English Chess Forum

I'll start: Draws on 1, 2, and 5. Si Williams and Stephen Gordon winning, and Varnam and Ynojosa providing the upsets.

1 Hebden, Mark............ 2468 (1) 1-0 Howell, David W L....... 2614 (1)
2 Greet, Andrew N......... 2443 (1) 1/2-1/2 Jones, Gawain C.. 2554 (1) 12 3
3 Gordon, Stephen......... 2537 (1) 1/2-1/2 Rendle, Thomas.... 2377 (1) 4 19
4 Palliser, Richard JD.... 2413 (1) 0-1 Williams, Simon K....... 2527 (1) 14 5
5 Lane, Gary.............. 2379 (1) 0-1 Wells, Peter............ 2498 (1) 18 7


6 Gormally, Daniel........ 2490 (1) 1-0 Eggleston, David J...... 2341 (1) 8 21
7 Hawkins, Jonatha... 2325 (1) 1/2-1/2 ..... Trent, Lawrence. 2471 (1) 25 9
8 Houska, Jovanka 2392 (½) 1/2-1/2... Summerscale, Aaron. 2454 (1) 16 11
9 Ynojosa, Felix Jose..... 2188 (1) 0-1..... Cobb, James....... 2432 (½) 42 13
10 Conquest, Stuart........ 2572 (0) .1-0.... Birtwistle, Nigel... 2186 (1) 2 43


11 Varnam, Liam............ 2167 (1) 1/2-1/2 Buckley, Graeme 2398 (½) 46 15
12 Arkell, Keith C......... 2521 (0) 1-0..... Khandelwal, Ankush. 2160 (1) 6 47
13 Eden, Tomer............. 2157 (1) 0-1 ..... Kolbus, Dietm..... 2383 (½) 48 17
14 Raoof, Adam N........... 2144 (1) 0-1..... Lalic, Susan....... 2334 (0) 52 23

I have bet on Howell and was not happy to see he had black V Mark. Because Mark is on form, so 1/2 would be the jolly in a bookmakers, but I think that would be the "upset" if you can call it that big a one.

Well, Howell will have motivation to win the prize money. Take a read of this.

I reckon he would rather win the title than 5k. 110%

Ben

I suppose so. You'd think the ECF could foot the bill for Short on Howell's behalf.

That would negate the office wages!! The priority

£5,000! Lot of money for Nigel...

I really don't understand the economics of chess.

I don't believe there is any money even for the winner of the World Junior Champ? Just the chance really to get invited to... more chess tournaments.

I'd like people's views on this!

Why does he not hire a coach and not a player/coach. One of Radja's coaches, they'd be alot cheaper.

Ben

just shows how much negi from india must be paying short to be his coach. ok today draw i go for wins for howell jones gordon and willimas lane v wells draw gormally to beat egglston hawkins v trent draw summerscale to beat Houska cobb to beat ynjosa conquest to beat birtwhistle buckley to beat varnam and arkell to beat Khandelwal,iam expecting things to return to normal today with the strong players having a much better day.

looking further down the list, I would not be surprised if Subin Sen - very much under-rated - makes it to 2/2 today. I still find it odd that one has so many players on 1/1 playing (higher rated) others on 0/1 but please don't write about that -I'm probably just old fashioned (not having played a tournament for over ten years, and not having organised one in my whole life, contrary to the beliefs of some on this forum!)

Yesterday's results were great fun, but as many pointed out beforehand, some of the pairings had 'potential shock' written all over them (again, on account of the modern day pairing system).

Jonathan Rogers wrote:I still find it odd that one has so many players on 1/1 playing (higher rated) others on 0/1 but please don't write about that -I'm probably just old fashioned (not having played a tournament for over ten years, and not having organised one in my whole life, contrary to the beliefs of some on this forum!)

Well, I'm going to write about it.

I thought that it was because the pairings weren't strict in Round 1. Usually, if you have 40 players, it's 1 v 21, 22 v 2 etc. But this followed a format of 1 v 11, 12 v 2 then 21 v 31, 32 v 22. The Round 1 pairings the way they were meant that Round 1 had fewer one-sided matches. Presumably because of the accelerated format, the losers from the top half of the seeds are entitled to play a winner from the bottom half?

1/1 in predictions thus far

snap ben !! ben i just over took you iam 2/2 now jones just beat greet on 2 !its its 2 all now ben summerscale just drew with houska so i got that one wrong

lane v wells draw anotther prediction right 3/4 so far big time scramble comming up in pallister v williams fasten your seatbelts it could be a rough ride!!looks like iam the current prediction leader at the moment. looks like iam todays prediction winner of round 2 predicting all top 5 boards correct.