Cappelle International 2012

[Peter Turner]

Cappelle International 3rd to 10th March

With 'only' 497 players there are fewer entries than in recent years but with 73 GMs and 98 rated at + 2400 it remains an impressive event. A successful 1st round for the 5 England entries with 4 wins. England juniors George O'Toole & Sam Franklin face IM opponents in the second round after their 1st round wins. GM Neil McDonald's game today is on a live board.

Round 2 pairings – Neil on a live board (1pm UK time)
http://www.cappelle-chess.fr/en2/default.php (follow link tolive games)
Neil McDonald 2457 GM ENG v Georgy Timoshenko 2569 GM UKR
Jean-Noel Riff 2509 IM FRA v Sam Franklin 2187 ENG
George O’Toole 2177 ENG v Olav Sepp 2486 IM EST

[John McKenna]

Yes, thanks for the info Peter, five English competitors. In addition to the three musketeers (McDonald, O'Toole & Franklin) also there are Andrew Whiteley and Gerald Parfett.
From Scotland - Martin Mitchell and Allan Tate. And, as far as I can see, there is one Irish player, Alex Lopez Astaneh, and no Welsh players.

[John McKenna]

Cannot see any results yet. Is McDonald still playing?

[Peter Turner]

Evening John
Neil draw, Sam & George losses. Tomorrow is a double round day with a nine o'clock start. Expect rd 3 pairings about 8.30 with some time to do some preparation later this evening.

[John McKenna]

Thanks for that update, Peter. McDonald did well to draw the Ukranian GM.
Hopefully Samuel and George can bounce back tomorrow.

[Peter Turner]

John, 'bounce back' is a good choice of words, boys are in the famous Cappelle yo-yo effect with alternate wins & loses resulting in 500/600 point swings in opponents' ratings. Round 3 parings are:-

Neil McDonald 2457 GM ENG (white again) v Andrei Sokolov 2577 FRA
Sam Franklin 2187 ENG v Alexandre Chion 1945 FRA
Maurice Wambergue 1942 FRA v George O’Toole 2177 ENG

Neil's should be on a live board again (8am UK time)

Cheers

Peter T

[John McKenna]

Thanks for that, Peter. McDonald's pairing against former USSR and World Junior Champion Andrei Sokolov is very interesting so I'll try to watch.
So, George and Samuel can expect strong opponents in the 2nd game tomorrow if they win in the morning.

[John McKenna]

Round 3
McDonald,N 1/2 Sokolov,A - 25 moves in Open Catalan so goes 2/3.
Bogdan Lalic also playing, won this morning 2.5/3.
And, Andrew Whiteley (2280) v. Atilla Czebe (2477)!?

[Peter Turner]

Hi John

Neil has drawn, described it as just a solid draw, each player played a knight move as the first move. Round 4 this afternoon at 3pm.

[John McKenna]

OK Peter, I'll have another look this afternoon.

[Peter Turner]

Sam & George both won, could be another interesting set of pairings.

[Peter Turner]

Round 4
Alejandra Ramirez 2591 USA v Neil McDonald 2457 GM ENG
Valery Le Pape 1987 FRA v Sam Franklin 2187 ENG
George O’Toole 2177 ENG v Manuel Massot 1945 FRA

More than a bit surprised, with the accelerated pairings we expected 2400 + for Sam & George. Neil is on board 20 which may not be live.

[John McKenna]

Yes, McDonald is not on high enough board (19 live?) to be seen this round.
Bogdan on about board 11 but he has already drawn with white in 20 moves - against Nikita Maiorov.
George and Samuel may win again this afternoon then face the big guns tomorrow.

[Roger de Coverly]

More than a bit surprised, with the accelerated pairings we expected 2400 + for Sam & George. Neil is on board 20 which may not be live.

I think they are using the relatively new French phantom points system. Basically you give players dummy points based on rating and points already scored, and then pair normally.

So in round 4
20 [4] [2] RAMIREZ Alejandro 2591 MCDONALD Neil 2457 [4] [2]

both players have a phantom of +2

86 [3,5] [2] LE PAPE Valery 1987 FRANKLIN Samuel G A 2187 [3,5] [2]
88 [3,5] [2] O'TOOLE George E 2177 MASSOT Manuel 1945 [3,5] [2]

All four players have +1.5

You get the big mismatches further down, so
134 [3] [1] GASIK Anna 2211 WALLART Jean 1673 [3] [2,5]
where you have a player with 1 real point and 2 dummy ones, facing a low rated player with 2.5 real ones and 0.5 of a dummy one.

I haven't figured out how the dummy points are created and removed, because I don't think they are fixed for the whole tournament.

If as pairing goals you both want to be able to use a program, but also avoid the mismatches likely in a 500 player Swiss paired conventionally, the French method may even work.

[IM Jack Rudd]

I haven't figured out how the dummy points are created and removed, because I don't think they are fixed for the whole tournament.

The last tournament I played in in France used this rule:

The top tritile have 2 dummy points throughout.
The middle tritile have 1 dummy point at the start; this increases to 1½ when they reach a score of 1½ and to 2 when they reach a score of 3.
The bottom tritile have 0 dummy points at the start; this increases to ½ when they reach a score of 1½, 1 when they reach a score of 3 and 2 when they reach a score of 4½. (Had the tournament been more than 9 rounds long, it would have been 1½ when they reached a score of 4½ and 2 when they reached 50%.)

The dummy points are used for all rounds except the last two.