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ECA Rapidplay Championship 2008

Incorporating the North Essex League Rapidplay Championship

Held 20th July 2008 at Writtle

Controllers: Ivor Smith and Andrew Brett

Table supplied by David Millward

Pos Player              Grade    1     2     3     4     5     6    Pts  SPS

  1 Lewis, Andrew P      207    b13+  w 2+  b 3+  w 5+  b 4=  w 8+   5½   20

  2 Moore, John C        165    w 9+  b 1-  w11=  b14+  w 8+  w 5+   4½   14   NEC

  3 Hunnable, Ian D      159    b16+  w 6+  w 1-  b 8=  b 9+  w 4=   4    15  

  4 Myall, Ivan J       s176    w10=  b14+  w 8=  b11+  w 1=  b 3=   4    14½

  5 Goldberg, Jeff A     173    w15+  b 8=  w10+  b 1-  w 6+  b 2-   3½   14½

  6 Crane, Leslie J      161    w14=  b 3-  w12+  b10+  b 5-  w 9+   3½   11

  7 Slade, Robin         156    b12=  b11-  w14-   hpb  w16+  b15+   3     7½

  8 Millward, David J    165    b11+  w 5=  b 4=  w 3=  b 2-  b 1-   2½   12

  9 Riddoch, Alan E      103    b 2-  w13+  b16+   hpb  w 3-  b 6-   2½   10½

 10 Corish, Aidan T      144    b 4=  w12+  b 5-  w 6-  w14=  b13=   2½    9½

 11 Rahaman, Mustapha    138    w 8-  w 7+  b 2=  w 4-  b15-  b14+   2½    8

 12 Hung, Alistair       141    w 7=  b10-  b 6-  w15+  b13-  w16+   2½    7

 13 Barclay, Paul R      147    w 1-  b 9-  w15-  b16+  w12+  w10=   2½    5½

 14 Strachan, Gavin I    126    b 6=  w 4-  b 7+  w 2-  b10=  w11-   2     8

 15 Latter, Robert S P  s130    b 5-  w16-  b13+  b12-  w11+  w 7-   2     6

 16 Winter, Thomas G     112    w 3-  b15+  w 9-  w13-  b 7-  b12-   1     5

Picture 1 | Picture 2 | Picture 3

Report by Andrew Brett

Entries were slightly down this year in this year’s Writtle Rapid and we missed ‘regulars’ David Sands, Chris Fegan and last year’s champion David Haydon. Nonetheless,we had quite a competitive field which was headed by Andrew Lewis who had scored an impressive 7/7 in the Team Blitz the week earlier at Wanstead.

In Round 1 Les Crane and Gavin Strachan had a crazy game where blunders galore occurred. I think Les lost at least exchange and Gavin a rook (It may have been worse than this!). They reached a knight v pawn ending which was probably just about a win for Gavin but Les held the draw a pawn down with king and rook’s pawn v king being the final position. Aidan Corish had the better of a draw with Ivan Myall with Black.

In Round 2, Mustafa Rahaman caused an upset by beating Robin Slade - when Robin’s king reached f5, I sensed it was going to be his day! Alan Riddoch’s crude attack totally wiped out Paul Barclay. Meanwhile, John Moore had reached a roughly level position with Black v Andrew Lewis but then contrived to get his queen trapped.

In Round 3, Paul Barclay compounded his misery by allow a bishop pin of his queen in front of his king. Robin’s sacrificial onslaught  led him to believe that he would be mating Gavin - sadly his tactics were misfiring and he had to give up as his forced mate wasn’t forced at all! I thought that I would have to call a draw between Jeff Goldberg and Aidan as the position was very blocked with both players very low on time. But Jeff’s sacrificial gamble paid off as Aidan ended up losing on time, although it has to be said in the final position Aidan was clearly better. In fact during the time scramble Jeff did make a further blunder of a rook but Aidan missed it!

In Round 4, the effects of the day started to hit home and Gavin allowed mate in one v John Moore. Andrew Lewis ground down Jeff Goldberg in the clash at the top.

In Round 5, John Moore won his game against Dave Millward, the defending North Essex Champion, in about 8 moves. Mustafa missed a win of a queen via Bh2+ against Bob Latter and went on to lose. Afterwards, he told me that he had seen it only once he picked up his queen to win a pawn. Ivan and Andrew Lewis had an interesting draw where Ivan agreed a draw in a slightly better position, although earlier in the game it seemed that Andrew had been pressing for the advantage.

In Round 6, Robin won his second game on the trot which shows that going down to the pub had revived his standard of play. Andrew Lewis was always in control against Dave Millward and won pretty comfortably - I don’t recall Dave playing the King’s Indian too often. Ian Hunnable comfortably drew rook and 3 pawns v rook and 3 pawns all of which were on the same side despite Ivan’s attempt to win an impossible position to win. Ivan should have taken Ian’s draw offer much sooner. But the game of the round was played by John Moore who beat Jeff Goldberg to secure the North Essex title. John assured me that he was more interested in the money than the title!

Andrew Brett

Essex Chess Association

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