Participants Pairings Results Progress Table Games Round Report 1

Having been somewhat fortunate to have my game finish early I can allow myself the indulgence of sharing my impressions from round one.The latter half of my game is available Here I left while all the other games were still under way and so just had a glimpse of how things were going.

My own game first then I guess? From the above diagram I now played 16...Na6 This was perhaps the critical moment in the game, as after an odd opening in which the position seem to be fairly equal White seems to lose his nerve and gives Black a great chance to seize the advantage. 17.Bxa6? bxa6! This ugly looking move changes the whole outlook and White soon has many weak points to worry about. 18.b3 Rab8 19.Rb1?! It is strange and yet perfectly logical the way White is so soon just lost. 19...Nd7 20.Ke2 Bf8 21.Nc4 Bxc4+ 22.bxc4 Bxc5 23.Rxb8 Rxb8 24.Rb1 Rb4 25.Rxb4 axb4 26.Bxc5 Nxc5 27.Na2 a5 0-1

The first bit of news was that Mark Heidenfeld had to pull out at the last moment due to unforseen circumstances while Matt O Leary never showed up and so Lithuanian GM Algmantas Butinorius had a walkover. Next to finish was myself with a fairly easy endgame that soon became winning. The top boards saw GM Alexander Baburin look to be well on course to a fairly easy win against Tony Fox and the same might also be said of GM Alon Greenfelds game against Brendan Lyons While as if to prove that lightning doesn't strike twice, defending champion Mark Hebden also looked well on the way to avenging his draw with Peter Cafola from last years event with what seemed to be a crushing defeat in the making?

Other games I notced was Stephen Jessel being a pawn up and a much better position against Stephen Short whose brother Phillip Short had an interesting and unclear position against Tim McCarthy. However Stuart Conquest looked to be really strugling from the opening against Ryan Rys Griffiths though perhaps Stuart will win anyway? I would not be shocked to see a draw though?

Anyway these were just some impressions I had based on cursory glances I had of proceedings so who knows for sure how things might pan out? I will update this page with actual results later or after the event assuming that I will have much tougher games from here on in and so little or no time to actually do reports/commentary.

As for the playing conditions? Well the venue is a huge improvement on last year and the sitting arrangements so much more comfortable. It is quite a small venue but there are only thirty two people playing, so each table has enough room to get in and out quite easily. A video clip for windows media player format or Youtube is available to get a sense of the place and the environment.

The games from this round are now thankfully available. for download as pgn files

Also See games section for an idea of how this round developed.