British Championship 2018

Debate directly related to English Chess Federation matters.
David Robertson

Re: British Championship 2018

Post by David Robertson » Sun Aug 05, 2018 5:09 pm

Richard Bates wrote:
Sun Aug 05, 2018 5:00 pm
Wow, Mickey went too far in not taking risks in a completely dominant position... and blunders and is now completely lost!
Astonishing reversal

Nick Grey
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Re: British Championship 2018

Post by Nick Grey » Sun Aug 05, 2018 5:11 pm

Wow.

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: British Championship 2018

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Sun Aug 05, 2018 7:09 pm

For those who were not watching live (i.e. me), the above might be confusing. Mickey drew in round nine (against Gormally) and Luke won in round nine (against Howell). That left Adams and McShane tied on 7/9 and they played a tiebreak.

The fIrst two 20+10 games were both won by White, Adams and then McShane (was that Mickey's first loss at the British if you include tiebreaks for a very long time?). It was this second game that Richard, Martin, David and Nick are talking about (Mickey was winning, failed to find the crushing 46...Rxh3, and then later blundered with 51...Qxd4, and so lost the game).

The players then moved to the 5+3 games, and Mickey won game one and then won game 2, thus making him the champion.

As stated on Twitter by chess24.com: "Congratulations to @MickeyAdamsGM on winning his 6th British Chess Championship, 29 years after he won his 1st! "

Can anyone say what times (roughly) the games were played? Paul Cooksey said "McShane- Adams playoff now in progress" at 2.18pm (forum time, which I think is UTC, so that was 3.18pm BST). The exchange around the second tie-break game was around 4pm forum time (i.e. 5pm BST). I had assumed the playoff had finished (had been unable to get to the right computer earlier to view the games), but it seems that the final tie-break game maybe only finished around 5.30pm BST? Can anyone confirm or correct those times?

EDIT: The ECF Twitter feed does have the result:

https://twitter.com/ecfchess/status/1026149340878974976

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: British Championship 2018

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Sun Aug 05, 2018 7:43 pm

The win by Luke McShane over David Howell in round nine was selected as the game of the tournament:



As David Smerdon pointed out on Twitter, there is a zugzwang after Black's 30th move (30...h4), and if White had tried 31.Ra4 then Black would play 31...a5 when 32.Rc4 is dealt with as in the game:

https://twitter.com/dsmerdon/status/1026082914788728833
Quite an amazing zugzwang: 1...a5! and White has no moves. E.g. 2.Rc4 Qe3! (no more Qc4), or 2.Qb7 d5! (no more Qh6+).
As chess24.com pointed out on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/chess24com/status/1 ... 5260812289
Drama in the British Championship, as Luke McShane is on the verge of forcing a playoff vs. Adams (& perhaps Jones). He just found 30...h4!, and now the computer says it's mate-in-10!

Chris Goddard
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Re: British Championship 2018

Post by Chris Goddard » Sun Aug 05, 2018 10:15 pm

Very nice move to finish but I would have thought there were more interesting games played than that one.

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: British Championship 2018

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Mon Aug 06, 2018 9:18 am

An addendum to the second tiebreak game where I said Mickey "blundered with 51...Qxd4" - I may have been unfair there as it is maybe not easy (especially at that time control) to see that 52.Nd6 Rxb4 is presumably met by 53.Qa2, hitting the pawn on f7 which can't be defended. And more to the point, mate can't be avoided either without giving up material.

Tie-break games here:

https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... 018/13/1/1

Chess24.com report here:

https://chess24.com/en/read/news/mickey ... ampionship

Video of part of the presentation ceremony here:

https://twitter.com/ChrisBirdIA/status/ ... 8148535297

Jovanka Houska scored 5/9 to win an eighth British women’s title.
Thomas Villiers won the Major Open with 7.5/9.

EDIT: David Eggleston got a GM norm. Koby Kalavannan drew so missed out on an IM norm. Did Akshaya Kalaiyalahan get a WIM norm?

Ken Norman
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Re: British Championship 2018

Post by Ken Norman » Mon Aug 06, 2018 10:47 am

Does anyone know what caused the change to the board two pairing in the last round of the British over 65 Seniors?

On Board one Kevin Bowmer 5/6 was paired against Geoff James 5/6.

On Board two Oliver Jackson 4.5/6 was due to play Tom Bimpson 4.5/6.

When I arrived at the venue Bimpson was shown as withdrawn and Oliver Jackson was paired against a player rated in the 1700's with a score of only three points.

This was a very strange pairing which gave Oliver Jackson an easy point and was very unfair to James and Bowmer.

Also when I finished my game I noticed Bimpson walking around the playing hall.

Any explanations would be appreciated.

