British Championship Congress 2022

[Joey Stewart]

Nxh2 seemed like the sort of move that invites disaster, he's going to be a lot more annoyed to lose this game then against grieve where at least it was due to brilliant unstoppable play rather then an opening catastrophe

[Angus French]

Nxh2 seemed like the sort of move that invites disaster...

Emms proved it bad but it looks like Black was struggling before that. In Emms' own 'Starting out: the c3 Sicilian' he says it's better to trade pawns on d4 before playing ... g6 as White seems to be doing well after 4... g6 5. dxc5 dxc5 6. e5 (as played in the game).

[IM Jack Rudd]

Here's a game with an 80-year age gap; white was born in 1928 and black in 2009.

[Event "Chessable British Chess Championships 20"] [Site "Riviera International Centre i"] [Date "2022.08.12"] [Round "1.14"] [White "Wallman, James"] [Black "Koppuravuri, Shrihan"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A00"] [WhiteElo "1514"] [PlyCount "40"] [EventDate "2022.08.12"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d3 Bc5 5. c3 d6 6. b4 Bb6 7. Qb3 O-O 8. O-O h6 9. Nh4 Ne7 10. Be3 d5 11. exd5 Nexd5 12. Bxb6 axb6 13. Nf3 Nf4 14. Nxe5 N6d5 15. Re1 Bh3 16. Bxd5 Qg5 17. g3 Ne2+ 18. Kh1 Qxe5 19. Be4 Bg4 20. Qc2 Qxe4+ 0-1

[Christopher Kreuzer]

It is going to be very interesting tomorrow. Harry Grieve at the moment has a winning (more than +6) position against Eggleston, and the other top boards have drawn, so if Harry wins this, he takes a half point lead going into the final round!

[Paul Cooksey]

Which I think gives us Grieve-Wadsworth and Nick Pert- Arkell in the final round, although I'm not sure about colours.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Eggleston will probably resign soon. EDIT: And there we have it. If the pairing is Grieve against Wadsworth, that is a difficult one to call. Matthew Wadsworth is a year OLDER (sorry, got that wrong earlier), already an IM, and is also in with a real chance of the title. At least one of these two will either win the title or be in a tie for first (is that a playoff or shared title?).

[LawrenceCooper]

Eggleston will probably resign soon. EDIT: And there we have it. If the pairing is Grieve against Wadsworth, that is a difficult one to call. Matthew Wadsworth is a year younger, already an IM, and is also in with a real chance of the title. At least one of these two will either win the title or be in a tie for first (is that a playoff or shared title?).

At a glance it looks likely to be Wadsworth-Grieve & N Pert -Arkell tomorrow with the winner coming from those four players.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Playoff rules:

https://www.britishchesschampionships.c ... s-V1-0.pdf

Section G: British Championship Tie-Break

In the event of a tie at the end of the Championship, there will be a playoff, held as soon as
possible at the end of the Championship.

The n tied players will seeded, from 1 to n, based on their tournament performance rating (TPR)
for the tournament. This TPR will be calculated using the assigned ratings outlined above in this
document.

Where n > 8, only the top 8 players will qualify for the playoffs.

Where players are tied on TPR, then the winner of the head-to-head game between the players, if
one was played, shall split the tie: The winner of the game shall be placed higher. If this game was
a draw, then the higher seed shall be determined by lot.

Playoff Match Formats

The playoffs will be run on a knockout basis, and matches within this format will be played in one
of the following formats:

Format 1 – Two players are tied
Round 1 Two games, G/20 + 10’.
Round 2 If still tied, two games, G/5 + 3’.
Round 3 If still tied, an Armageddon game, white G/5, black G/4, 2’ from move 61.

Format 2 – More than two players are tied
Round 1 Two games, G/10 + 5’.
Round 2 If still tied, an Armageddon game, white G/5, black G/4, 2’ from move 61.

A coin toss will be performed before each round. The winner of the toss can choose to have white
in the first or second game of that round. The player will have black in the other game. In the case
of the Armageddon game, the winner of the toss can choose to have white or black in that game.
In the Armageddon game, the black player shall need only to draw the game to win the match.
The playoff match will end on the first occasion that a player is winning the match at the end of a
round.

Players are entitled to a 5-minute break between each game within a match, and a 10-minute
break between each match.

If there is a playoff (and either Wadsworth or Grieve could win outright depending on the results, so a playoff may well not happen) then it will be between a 'young' player (not a GM) and an 'older' GM (with apologies to the 20-year age difference between Nick Pert (41) and Keith Arkell (61)! Nick actually is exactly midway between Keith's generation and that of Wadsworth and Grieve).

[Mick Norris]

Well done Harry

Is that a GM norm secured or does he need at least a draw tomorrow?

[IM Jack Rudd]

He needs a draw.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

What happened in your game, Jack, it looked a bit wild? But then your games always are! Charlie Storey's games as well...

[J T Melsom]

I don't know what tactical advice Justin gave Gareth Ainsworth in midweek, but it seems to have worked.

[IM Jack Rudd]

My game was wilder than I was wanting, but it worked out OK in the end.

Looks like the scores for qualifying for next year's event will be 5 in the Championship and 6 in the Major Open.

[Leonard Barden]

Jack, if you or any of the organisers are reading this, there may be a need imminently to pass an urgent message to the organisers making sure that a player in the final round gets a half point bye and not a default. Can you assist, please?

[IM Jack Rudd]

A half point bye in the last round would be very nonstandard. What is the situation?