The British itself!

[AustinElliott]

I suppose the obvious question is whether Hawkins will now be wishing, even just a bit, that he had played on against Richard Pert. Though am I right that, according to the commentators, it was fairly obviously Hebden was in trouble by then, with the e-pawn weak and isolated...? So presumably Hawkins would have known there was a strong chance of Howell winning and thus tying him for the title. And without being in his shoes one can't know the kind of pressure he might have been feeling.

Anyway, joint British Champion - a first-rate achievement from Hawkins, cheered on by lots of us club players, I should say. Does he have any (North East?) sponsors who could get him to a couple more international 'norm-friendly' tournaments so he could secure the GM title he is clearly worth?

[Paul McKeown]

Nobody rose to my statement about delayed resignation many pages back, so I'll try again. If I were Andrew Lewis, FM at 2300, very experienced, I would be insulted that my opponent hadn't resigned yet (move 51). Don't know his opponent, but I guess he is young. There have been many examples this year.

we're not allowed to talk about 180/190 strength players bringing their club habits with them and lowering the prestige of the British...

I wouldn't want to embarrass any very experienced 2300 FM's, many of them are good friends, but they are all capable of total lobotomised f*ck ups from time to time, which does keep 180/190 strength players from resigning too early. But probably not in KRP -v- KR when the defending king is cut off by 17 files, though.

[Paul Dargan]

I suspect that if he does have any such thoughts, then playing on v's Howell was the critical opportunity.

Paul

[AustinElliott]

Fair enough to make someone play out R & P v R. I would do it myself. In general, are juniors being coached not to resign? That can be embarrassing if people go OTT.

Yes, if people (esp younger players) don't play these endings out, how would they learn to both win and defend them?

One also recalls a certain RJ Fischer, who in his pomp would often play on in theoretically drawn endings against top GMs... who would surprisingly often blunder and lose.

[Graham Borrowdale]

Nobody rose to my statement about delayed resignation many pages back, so I'll try again. If I were Andrew Lewis, FM at 2300, very experienced, I would be insulted that my opponent hadn't resigned yet (move 51). Don't know his opponent, but I guess he is young. There have been many examples this year.

we're not allowed to talk about 180/190 strength players bringing their club habits with them and lowering the prestige of the British...

You are and frequently do! In the case mentioned by Simon Brown, however, the losing player is well above that level. I think most 180s would know when to resign. Perhaps the problem is with juniors. By chance I saw an old article by Bernard Cafferty this morning, making the same point at the British a few years ago, and making the comparison with the Seniors event, where players resigned at the appropriate moment.

[Michael Bennett]

Just for the record, Oskar Hackner is not 180/190. He's 202 and has been 207.

[Simon Brown]

Fair enough to make someone play out R & P v R. I would do it myself. In general, are juniors being coached not to resign? That can be embarrassing if people go OTT.

I think juniors are coached not to resign, which may be fine when they are 8 and being "coached" by their science teacher in his spare time. But I did some coaching about five years ago and was horrified to find that 140 players aged 14 and up were playing on with K v K&R for example.

Anyway, this guy is 2105 so presumably knows a lost R ending when he sees it. Glad to see he has resigned now.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Nobody rose to my statement about delayed resignation many pages back, so I'll try again. If I were Andrew Lewis, FM at 2300, very experienced, I would be insulted that my opponent hadn't resigned yet (move 51). Don't know his opponent, but I guess he is young. There have been many examples this year.

we're not allowed to talk about 180/190 strength players bringing their club habits with them and lowering the prestige of the British...

I wouldn't want to embarrass any very experienced 2300 FM's, many of them are good friends, but they are all capable of total lobotomised f*ck ups from time to time, which does keep 180/190 strength players from resigning too early. But probably not in KRP -v- KR when the defending king is cut off by 17 files, though.

yes, that was what I was thinking about (and Simon too no doubt).

[MartinCarpenter]

Oskar is both fairly young (18 now) and quite incredibly intense when he's playing. Not a surprise if he plays on a bit I think.

[AustinElliott]

Fair enough to make someone play out R & P v R. I would do it myself. In general, are juniors being coached not to resign? That can be embarrassing if people go OTT.

I think juniors are coached not to resign, which may be fine when they are 8 and being "coached" by their science teacher in his spare time. But I did some coaching about five years ago and was horrified to find that 140 players aged 14 and up were playing on with K v K&R for example.

I've managed to crawl back up to 165 in my incipient mid-50s mental decline, but I wouldn't have a clue which R+P v R endings were won/lost/drawn. so with the R would likely play on cursing until the pawn reached the 7th rank.

I think I would resign in K v K&R, though.

Actually, in one of my earliest League games on resuming playing three years back, my 145-ish graded opponent (some years older than me) played on with K+P+P (not v near the 7th) against my K+Q, I assumed to see if I could make enough moves to mate him before my flag fell. He resigned when it was mate in one and I still had 30 sec to execute it. So perhaps another reason for people, esp younger players, playing on to the death is the preponderance of fast time controls and esp rapid events?

PS Just don't mention the dreaded "flagging"....

[Eric Gardiner]

If it's OK for Simon Williams to play on two pawns down why wasn't it OK for Oskar Hackner to play on one pawn down ?

Edit: I suppose the clock times are relevant in Williams vs Haria.

[David Sedgwick]

Wonder why not? I thought the reason for the early start was to allow for a potential play- off in the afternoon?

I think the exact schedule was discussed with David Howell when he indicated that he would like to play if possible.

My understanding is that the morning start was to enable Tromso bound participants to leave Aberystwyth this afternoon.

[Paul McKeown]

Does anyone think that experienced grandmasters can also sometimes resign a tad on the late side?

[Nick Ivell]

Loss for Williams who played on in a totally lost position. Then again, we know from Short - Kasparov that rook and 2 pawns v rook can be far from trivial.

[AustinElliott]

Only the younger Fernandez, Michael, and Yang-Fan Zhou still going now. Anyone with a grade over 190-ish advise me whether it is other than the draw that it looks like?