After organising the QUB Rapidplay Open and a simul by German expert Chris Cohrs, Chris Millar returned to the blitz version of the game last night. The format was a 5-round Swiss with each player having 10 minutes for each game.
After his last three events had featured the organising team trapped in a lift, a last minute emergency change of venue and a final round fire alarm, Chris was convinced that another disaster (or series of disasters) lay in wait. In order to keep his blood pressure somewhere near normal levels, he had persuaded Eamonn Walls to go through the harrowing process of making the booking this time. "Nothing could have prepared me for this" was how the latter reportedly viewed the experience.
On the night Millar was obviously taking no chances. When I arrived at the venue there was a formidable presence of people in yellow livery with the legend “event staff”. Of course it’s possible they had something to do with the simultaneously run Maximo Park gig in the Mandela Hall, next door to the chess in Bar Sub. I was hoping I might get to hear a sneak preview of their new single ‘The Kids Are Sick Again’ out 4th May, but alas the soundproofing in the cavernous basement of the Students’ Union defeated me.
Still the evening still has the usual accompaniment of background music. I identified an Oasis track playing during the fourth round and no less than Prince closed out proceedings with ‘Purple Rain’.
That was not the only incidental entertainment Millar had laid on. Showing on the big screen was the Champions League encounter between Manchester United and Porto. I am reliably informed that those at Old Trafford were denied the opportunity of watching the chess on the big screen there, which may well explain the disappointed look on Sir Alex Ferguson’s face.
Of course with the music in the background, the football sound commentary was off but somebody had helpfully pressed ‘888’ to provide simultaneous sub-titling. This rather confused QUB B captain Damien Cunningham, who thought some maniac texter had hacked into the television signal.
All this for a fiver while it cost 20 quid to get into Maximo Park but now, in the words of the late, great Harry Golombek, I must turn my attention to the chess.
26 hopefuls turned out, with the usual sizeable contingent from the host club. They would be looking principally to Ulster champion Stephen Scannell and Walls to uphold the honour of the University club while Fisherwick’s John Cairns, joint winner this season of both the Ulster Rapidplay Championship and the Williamson Shield, was the best candidate for honours among the ‘blow-ins’.
The first couple of rounds saw a jockeying for position among the leading candidates for first prize and the first big surprise came in round 3 when Bombardier’s Mark Newman defeated number 1 seed Scannell. In round 4 Newman went on to draw with Walls while Cairns beat Cunningham. Going in to the final round Cairns was in the lead with a perfect 4 out of 4 with Newman and Walls half-a-point behind – only these three remained in contention for first prize.
In the top board game number 3 seed Walls defeated number 2 seed Cairns and Newman joined the University student on 4.5 by defeating Cunningham. Now there would have to be an Armageddon game to decide the overall winner. But before reporting on the outcome of that, here is a wrap-up of the other prize-winners. Karina Kruk took the ladies’ prize after an Armageddon decider against Ciara Pugh, with the latter having the consolation of winning the prize for the best unrated player. Winner of the best new-comer award was Jason Spence, a protégé of the legendary member of the 4 Horsemen, Martin Kelly – both master and pupil finishing in the group finishing equal 6th with 3 points. Immediately ahead of that group were three players finishing on 4 points – Scannell, Cairns and Shane Keers. The former Sullivan Upper player Keers, now in his second year at the University, was playing his first competitive chess in about 2 years, so hopefully this excellent comeback, which netted him the under 1800 grading prize, will encourage him back in to regular competition.
Finally to that Armageddon decider between Walls and Newman which would determine who would win first prize and who would have to be content with the runners-up prize. The rules were that White got 6 minutes on the clock and Black only 5, but White had to give draw odds. Walls won the toss for colour and chose White, but both players were happy because Newman had intended to take the Black pieces anyway. So Walls had to win to take first prize whereas Newman only needed a draw for overall victory. Walls seemed to have a positional advantage out of the opening but then made a curious blunder throwing away a piece for a pawn. However he still had a time advantage and kept himself in the game by creating a passed b-pawn while on the other side of the board he had a 2-pawn majority. So it was 5 pawns to 2 but with Newman also having a Knight, which however quickly became overloaded with work trying to prevent charging pawns on both wings. Just as Walls was about to promote one of them to a Queen, Newman’s flag fell and Millar declared Eamonn Walls winner of the QUB April blitz.
