See also:Belfast Blitz and Bullet Championships (NI Chess News)The Zeitgeist of Time (Ulster Chess Chronicle) |
Round 1 in the Blitz - Mark Newman (White) against Sergio Esteve Sanchez.
Beyond them are Danny Roberts and Daniil Zelenchuk (partially obscured).
Mikhail Pavlov (in the foreground) and Edward Doak are watching on. |
24 players were listed to play at the start of the Open Blitz Championship. Running alongside the main event in the morning was a special event for unrated UCU youth players, which was particularly appropriate because the Championships are part of a series of fundraising events to provide bursaries for young NI players to compete at the upcoming
Saint Petersburg -v- Belfast match. This match will be held at the Youth Sport Schools of Kalininsky, Saint Petersburg, Russia from 18th to 25th August this year.
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| Trophies, medals and certificates for the Open Blitz and Children's Blitz |
The Children's Blitz was a double-round all play all with Ciaran Rowan finishing first of the 5 players with 9 points out of a possible 10 and thereby winning the first prize Trophy. Second and silver medalist was Adam Fitzsimons with 8 points. Third place and a bronze medal went to Dexter Harris on 6. Joel McLean came fourth on 5 and James Fitzsimons, playing in his first ever tournament, scored 2 points.
While the Children had completed their competition by lunchtime, the Open Blitz had only reached its half-way point. Here are the standings after the 8 morning rounds.
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| Blitz standings at the half-way point |
By way of explanation, Ciaran Rowan and Adam Fitzsimons appear in the standings because they would be joining the Open competition in the afternoon now that they had finished playing in the Children's event.
Also at this half-way point James Barbour and Ronan Fitzsimons withdrew from the Open Blitz while Richard Gould played three games at the end of the competition to avoid there being a bye.
After the dust had settled three players were tied in first place with 13.5 points - Danny Roberts (a very recent addition to the Ulster chess scene after making his debut for NICS in a league match earlier in the week), Sergio Esteve Sanchez and Modestas Razbadauskas.
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| Blitz final standings |
As you can see from the final standings table above, the first tie-breaking decider was Median Buchholz and this placed Roberts first and winner of the 2017 Belfast Blitz Championship Trophy.
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Danny Roberts (left) receives the winner's
trophy for the Belfast Blitz Championship
from organiser Brendan Jamison |
After a half-hour break, the Bullet championship, to be played over 8 rounds, got underway. With he time limit being one minute for all moves for each player, the room was a blur of activity. When everything eventually calmed down, Daniil Zelenchuk was top of the final standings and winner of the 2017 Belfast Bullet Championship. Mikhail Pavlov just secured second place ahead of Modestas Razbadauskas with them only being separated by the third-applying tie-break method.
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| Bullet final standings |
Again by way of explanation of the table above, Tyrone Winter withdrew after 4 rounds and David McAlister stepped in to play rounds 5 to 8 to prevent a bye.
In conclusion, the Good Shepherd Conference Centre, which made is debut as a chess venue at last month's Pavlov-Jamison Monster Simul (another of the St Petersburg Match fundraisers) is an excellent room for a chess tournament. There was more than ample room around the playing tables and with the high ceiling and sensible amount of heating players were neither too warm nor too cold. Unlike some other local chess venues, there was no bar or restaurant within the venue, but organiser Brendan Jamison had that one covered with a free selection of refreshments.
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| Sustenance |
Click on the photographs and tables to enlarge them
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