London Chess Classic Women's Invitational 2010

[LozCooper]

I am now able to confirm the line up for the 2010 London Chess Classic Women's International:

IM Susan Lalic (England) 2294
WIM Arlette van Weersel (Netherlands) 2186
WFM Maria Ikonomopoulou (Greece) 2160
WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni (Luxembourg) 2147
WFM Sarah Hegarty (England) 2080
WFM Rasa Norinkeviciute (Lithuania) 2028
WFM Shannon Oliver (Australia) 1926
Amy Hoare (England) 1921
Lateefah Messam-Sparks (England) 1917
WFM Natasha Fairley (New Zealand) 1785

The event will be held at the same venue as The London Chess Classic which comprises Carlsen, Anand, Kramnik, Nakumura, Adams, Short, McShane & Howell.

Dates: 8-15 December 2010

Venue: Olympia Conference Centre, Hammersmith Road, London, W14 8UX

Tournament type: All-play-all. WIM norm 7/9.

Time Control: 40 moves in 2 hours, followed by all moves in 30 minutes.

Website: http://www.londonchessclassic.com/index.htm

[LozCooper]

Pairings:

Round 1:

Sarah v Natasha, Amy v Rasa, Shannon v Susan, Maria v Arlette, Fiona v Lateefah

Round 2:

Natasha v Lateefah, Arlette v Fiona, Susan v Maria, Rasa v Shannon, Sarah v Amy

Round 3:

Amy v Natasha, Shannon v Sarah, Maria v Rasa, Fiona v Susan, Lateefah v Arlette

Round 4:

Natasha v Arlette, Susan v Lateefah, Rasa v Fiona, Sarah v Maria, Amy v Shannon

Round 5:

Shannon v Natasha, Maria v Amy, Fiona v Sarah, Lateefah v Rasa, Arlette v Susan

Round 6:

Natasha v Susan, Rasa v Arlette, Sarah v Lateefah, Amy v Fiona, Shannon v Maria,

Round 7:

Maria v Natasha, Fiona v Shannon, Lateefah v Amy, Arlette v Sarah, Susan v Rasa

Round 8:

Natasha v Rasa, Sarah v Susan, Amy v Arlette, Shannon v Lateefah, Maria v Fiona

Round 9:

Fiona v Natasha, Lateefah v Maria, Arlette v Shannon, Susan v Amy, Rasa v Sarah

1 Hegarty, Sarah N
2 Hoare, Amy
3 Oliver, Shannon
4 Ikonomopoulou, Maria
5 Steil-Antoni, Fiona
6 Messam-Sparks, Lateefah
7 Van Weersel, Arlette
8 Lalic, Susan
9 Norinkeviciute, Rasa
10 Fairley, Natasha

Round 1: 1v10 2v9 3v8 4v7 5v6
Round 2: 10v6 7v5 8v4 9v3 1v2
Round 3: 2v10 3v1 4v9 5v8 6v7
Round 4: 10v7 8v6 9v5 1v4 2v3
Round 5: 3v10 4v2 5v1 6v9 7v8
Round 6: 10v8 9v7 1v6 2v5 3v4
Round 7: 4v10 5v3 6v2 7v1 8v9
Round 8: 10v9 1v8 2v7 3v6 4v5
Round 9: 5v10 6v4 7v3 8v2 9v1

[LozCooper]

Round 1 results:

Shannon Oliver 1-0 Susan Lalic
Maria Ikonomopoulou 0-1 Arlette van Weersel
Fiona Steil-Antoni 1-0 Lateefah Messam-Sparks
Sarah Hegarty 1-0 Natasha Fairley
Amy Hoare 0.5-0.5 Rasa Norinkeviciute

[LozCooper]

Round 2:

Arlette van Weersel (1) v Fiona Steil-Antoni (1)
Sarah Hegarty (1) v Amy Hoare (0.5)
Rasa Norinkeviciute (0.5) v Shannon Oliver (1)
Susan Lalic (0) v Maria Ikonomopoulou (0)
Natasha Fairley (0) v Lateefah Messam-Sparks (0)

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Round 2:

Arlette van Weersel (1) v Fiona Steil-Antoni (1)
Sarah Hegarty (1) v Amy Hoare (0.5)
Rasa Norinkeviciute (0.5) v Shannon Oliver (1)
Susan Lalic (0) v Maria Ikonomopoulou (0)
Natasha Fairley (0) v Lateefah Messam-Sparks (0)"

Slightly odd, but that's not far from what the Swiss pairing would be! (I haven't checked the ratings.)

