Several of our troops have been busy over the last couple of months.
Pardubice
Will scored a very respectable 5½ in the top section of this tough event at the end of July – I lost count of the number of GMs, IMs and other titled players therein.
Hampstead U2200
Eldar, Zoe & Ross all tried their luck at Adam Raoof’s monthly event. Eldar was close to taking home first prize, being on top board with White in the last round, but sadly lost and finished joint-fourth. Zoe scored three, Ross two.
Zoe has been our busiest player, I believe: after 2½ in the Atkins at the British Championships [Tom S scored 2½ for +38 FIDE] and that Hampstead event, she scored 3/6 at Berks & Bucks, 3/5 at the English Women’s Championships and 3/6 at the TeraFinal. Elizaveta scored 2½ at both the last two events. That’s consistency from both players!
Dimitrios was also at that TeraFinal and finished clear second in the under-10 on 5 points, a full point behind the 193-rated winner. Yes, 193. I wonder if his round 5 draw was “tactical” to get the right round-six pairing?! [Edit: David tells me it was one of those “roller-coaster” draws, Dimitrios salvaged it in the endgame.] A month earlier, he had come joint-third at the under-10 in the British Championships and joint-fourth in the under-11.
Father David tackled the main event, scoring 5 – I thought he made an excellent start, drawing with two 2500+ numbers in rounds 2 & 5 before defeats in rounds 6 & 7 ended his challenge. Justin was super-solid, going through the event unbeaten for 5½/9.
Phil N made his annual pilgrimage to France – avoiding the UK heatwave – taking in the Creon Open and scoring 3½. No wine prize this year!
Ian scored one of his best-ever tournament results at the pre-British Golders Green event of August, co-winning the under-170 section with an unbeaten 5/6.