In the second round of five, David Sands (Beachbrilliancy) assumed the sole lead in the Open with a fine win over FM Andy Lewis (PotatoeTheCat). David is the only player to have won both his games and is followed by a group of three on 1½ points, Hodgson, Goldberg and Barton, each having won in R2. You can find The Board 1 game together with John Hodgson’s win over Russell White in the game board below.
The second round was, however, played under a shadow following the sudden death on Friday last of Julian Farrand of affiliated Club Cavendish. Apart from being a fine player, Julian Farrand was a distinguished Lawyer. He was professor of Law at Manchester University and when there he won the Cheshire County Championship.
Jerry Zheng has made the step up to the Open to take up the vacant position and join his brother Harry.
In the U150 after Round 2, a round of only one draw, four share the lead on 2: Chris Willoughby, Mae Catabay, Jerry Zheng, Olga Latypova, 2, though Jerry, as mentioned above has been promoted to the Open, which will reduce the section to 21 players.
The U100 section is led by Ruqayyah Rida, Rees Popovici and Lakshan Rajalingam, with 2/2 18 players.