Croad slips, Ker takes Fischer Random title

Congratulations to Anthony Ker who finished with wins against Nic Croad and Brian Nijman to take the inaugural Fischer Random title. Here are the positions:

Round 5

It was really difficult to castle in this position, and less than half of players managed it. Only one person managed to castle on the King side - Martin Hill. In his game against Matthew Proctor he cleared his back rank, and with a great flourish (and a great big smile) swept the king and the c1 Rook over to the other side of the board. Not only this, Martin and I played a couple of blitz games afterwards using the same position, and he castled on the King side in both games!

Round 6 position:

For the record, here are the results of rounds 5 and 6:

Round 5

Ker 1 Croad 0

Wastney 1/2 Dive 1/2

Farrington 0 Nyberg 1

Jackson 1 Van der Hoorn 1

Nijman 1 Aldridge 0

Brockway 0 Forster 1

Drinkwater 0 Sellen 1

Hill 1 Proctor 0

Round 6

Nijman 0 Ker 1

Nyberg 0 Croad 1

Jackson 0 Wastney 1

Dive 1 Hill 0

Sellen 0 Van der Hoorn 1

Forster 1 Proctor 0

Aldridge 1 Brockway 0

Drinkwater 0 Farrington 1

Final placings:

5.5 points

Anthony Ker

5 points

Nic Croad

4.5 points

Rusell Dive, Scott Wastney, Michael Nyberg

4 points

Brian Nijman

3 points

Alan Aldridge, William Forster, Martin Hill, Ross Jackson, Mark Van der Hoorn

2 points

Andrew Brockway, Lawrence Farrington, Matthew Proctor, Ian Sellen

1 point

Blaise Drinkwater, Edmund Salem, Roy Seabrook

0 points

Paul Bowden, Romeo Rabina

Back to normal this week for the Autumn Cup. See you there.

Nic Croad leads Fischer Random event

Nic Croad is setting the pace in the Fischer Random event under way at the Wellington Chess Club. He is the only player left on 100%, and is well placed to take his third consecutive title.

Round 3 position:

Round 4 position:





















I am not qualified to do this, since I am coming last, but I will just make some remarks about Fischer Random as experienced by the club:
1. Some opening positions accentuate the white advantage, notably when an opening white pawn move opens a diagonal which threatens an undefended black pawn.
2. Bishops are powerful pieces in the opening, especially if they are positioned on long diagonals.
3. Games tend to be rather tactical. We have seen some very wild positions, and there has only been one draw in the first four rounds. Michael Nyberg for example, noted for his tactical virtuosity, can be expected to do rather well in this environment!
4. It is quite normal for a queen to go rampaging round the board at an early stage.
5. It is easy to get a piece hopelessly trapped. In my round 4 game against Alan Aldridge, Alan played an early c3, which kept his bishop on a1 trapped for the duration of the game (this did not, however, prevent him giving me a damn good thrashing).

In at least 2 games in round 4, Black was a rook down by move 3!


Full results:


Round 3
Hill 0 Croad 1
Wastney 1 Van der Hoorn 0
Ker 1 Aldridge 0
Forster 0 Nyberg 1
Jackson 0 Dive 1
Nijman 1 Farrington 0
Sellen 1 Salem 0
Brockway 1 Drinkwater 0


Round 4
Croad 1 Wastney 0
Van der Hoorn 0 Ker 1
Nyberg 1 Hill 0
Proctor 0 Nijman 1
Dive 1 Forster 0
Aldridge 1 Sellen 0
Farrington 0 Jackson 1
Salem 0 Brockway 1


Standings after round 4:


4 points
Nic Croad


3.5 points
Anthony Ker, Michael Nyberg


3 points
Russell Dice, Brian Nijman, Scott Wastney


2 points
Alan Aldridge, Andrew Brockway, Martin Hill, Ross Jackson, Roy Seabrook, Mark Van der Hoorn


1.5 points
Matthew Proctor


1 point
Paul Bowden, Drinkwater, Lawrence Farrington, William Forster, Romeo Rabina, Edmund Salem, Ian Sellen

Fischer Random fever hits Wellington!

