Three lead after Championship R2

Thursday 22 July, 2021

The Club Championship continued on Tornelo this evening, with seven games played in round 2. Amirabbas, Andrew and David won to lead the tournament at this early stage.

Here’s what happened on each board:

• Andrew beat Diego Franco in 14 moves after a pin won material and the dark squares around the Black king were invaded by White’s queen and bishop.
• James Baxter had a great position out of the opening, which was still good even after David won the exchange for three pawns. Unfortunately James overpressed, and ended up getting mated.
• Nick won a pawn in the opening, but quickly lost several back. He had some drawing chances later, but in the end Amirabbas’s extra material told.
• Anthony pushed a pawn all the way to e6, and the debate was whether it was a weakness or a strength. Alex missed a chance to win the pawn and then fell into passive defence and got his queen trapped.
• David and JC played a very complex game with all sorts of tactics, but the game finished in a bishop-versus-knight ending where JC should have defended passively with his king, but instead embarked on a race he couldn’t win; David queened first.
• Gul was winning as early as move 6, when he won a piece due to a pin on the White knight on f3.
• Stanley won when Dev dropped a crucial central pawn. Later Stanley weaved a nice mating net, but his position was winning anyway.

Round 3 is next Thursday 29th.

Games

Byes

• Half-point: Chris Rogal

Standings

• 1-3: Amirabbas Mehrafarin, Andrew Medworth, David Amior (2/2)
• 4-5: Anthony Kent, David Lewis (1½/2)
• 6-10: James Baxter, Diego Franco, Nick Murphy, Stanley Jacobs, Gul Kapur (1/2)
• 11-12: Chris Rogal, Alex Funk (½/2)
• 13-15: Jean-Claude Sartenaer, Dev Ranka, Tony Artman (0/2)

Click here for a list of news stories about this tournament.