After his last three events had featured the organising team trapped in a lift, a last minute emergency change of venue and a final round fire alarm, Chris was convinced that another disaster (or series of disasters) lay in wait. In order to keep his blood pressure somewhere near normal levels, he had persuaded Eamonn Walls to go through the harrowing process of making the booking this time. "Nothing could have prepared me for this" was how the latter reportedly viewed the experience.
On the night Millar was obviously taking no chances. When I arrived at the venue there was a formidable presence of people in yellow livery with the legend “event staff”. Of course it’s possible they had something to do with the simultaneously run Maximo Park gig in the Mandela Hall, next door to the chess in Bar Sub. I was hoping I might get to hear a sneak preview of their new single ‘The Kids Are Sick Again’ out 4th May, but alas the soundproofing in the cavernous basement of the Students’ Union defeated me.
Still the evening still has the usual accompaniment of background music. I identified an Oasis track playing during the fourth round and no less than Prince closed out proceedings with ‘Purple Rain’.
That was not the only incidental entertainment Millar had laid on. Showing on the big screen was the Champions League encounter between Manchester United and Porto. I am reliably informed that those at Old Trafford were denied the opportunity of watching the chess on the big screen there, which may well explain the disappointed look on Sir Alex Ferguson’s face.
Of course with the music in the background, the football sound commentary was off but somebody had helpfully pressed ‘888’ to provide simultaneous sub-titling. This rather confused QUB B captain Damien Cunningham, who thought some maniac texter had hacked into the television signal.
All this for a fiver while it cost 20 quid to get into Maximo Park but now, in the words of the late, great Harry Golombek, I must turn my attention to the chess.
26 hopefuls turned out, with the usual sizeable contingent from the host club. They would be looking principally to Ulster champion Stephen Scannell and Walls to uphold the honour of the University club while Fisherwick’s John Cairns, joint winner this season of both the Ulster Rapidplay Championship and the Williamson Shield, was the best candidate for honours among the ‘blow-ins’.
The first couple of rounds saw a jockeying for position among the leading candidates for first prize and the first big surprise came in round 3 when Bombardier’s Mark Newman defeated number 1 seed Scannell. In round 4 Newman went on to draw with Walls while Cairns beat Cunningham. Going in to the final round Cairns was in the lead with a perfect 4 out of 4 with Newman and Walls half-a-point behind – only these three remained in contention for first prize.
In the top board game number 3 seed Walls defeated number 2 seed Cairns and Newman joined the University student on 4.5 by defeating Cunningham. Now there would have to be an Armageddon game to decide the overall winner. But before reporting on the outcome of that, here is a wrap-up of the other prize-winners. Karina Kruk took the ladies’ prize after an Armageddon decider against Ciara Pugh, with the latter having the consolation of winning the prize for the best unrated player. Winner of the best new-comer award was Jason Spence, a protégé of the legendary member of the 4 Horsemen, Martin Kelly – both master and pupil finishing in the group finishing equal 6th with 3 points. Immediately ahead of that group were three players finishing on 4 points – Scannell, Cairns and Shane Keers. The former Sullivan Upper player Keers, now in his second year at the University, was playing his first competitive chess in about 2 years, so hopefully this excellent comeback, which netted him the under 1800 grading prize, will encourage him back in to regular competition.
Finally to that Armageddon decider between Walls and Newman which would determine who would win first prize and who would have to be content with the runners-up prize. The rules were that White got 6 minutes on the clock and Black only 5, but White had to give draw odds. Walls won the toss for colour and chose White, but both players were happy because Newman had intended to take the Black pieces anyway. So Walls had to win to take first prize whereas Newman only needed a draw for overall victory. Walls seemed to have a positional advantage out of the opening but then made a curious blunder throwing away a piece for a pawn. However he still had a time advantage and kept himself in the game by creating a passed b-pawn while on the other side of the board he had a 2-pawn majority. So it was 5 pawns to 2 but with Newman also having a Knight, which however quickly became overloaded with work trying to prevent charging pawns on both wings. Just as Walls was about to promote one of them to a Queen, Newman’s flag fell and Millar declared Eamonn Walls winner of the QUB April blitz.
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