.
Please share.

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David Grobler
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Re: Road to Grandmaster

Post by David Grobler » Sun Mar 13, 2011 9:55 pm

Just got home from yet another wasted weekend (Blackpool this time !)
However , I got the opportunity to briefly speak with Will , and offer my congratulations on a fine Round 4 win in the Open .
He could have been playing in the Median tourny (under 155)...with a decent chance of winning £600...he on paper would have been one of the favourites .That would have no doubt helped put a sizeable dent in the Student Loan.... However , he chose to mix it with players graded 50 points or more higher than himself . I think he should be admired for his bravery . He makes himself a bit of a target...putting himself up there to be knocked down ....but dont you hope he does well?
I have no idea what his grade next year will be...but Id guess there will be a decent improvement . He has many years to go......keep it up mate !

LozCooper

Re: Road to Grandmaster

Post by LozCooper » Sun Mar 13, 2011 10:05 pm

David Grobler wrote:Just got home from yet another wasted weekend (Blackpool this time !)
However , I got the opportunity to briefly speak with Will , and offer my congratulations on a fine Round 4 win in the Open .
He could have been playing in the Median tourny (under 155)...with a decent chance of winning £600...he on paper would have been one of the favourites .That would have no doubt helped put a sizeable dent in the Student Loan.... However , he chose to mix it with players graded 50 points or more higher than himself . I think he should be admired for his bravery . He makes himself a bit of a target...putting himself up there to be knocked down ....but dont you hope he does well?
I have no idea what his grade next year will be...but Id guess there will be a decent improvement . He has many years to go......keep it up mate !
I hadn't realised he was playing :oops:

Jonathan Hawkins won the open with 4.5/5 beating Mark Hebden in the last round with white in a Marshall Attack ending. They had both started the round on 3/5/4 with Stewart Haslinger who lost to Bogdan Lalic who was half behind. Bogdan was joined on 4/5 by Adam Ashton who beat Richard Britton with black. Jonathan played Britton, Ashton, Haslinger and Hebden in rounds 2-5.

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Joey Stewart
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Re: Road to Grandmaster

Post by Joey Stewart » Sun Mar 13, 2011 11:23 pm

That is a fine effort, Hawkins is one of those players who has never really been on the rader but has consistently improved a little bit at a time year by year. I wouldnt be surprised if he starts to make his own steps along the road to grand master sometime in the near future.
Lose one queen and it is a disaster, Lose 1000 queens and it is just a statistic.

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David Grobler
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Re: Road to Grandmaster

Post by David Grobler » Sun Mar 13, 2011 11:33 pm

Joey Stewart wrote:That is a fine effort, Hawkins is one of those players who has never really been on the rader but has consistently improved a little bit at a time year by year. I wouldnt be surprised if he starts to make his own steps along the road to grand master sometime in the near future.
Im WAYYY out of my depth here (I barely know how the peices move)...but I watched Haslinger play Hawkins . GM Haslinger (I think) had a MASSIVE attack after sacing a pawn and pushing his h pawn way up the board to gain what appeared to my numpty brain a winning position . I was interested in this , as I had just been mated for the second time in less than 20 moves by similar h4 pawn storms against my castled king . How Hawkins survived ...well...I dont know . But thats why he will be a great GM.....and I wont :(

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Road to Grandmaster

Post by Roger de Coverly » Mon Mar 14, 2011 12:15 am

Joey Stewart wrote:I wouldnt be surprised if he starts to make his own steps along the road to grand master sometime in the near future.
As an IM with a respectable rating, surely already within sight of the target, 100 points or so and the necessary GM norms to go.

Richard Bates
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Re: Road to Grandmaster

Post by Richard Bates » Mon Mar 14, 2011 7:35 am

Joey Stewart wrote:That is a fine effort, Hawkins is one of those players who has never really been on the rader but has consistently improved a little bit at a time year by year.
I don't know about this - i would say that Jonathan is more of an example of a text book meteoric rise from nowhere!

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