We are back in London and it’s been quite strange. After being away for 3 months and with the last month spent in Sheffield my pace of life has definitely slowed down, so coming back into the manic rush that is London meant that I wasn’t quite hip to it. I got myself squashed in between the tube doors by not moving fast enough but fortunately no injury occurred. I also went to tag rugby last night. I think I’ve mentioned playing tag before, Ga and I played for the same team called Sack Whackers on Monday night. It is so much fun and I’m hoping they expand into Sheffield soon (they are currently in Leeds). My body was not used to the pace of the game and the cold air meant my lungs struggled but I enjoyed seeing people and I’ll pop by again on Monday.
The 8 players slowly arrived for the 11am start, David Sedgwick is the chief arbiter with another arbiter Matthew Carr doing the live DGT boards. There were also 2 other spectators and of course me. There was tension in the air, was it more than in a normal open? I think so because knockout chess is rare and it’s “do or die”. The room size is spacious and there are refreshments for the players (always a nice touch). The time control is fast with just 90 minutes plus 30 seconds per move with no added time at move 40. Lately I have somewhat struggled with all the different time controls going from playing 4NCL (40 moves in 1 hour 40 minutes plus 30 seconds per move, followed by the rest of the game in 50 minutes plus 30 seconds per move) to playing in my local league where you get 1 hour for 30 moves then an extra 15mins and we also play with analogue clocks!
6 players were selected to play in the Knock Out with GM Nick Pert and IM Daniel Fernandez qualifiying from the 4NCL Congress with Freddie Hand and my 1st round 4NCL opponent Brandon Clarke coming 1st=.
Before the games started the Chief Arbiter made the standard announcements but also pointed to his new device for scanning players either before or after the game and most definitely not during the game. I believe this was in reference to GM Nigel Short refusing to undergo a security check during his game at the Olympiad in Baku. I don’t know if this device will be needed at all FIDE events from now on.
Gawain’s first game was the only decisive result from the first round.
[pgn height=500 initialHalfmove=16 autoplayMode=none]
[Event “British Knockout”]
[Site “Hilton Hotel/Olympia”]
[Date “2016.12.08”]
[Round “1.2”]
[White “Jones, Gawain C B”]
[Black “Rowson, Jonathan”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “B30”]
[WhiteElo “2667”]
[BlackElo “2565”]
[PlyCount “87”]
[EventDate “2016.08.12”]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3 Nf6 4. e5 Nd5 5. Bc4 Nb6 6. Bb3 c4 7. Bc2 Qc7 8. O-O
Nxe5 9. Nxe5 Qxe5 10. Re1 Qc7 11. a4 d5 12. Na3 a6 13. a5 Nd7 14. d3 e6 15.
dxc4 dxc4 16. Qd4 Qxa5 17. Be3 Qc7 18. Nb5 Qc6 19. Ra5 Nf6 20. Qe5 axb5 21.
Rxa8 Be7 22. Ra5 Bd7 23. Qb8+ Bc8 24. Qe5 Bd7 25. Ra8+ Bc8 26. Bd1 O-O 27. Bf3
Nd5 28. Bd4 Bf6 29. Bxd5 exd5 30. Qf4 Bxd4 31. Qxd4 Be6 32. Rea1 f6 33. Rxf8+
Kxf8 34. Qh4 Bf5 35. Qf4 Be6 36. h4 h5 37. Ra8+ Kf7 38. Rh8 Qb6 39. Qf3 g6 40.
Qf4 Bf5 41. Qb8 Ke6 42. Qe8+ Kd6 43. Rf8 Kc5 44. Qe3+ 1-0
[/pgn]
In the second game, Gawain drew and along with David Howell they both progressed to the semi finals where they will play each other one game on Friday and then the second game and potential tiebreaks on Saturday.
In the blitz playoffs Nigel Short and Luke McShane pulled through so the top 4 qualify for the semi finals this year.
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Games start at 1630 and you can view them on the official website or on chess24.