British 2016 Round by Round

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Has Adams (or anyone) scored 10/11 before at the British? (Is there a list of the winning scores going back many years?) He may want to set that down as a dominating mark here. Also, as his opponent is seeking a norm, Adams may feel obliged to not offer a draw and make his opponent play for the result. If that is the case, should Brown play solidly or seek to try and use some psychology here? i.e. Go for a win/better position as White and then offer a draw the moment his position looks even slightly better? As White, Brown will have to demonstrate he is better and/or find an opening where he can match Adams (v. difficult). I hope it does turn out to be a hard-fought game, whatever the result.

[Brian Valentine]

Is the 4 point upfloat in the Major Open a record?

[Roger de Coverly]

Has Adams (or anyone) scored 10/11 before at the British?

The record for the Swiss tournaments since 1949 is held by Julian Hodgson with 10/11 in 1992 against a weak field

Adams scored 9.5 at Canterbury in 2010 against possibly a weaker field than he faced this year.
Mestel scored 9.5 as well back in 1976 after starting with 9/9.

Adams in 2010

wins against
Eames, Summerscale, Pert R, Rudd, Slavin, Gordon, Conquest and Williams
draws with Pert N, Hunt A and Wells.

[Roger de Coverly]

Is the 4 point upfloat in the Major Open a record?

It might not be, In 2003, a Russian GM won with 11/11, although that tournament would have had more players.

[Chris Rice]

Is the 4 point upfloat in the Major Open a record?

Brandon Clarke has a incredible performance rating of 2548 at the moment, I believe he has been to the USA recently and has really improved his game similar to Brian Tarhon. Wonder if we are not missing a trick here with our juniors if we could discover exactly where and by exactly who they got their training?

[Mick Norris]

Is the 4 point upfloat in the Major Open a record?

Brandon Clarke has a incredible performance rating of 2548 at the moment, I believe he has been to the USA recently and has really improved his game similar to Brian Tarhon. Wonder if we are not missing a trick here with our juniors if we could discover exactly where and by exactly who they got their training?

Maybe someoneshould ask Brandon

Good to see him back playing I wonderedif he was 1 of the many that just stopped

[MartinCarpenter]

If that is the case, should Brown play solidly or seek to try and use some psychology here?

Think he should just play really. Not much point worrying too much specifically about norms yet - if he's going to get there then they'll come in the process of getting his rating up to 2400 anyway.

[NickFaulks]

I believe he has been to the USA recently and has really improved his game similar to Brian Tarhon. Wonder if we are not missing a trick here with our juniors

Whatever the Americans are doing to bring on their top juniors, and it is certainly working, Brandon is presumably too old ( b 1995 ) to have been much affected by it.

The numbers of American youngsters rated at least 2300, by age, are

1995 4
1996 6
1997 8
1998 11
1999 4
2000 12 (!)
2001 4
2002 5
2003 1

[Ian Kingston]

Is the 4 point upfloat in the Major Open a record?

Brandon Clarke has a incredible performance rating of 2548 at the moment, I believe he has been to the USA recently and has really improved his game similar to Brian Tarhon. Wonder if we are not missing a trick here with our juniors if we could discover exactly where and by exactly who they got their training?

As a very young junior Brandon was part of the Nottinghamshire U11 squad (top board; I was on the coaching team at that time, but can't reasonably claim any credit), receiving individual tuition from David Levens. Later I think he had some coaching from Mark Hebden, but my memory may be faulty there - it's based on a conversation with his mother in 2008 at one of Sean Hewitt's early FIDE-rated events. Brandon won with an undefeated 7/9, which was a 2358 performance.

[Tim Harding]

If that is the case, should Brown play solidly or seek to try and use some psychology here?

Think he should just play really. Not much point worrying too much specifically about norms yet - if he's going to get there then they'll come in the process of getting his rating up to 2400 anyway.

I think that is good advice for an up-and-coming player. Chances for someone of Brown's rating to play a championship game (especially with White) against an all-time-great GM are not that frequent and he will learn from the experience if he plays his normal game.

Of course if Adams were to offer Brown a draw he should take it.

[LawrenceCooper]

Is the 4 point upfloat in the Major Open a record?

Brandon Clarke has a incredible performance rating of 2548 at the moment, I believe he has been to the USA recently and has really improved his game similar to Brian Tarhon. Wonder if we are not missing a trick here with our juniors if we could discover exactly where and by exactly who they got their training?

He scored 4.5/5 and 4/5 in the morning events so he has 17 wins and 2 draws in 20 games.

[Jesper Norgaard]

... it occurs to me that the arbiters might have meant to say they would forfeit anyone who knocked over a piece on their move and went on to press the clock anyway. If that is right, and if Ameet knocked the piece over as he pressed the clock, that might have been seen as different?

If that is the rule then I imagine there will be disputes over when exactly a piece was knocked over and when the clock was pressed. I wonder if it would be better to say that if a player knocks over a piece and his opponent's clock is running then the player forfeits the game?

No, because the player is always allowed to finish his move with a clock press, but the other player may well play his response move in between. This means any clock press cannot be the final judgement of who is on move. It is therefore very problematic to make rules that pretend there IS such a straight-forward relation between moves and clock presses.

Also in this incident, very often the arbiter was not watching the particular game, and it becomes a case of word against word between the two players.
When the arbiter arrived, he saw a legal position with no pieces knocked over. Of course with the knock-over-loses rule, a player can "win any game" by just knocking over some pieces and call the arbiter and claim his opponent did it. If we want to avoid miscarriages of justice, we shouldn't allow such a claim to stand.

[Clive Blackburn]

Board 1 is fun, Brown played a Scotch - interesting choice against Adams!

[LawrenceCooper]

Board 1 is fun, Brown played a Scotch - interesting choice against Adams!

It already looks very good for black after 15....d5. White will have to be extremely accurate just to stay in the game.

[Clive Blackburn]

Nelson - Gill has already been drawn in only 9 moves!