English Chess Forum

Starts Sunday at 2 pm.

https://chess-results.com/tnr845330.aspx?lan=1 (Open)

https://chess-results.com/tnr845058.aspx?lan=1 (Challengers)

https://guernseychessfestival.org.gg/live-boards-2024/ (but there are some IT issues at present, so there may be problems...)

Keith Arkell did a simul tonight, beating 18 and drawing with Arita Strade, and nearly drawing with Gerda Nevska, but she ended up a victim of RB v R, which Keith knows rather well. I think this makes it 28-0 for him. (It was a drawn ending a few moves earlier, but the last two opponents had to play blitz, and she mislaid a vital pawn). But Guernsey women showed everybody else how to play. Then the blitz tournament happened for the real masochists, which was won by Keith Arkell,

https://chess-results.com/tnr995923.asp ... turdet=YES

I didn't play in the simul, to avoid another loss to Keith, but in the blitz he stretched his lead over me to 24-1.

Bit of a shame that most of the 10 live games on LiChess didn't work, either completely or partially.

There were technical issues - I think it was even worse on chess.com. Organizers hope for improvements tomorrow. Apparently the same feed went to all platforms and then feeds became different!? My game was longer than 2 moves, but it wasn't very exciting.

Top board today saw Olivia Smith produce a fine win against Keith Arkell. Normally Keith has control of most of the board, but this time he was the one grovelling. Yesterday we had three female players in the top four boards, tomorrow it's four in top six boards.

Hands up, Olivia played wonderfully.

Credit to Keith for acknowledging his opponent's fine play.

Unfortunately, live games on LiChess not working again.

Top boards tomorrow...

1. Olivia Smith (5) - Arita Strade (4.5)
2. Peter Kirby (4.5) - Gunnar Johnsen (4.5)
3. Philip Giulian (4) - Katarzyna Toma (4.5)
4. Keith Arkell (4) - Kevin Thurlow (3.5)

This is the first time that top board in the final round has featured two female players, and also the first time that Guernsey players appear on boards 1 and 2 in the last round.

BBC Guernsey report https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c79np8ge9j7o
Jon Bisson (who runs the venue) is the grandson of initial organizer John Bisson.

At last the prizes - illness amongst the organizers delayed the publication. And I assumed that anyone who cared would look up last round results on the website...

Open

1st= Arita Strade (Guernsey) (wins trophy) and Katarzyna Toma (England) 5.5
3rd= Keith Arkell (England), Peter Kirby (Guernsey) and Gunnar Johnsen (Norway) 5
Ladies - Olivia Smith (Wales) 5
Veterans - 1st Philip Giulian (Scotland), 2nd Norbert Krueger (Norway), 3rd John Wager (England)
Channel Islands - Fred Hamperl (Guernsey)
Rating 2000 - 2099 - 1st Stephen Dilleigh, 2nd Kevin Thurlow, 3rd John Curtis (all England)
Rating <2000 - 1st Rolf Dijksterhuis (Netherland), 2nd Mike Waddington (England), 3rd Jamie Morgan (Guernsey)
Best Game - Olivia Smith

Prizes are distributed in a complicated manner to maximise winnings. Nobody could recall an open event where two female players shared first prize. It's also the first time a Guernsey player has won the Guernsey Open. Olivia Smith was desperately unlucky. She was leading the tournament for a long time and had a better position in the last round until it all went wrong. Her marvellous win against Keith Arkell deservedly won the best game prize.

Challengers

1st Pierre Moyroud (France) 5.5
2nd= Gerda Nevska (Guernsey), Odd Christopherson (Norway), David Newell (England) 5
Rating 1700 - 1799 - 1st Russell Finch (Guernsey), 2nd Marc Jongerius (Netherlands), 3rd Bob Wheat (USA)
1600 - 1699 1st Keith Flanagan (Guernsey), 2nd= Fritz Bakkes (Netherlands) and David Curran (England)
<1600 1st John Williams (Wales), 2nd Samudra Biswas (India), 3rd Liam Bezuidenhout (Guernsey)

oops... forgot the
Blitz

1st Keith Arkell (England) 6.5/7, 2nd Hamish Olson (Scotland) 5.5, 3rd Mike Waddington (England) 5

Congratulations to Jon Hill and his team for all their hard work in organizing a truly international event.

Here here re the organisational efforts of Jon and team.

Can someone (Jack?) who knows how to do such things post Olivia's game against me please. It was a masterclass in positional, tactical and, particularly, sacrificial chess.

Before the game I had noticed that she has come on a lot in recent months, which is refreshing, as most of the time it's all about the impressive progress of the youngest players.

[Event "Guernsey op 48th"] [Site "St James"] [Date "2024.10.16"] [Round "4"] [White "Smith, Olivia"] [Black "Arkell, Keith C"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B06"] [WhiteElo "2106"] [BlackElo "2373"] 1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nc3 d6 4. f4 a6 5. Nf3 b5 6. a4 b4 7. Na2 a5 8. c3 bxc3 9. Nxc3 c6 10. Bc4 e6 11. O-O d5 12. Be2 Nf6 13. e5 Nfd7 14. b3 Ba6 15. Ba3 h5 16. Kh1 Bf8 17. Ng5 Bxa3 18. Rxa3 Qb6 19. Ra2 Bxe2 20. Nxe2 Na6 21. f5 gxf5 22. Nf4 Ke7 23. Raf2 Rag8 24. h4 Nb4 25. Ne2 Rg7 26. Ng3 Ke8 27. Rxf5 exf5 28. Nxf5 Rxg5 29. Nd6+ Kd8 30. Nxf7+ Kc7 31. hxg5 Re8 32. g6 c5 33. Nd6 Rg8 34. Qxh5 Qb8 35. g7 Qd8 36. dxc5 Nc6 37. e6 Nde5 38. Rf7+ Kb8 39. e7 Nxe7 40. Qxe5 Ng6 41. Qg3 Ka8 42. Nb5 Rxg7 43. Nc7+ 1-0I have to admit I was disappointed when Olivia lost in the last round and did not take first, which would have been well deserved based on this game at least.