[LozCooper]

"Round 2:

Arlette van Weersel (1) v Fiona Steil-Antoni (1)
Sarah Hegarty (1) v Amy Hoare (0.5)
Rasa Norinkeviciute (0.5) v Shannon Oliver (1)
Susan Lalic (0) v Maria Ikonomopoulou (0)
Natasha Fairley (0) v Lateefah Messam-Sparks (0)"

Slightly odd, but that's not far from what the Swiss pairing would be! (I haven't checked the ratings.)

Scorewise It is a bit ironic, i think the swiss pairings (depending on if we float the top or the middle) would be arlette v sarah, shannon v fiona, rasa v maria, lateefah v amy & susan v natasha but I'm no expert

[Alex Holowczak]

"Round 2:

Arlette van Weersel (1) v Fiona Steil-Antoni (1)
Sarah Hegarty (1) v Amy Hoare (0.5)
Rasa Norinkeviciute (0.5) v Shannon Oliver (1)
Susan Lalic (0) v Maria Ikonomopoulou (0)
Natasha Fairley (0) v Lateefah Messam-Sparks (0)"

Slightly odd, but that's not far from what the Swiss pairing would be! (I haven't checked the ratings.)

Scorewise It is a bit ironic, i think the swiss pairings (depending on if we float the top or the middle) would be arlette v sarah, shannon v fiona, rasa v maria, lateefah v amy & susan v natasha but I'm no expert

I came up with this pairing: Arlette v Sarah, Shannon v Fiona, Rasa v Maria, Susan v Amy, Lateefah v Natasha

The only difference being on the bottom two boards. You floated up the second and third seeded players on 0 of the four, I floated up the first and second. I'm not sure whether I'm right though. My thinking was that when you choose a float, you start at the middle and work either up or down, depending on whether you're looking for an upfloat or a downfloat. FIDE-rated tournaments of a certain length might have different rules though...

Any experts who can clarify that?

[Sean Hewitt]

You floated up the second and third seeded players on 0 of the four, I floated up the first and second. I'm not sure whether I'm right though. My thinking was that when you choose a float, you start at the middle and work either up or down, depending on whether you're looking for an upfloat or a downfloat. FIDE-rated tournaments of a certain length might have different rules though...

Any experts who can clarify that?

You float the highest ranked player(s) up, and the lowest ranked player(s) down assuming all other things (absolute criteria, colours etc) to be equal. So I get

Arlette v Sarah, Shannon v Fiona, Rasa v Maria, Susan v Amy, Lateefah v Natasha

So Alex gets the pairings right, but for the wrong reason [I think!]

[Alex Holowczak]

I think I went through that thought process, but realised that it made no difference who got the floats, because you'd have two black-seekers playing one another regardless of who got the upfloat. I neglected that from my explanation...

[Sean Hewitt]

I think I went through that thought process, but realised that it made no difference who got the floats, because you'd have two black-seekers playing one another regardless of who got the upfloat. I neglected that from my explanation...

Indeed. The different approach would make a difference in a larger (more players) event though because starting from the median would definitely get you the wrong float.

[Gareth Harley-Yeo]

I could never be an arbiter - this stuff makes my head spin.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I thought it was a 10-player all-play-all?

[Alex Holowczak]

I thought it was a 10-player all-play-all?

It is, but our replies were prompted by:

Slightly odd, but that's not far from what the Swiss pairing would be! (I haven't checked the ratings.)

[LozCooper]

Arlette van Weersel (1) v Fiona Steil-Antoni (1) 1-0
Sarah Hegarty (1) v Amy Hoare (0.5) 1-0
Rasa Norinkeviciute (0.5) v Shannon Oliver (1) 1-0
Susan Lalic (0) v Maria Ikonomopoulou (0) 1-0
Natasha Fairley (0) v Lateefah Messam-Sparks (0)" 0.5-0.5

Arlette & Sarah 2, Rasa 1.5, Fiona, Shannon, Susan 1, Amy, Lateefah & Natasha 0.5, Maria 0

[LozCooper]

Round 3 results:

Shannon Oliver (1) v Sarah Hegarty (2) 0-1
Lateefah Messam-Sparks (0.5) v Arlette van Weersel (2) 0-1
Maria Ikonomopoulou (0) Rasa Norinkeviciute (1.5) 1-0
Fiona Steil-Antoni (1) v Susan Lalic (1) 0.5-0.5
Amy Hoare (0.5) v Natasha Fairley (0.5) 0.5-0.5

Arlette & Sarah 3/3, Fiona, Rasa, Susan 1.5, Amy, Maria, Natasha & Shannon 1, Lateefah 0.5.