British Knock out December 2018

[LawrenceCooper]

Watching on Chess24, I think the DGT board is struggling to keep up with blitz and Armageddon games, but it appears that John Nunn lost on time in a completely won position against Alan Merry in the Armageddon tie break, if the transmission of moves and clock times is correct

Yes, just asked the person involved with the live boards and Nunn did indeed lose on time.

[NickFaulks]

it appears that John Nunn lost on time in a completely won position against Alan Merry

Stockfish says +125.86, but for all that the win is not blindingly obvious.

edit : and they hadn't reached move 60 so no increment was in force.

[Keith Arkell]

Just to clarify: this is not a British Championship. It is a tournament with a private sponsor who can't be prevented from calling his event a 'British Championship'.This fact has been clarified by Alex Holowczak, on my facebook wall. Had it been an actual British Championship, then qualification to play would, I hope, have been determined by merit.

[Mick Norris]

Today's games started at 11 am (same format as yesterday)

Game 1
Williams - Adams
Howell - Haria
Jones - Merry
Hawkins - McShane

[ThomasThorpe]

Watching on Chess24, I think the DGT board is struggling to keep up with blitz and Armageddon games, but it appears that John Nunn lost on time in a completely won position against Alan Merry in the Armageddon tie break, if the transmission of moves and clock times is correct

In answer to this question, the boards keep up with the speed fine, so any issues during play can be resolved. Unfortunately, there's a limitation on the speed chess24 picks up the moves from our server, which is why blocks of moves appear on chess24 as opposed to it flowing nicely.

[NickFaulks]

I don't like seeing the Modern Benoni getting pushed around, which is what seems to be happening in Jones-Merry. My ten cents worth is that Black is suffering for delaying the routine ...Nbd7, although I do realise that these guys know a heck of a lot more about such move order issues than I do.

[NickFaulks]

How on earth is Howell still in this game? I was expecting it to go 46...Qd3+ resigns.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Just to clarify: this is not a British Championship. It is a tournament with a private sponsor who can't be prevented from calling his event a 'British Championship'.This fact has been clarified by Alex Holowczak, on my facebook wall. Had it been an actual British Championship, then qualification to play would, I hope, have been determined by merit.

So its a bit like the one off "English Championship" in c1991?

[ThomasThorpe]

How on earth is Howell still in this game? I was expecting it to go 46...Qd3+ resigns.

That's what I expected as well (although probably not resigns straight away!) - three draws in the first stage makes this afternoon a really exciting prospect.

[Martin Benjamin]

Watching on Chess24, I think the DGT board is struggling to keep up with blitz and Armageddon games, but it appears that John Nunn lost on time in a completely won position against Alan Merry in the Armageddon tie break, if the transmission of moves and clock times is correct

In answer to this question, the boards keep up with the speed fine, so any issues during play can be resolved. Unfortunately, there's a limitation on the speed chess24 picks up the moves from our server, which is why blocks of moves appear on chess24 as opposed to it flowing nicely.

Thanks for the explanation, Thomas. I did not know where in the chain of transmission - between the move being made on the board and it appearing on my computer screen - the delay was occurring , and I know from other events that relaying clock times accurately is not always possible. To be clear, in case anyone thought otherwise, I was neither criticising anyone at Chess24 or LCC, nor was I complaining. Thanks for making the games available online.

[LawrenceCooper]

Today's games started at 11 am (same format as yesterday)

Game 1
Williams - Adams
Howell - Haria
Jones - Merry
Hawkins - McShane

Adams, Jones & McShane all through 1.5-0.5 by winning the white and drawing the black. Howell-Haria now into the rapid games after two draws.

[Mick Norris]

Howell wins the first rapid with white, and looks like going through

[David Robertson]

Have we ceased caring here?

McShane (Black) just mated Adams on d7 a short while back. Not an everyday event

[Christopher Kreuzer]

McShane going to go through. Does that make the final Howell versus McShane?

[Jonathan Rogers]

McShane going to go through. Does that make the final Howell versus McShane?

presumably Gawain's win in the classical game outweighs his one rapidplay loss today.

Not that I really know the rules, the games to be played, or how they are weighted. Presumably they are to be found on some website, but somehow we all seemed to know what was going on in previous events, whilst this year the event has been quite the mystery from the very start - on just about everything.