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: British Championship 2018

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Mon Aug 06, 2018 11:10 am

Was the O65 title shared among the three on 5.5/7 (Bowmer, James, Jackson)?
The O50 title was won by Andrew Lewis.
Rapidplay was won by Matthew Sadler with 9/9 (against a very weak field; only 2 players rated above 2200; second placed Andrew Ledger, IM, performed at 2279; Sadler 'performed' at 2734 [that old thing again about 100% scores] and gained only 8 rating points).
U8: Harry Zheng
U9: Rohan Pal
U10: Nishchal Thatte
U11: Yichen Han
U12: Yichen Han
U14: Ranesh Ratnesan
U16: Borna Derakhshani (who also played in the Main Championship) and Federico Rocco
I think the U21 title in the main championship went to Joseph McPhillips.

All results and the other tournaments (the Open and rating limited events and weekenders) are here (grouped at the top under 'Tournament selection'):

http://chess-results.com/tnr367973.aspx?lan=1
Last edited by Christopher Kreuzer on Mon Aug 06, 2018 11:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

Graham Borrowdale
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Re: British Championship 2018

Post by Graham Borrowdale » Mon Aug 06, 2018 11:22 am

Ken Norman wrote:
Mon Aug 06, 2018 10:47 am
Does anyone know what caused the change to the board two pairing in the last round of the British over 65 Seniors?

On Board one Kevin Bowmer 5/6 was paired against Geoff James 5/6.

On Board two Oliver Jackson 4.5/6 was due to play Tom Bimpson 4.5/6.

When I arrived at the venue Bimpson was shown as withdrawn and Oliver Jackson was paired against a player rated in the 1700's with a score of only three points.

This was a very strange pairing which gave Oliver Jackson an easy point and was very unfair to James and Bowmer.

Also when I finished my game I noticed Bimpson walking around the playing hall.

Any explanations would be appreciated.

A very good explanation from Paul Habershon on the Bedford Chess Club blog - it looks alike an act of sportsmanship from Oliver Jackson.

http://www.bedfordchess.co.uk/british-u ... es-fourth/

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: British Championship 2018

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Mon Aug 06, 2018 11:50 am

"It looks like an act of sportsmanship from Oliver Jackson."

It certainly does. I got the same report from another source but was too tired to post it last night.

I'm glad Mr Bimpson is recovering, although if he had been able to play and win, he would have been equal first. There is no tie-break in the 65+.

David Robertson

Re: British Championship 2018

Post by David Robertson » Mon Aug 06, 2018 12:18 pm

Ken Norman wrote:
Mon Aug 06, 2018 10:47 am
Does anyone know what caused the change to the board two pairing in the last round of the British over 65 Seniors? [snip] Also when I finished my game I noticed Bimpson walking around the playing hall. Any explanations would be appreciated
I received this email just now. I'm sure Tom won't mind me sharing it
Tom Bimpson wrote:Parking Saturday before going to City Hall; closed boot but left thumb behind. Result one squashed thumb! Needed treatment but didn't know where an A&E was and how long it would take so withdrew. Found A&E out of town. Was told at reception that it could be up to two hours. In fact, called after 1 hour and was treated efficiently and sympathetically, including immediate X-ray. No broken bone so was patched up and sent on my way. Thank God for the NHS! I could still have finished equal first by beating Oliver Jackson in last round. A tough task, I know. Two draws and a defeat in recent years but will never know

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: British Championship 2018

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Mon Aug 06, 2018 6:20 pm

Chris Goddard wrote:
Sun Aug 05, 2018 10:15 pm
Very nice move to finish but I would have thought there were more interesting games played than that one.
Yes, a pretty conclusion but surely not that dazzling overall.

Anybody here with other suggestions?
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)

David Robertson

Re: British Championship 2018

Post by David Robertson » Mon Aug 06, 2018 8:00 pm

Matt Mackenzie wrote:
Mon Aug 06, 2018 6:20 pm
not that dazzling overall...
...fairly sums up the games in the Championships

Paul Cooksey
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Re: British Championship 2018

Post by Paul Cooksey » Mon Aug 06, 2018 8:44 pm

depends what you line I suppose, a lot of classy games, this one included.

in passing one thing I learned was that the typo McSahne is a funny German pun, at least in the opinion of Oliver Reeh on Chessbase commentary. Sahne is literally cream, but the German's have the same idiom of cream being good, as in rising to the top.

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: British Championship 2018

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Tue Aug 07, 2018 12:08 am

Akshaya Kalaiyalahan got a WIM norm level performance of 2263, but it was not a WIM norm because only two of her opponents had GM, IM, WGM or WIM titles.

(If we thought she cared about the title, we might try making some sort of case to FIDE, but she has made it patently obvious over the years that she does not care about any title prefixed with W.)