Black wins on the top eight boards

[JustinHorton]

In the Huesca Provincial Championship today.

Can anybody beat that?

[Rob Thompson]

though interestingly, only 2 of those were against seeding.

[Michael Bennett]

This happened in our club championship a couple of years ago:
http://www.hendonchessclub.com/champion ... p-0809-rd4

Not 11 black wins though.

[Roger de Coverly]

though interestingly, only 2 of those were against seeding.

In the recent Bournemouth/Dorset event, the top section first round resulted in a 9.5-0.5 wipe out in favour of the seeds. This was notwithstanding a grading range where the top seed was under 200 and the bottom seed over 160.

By contrast in a Torquay Congress many years ago, the "patzers" actually won the first round "match". One of the elite eventually made the prize list but otherwise it was bonanza time for the lower rated.

[matt_ward]

Should you really be using the term "patzers", Roger.

Matt

[Richard Bates]

Should you really be using the term "patzers", Roger.

Matt

Try to understand the difference between patzers and "patzers". The quotation marks are there for a reason.

[Michael Jones]

http://www.londonrapidplay.co.uk/londonrp/page30aa.html - last round of the open section, eight black wins to one for white. I can also recall at least one club match in which every game was won by black.

[Sean Hewitt]

Leicester Congress, Round 4 in the open. 12 boards, all bar board 8 were won by black (and board 8 was a draw)!

http://www.leicesterchess.co.uk/2007/Op ... ound4.html

[Christopher Kreuzer]

For a result like this to really be exceptional, you need to have all boards (or a goodly number in a congress) won by the same colour, or all results go against seeding. For all except one or two to go this way is not that uncommon. The same applies to all games going with seeding. That is relatively uncommon as well, but not totally unexpected. A tournament I took part in saw all the 1st round games go with seeding, but the grading differential was quite wide and only 6 boards, so not that unexpected. Having said that, I wonder if there have been matches of 5 (maybe 6 is a better cutoff point) or more boards where all the games were drawn or all the games were decisive?

[Michael Jones]

Five board matches with all games decisive are pretty common at club level; http://www.sunion.warwick.ac.uk/chess/R ... -0809.html has two instances. I'd be interested to see if anyone can find an example of a five or more board match with all games decisive and all players involved GMs, or at least IMs. Going through my own club archives I can only find one example of a five board match with all games drawn (http://www.sunion.warwick.ac.uk/chess/R ... ml#match09), but the reverse applies in that case: since draws are more common at higher levels, there have probably been plenty of such matches at GM level, and relatively few at club level.

Similarly, all games going with seeding is unremarkable; that's what the seedings are there for. Sometimes a lower graded player manages a draw or even a win against seeding, but it's no surprise if no-one does in a particular round of a tournament. Every game going against seeding would certainly be a turn-up for the books.

[Stewart Reuben]

In 1975 in the open section of the Evening Standard London Chess Fortnight there were 64 players. All 32 games were won by the higher rated player. It is the only time I have seen that happen.

Stewart Reuben

[Alex Holowczak]

In 1975 in the open section of the Evening Standard London Chess Fortnight there were 64 players. All 32 games were won by the higher rated player. It is the only time I have seen that happen.

Stewart Reuben

At least it made the next round pairings easy!

[Ian Kingston]

Leicester Congress, Round 4 in the open. 12 boards, all bar board 8 were won by black (and board 8 was a draw)!

http://www.leicesterchess.co.uk/2007/Op ... ound4.html

My fault - sorry! I've drawn nine of my 15 games (60%) in three Leicester Opens, set against my usual 25% drawing rate. Must be something in the air.

[Alan Walton]

In the 4NCL about 4 seasons ago 3Cs and Betsson drew 4-4 with all 8 boards draws, from what I remember that the majority of the games were hard fought as well (at least 30 moves)

Ironically, this was the 4th consecutive 4-4 draw between the teams in the A Div