Well maybe not the whole of Wellington, but for the 20 devotees of chess innovation who turned up on Tuesday an enjoyable, if head-scratching time was to be had. It was great to see all the best active Wellington players participating, Russell Dive, Anthony Ker, Scott Wastney Nic Croad and Mark Van der Hoorn. Nic wrote the computer program to generate the random positions which we would be using for the games. For the record, here were the positions we got for the first 2 rounds which were played on Tuesday (there will be 6 rounds altogether, 2 per night).

The sensation of the first round was Russell Dive losing to his joint club champion, Brian Nijman. I did not get to see the game, as I was busy messing up my own game, but you can see it on Brian's blog http://capitalchess.blogspot.com/

I was a rook ahead against Anthony Ker (2 rooks and a pawn vs 1 rook and a pawn!). In a finish that will haunt me for many years to come, I somehow managed to lose the position and the game. Actually my 2nd round game against Matthew Proctor was probably equally painful, where I was again a rook up but walked into a mating net - but not quite as many spectators witnessed that one!

Full results:

Round 1

Ker 1 Sellen 0

Jackson 0 Salem 1

Hill 1 Bowden 0

Brockway 0 Van der Hoorn 1

Nijman 1 Dive 0

Proctor 0 Nyberg 1

Wastney 1 Farrington 0

Seabrook 0 Croad 1

Rabina 0 Aldridge 1

Forster 1 Drinkwater 0

Round 2

Nyberg 1/2 Ker 1/2

Croad 1 Forster 0

Aldridge 0 Wastney 1

Van der Hoorn 1 Nijman 0

Salem 0 Hill 1

Bowden 0 Jackson 1

Sellen 0 Proctor 1

Drinkwater 0 Seabrook 1

Farrington 1 Rabina 0

Dive 1 Brockway 0

Positions after 2 rounds:

2 points

Nic Croad, Martin Hill, Mark Van der Hoorn, Scott Wastney

1.5 points

Anthony Ker, Michael Nyberg

1 point

Alan Aldridge, Russell Dive, Lawrence Farrington, Bill Forster, Ross Jackson, Brian Nijman, Matthew Proctor, Edmund Salem, Roy Seabrook

0 points

Paul Bowden, Andrew Brockway, Drinkwater, Romeo Rabina, Ian Sellen

Nic Croad wins Summer Cup

Nic Croad drew with Daniel Baider to win the Summer Cup by the margin of a full point. Daniel could have caught him with a win, but will be happy to have further improved his rating. Russell Dive and Anthony Ker both won their games to join Daniel on equal second, with Mark van der Hoorn half a point behind. Congratulations to Nic who has now won 2 tournaments in a row!

Full results:

Baider 1/2 Croad 1/2
Ker 1 Nijman 0
Dive 1 Hill 0
Van der Hoorn 1 Forster 0
Sellen 0 Nyberg 1
Jackson 1 Farrington 0
Stracy 1 Capper 0
Rabina 1/2 Bowden 1/2
Aldridge 1 Brockway 0
Proctor 0 Seabrook 1
Pattekar 0 Nicholls 1
Shierlaw 1 Olssen 0

Final standings:

7 points
Nic Croad

6 points
Daniel Baider, Russell Dive, Anthony Ker

5.5 points
Mark Van der Hoorn

5 points
Martin Hill, Ross Jackson, Brian Nijman, Michael Nyberg, Don Stracy

4.5 points
William Forster, Gavin Marner, Ian Sellen

4 points
Alan Aldridge, Megan Du Plessis, Lawrence Farrington, Michael HewsonMulshankar Joshi, Arthur Pomeroy, Romeo Rabina, Roy Seabrook

3.5 points
Paul Bowden, David Capper, Mark Wilkins

3 points
Andrew Brockway, Alistair Nicholls, Edmund Salem

2 points
Neels Du Plessis, Alex Olssen, Somesh Pattekar, Hamish Shierlaw

1.5 points
Hugh Waugh

1 point
Matthew Proctor

FISCHER RANDOM EVENT
Next Tuesday we start a tournament which will be a first for the club: a six round Fischer random event, where the back rank pieces are shuffled around. It will get those good players out of their opening books, so maybe we all stand a chance of winning!
It should be exciting and fun, so I hope as many of you as possible will be able to take part.