The first ever Ulster Blitz Championship was held at the Belfast Boat Club on the 27th December. I popped in about 4pm to see how the final rounds unfolded. New UCU supremo (please note the alias el presidente is copyrighted) John Cairns had magically arranged that the four contenders for the title, the Robbin brothers, Cal Leitch and the veteran (at least in this company) speedster Damien Lavery were encountering each other in the final rounds. In round 13 Leitch and Kiran Robbin had "contrived" a grandmaster draw and once again proved the maxim "discretion is the better part of valour" when they ended up tied for first place. An Armageddon game was ordered to break the tie. Leitch had Black and less time but only needed to draw. After a complicated middle game that needed a proper amount of time rather a few seconds contemplation, Leitch came out a pawn ahead and carefully hoovered off the remaining material to leave K and P v. K. Just as I was trying to work out if he had the opposition (a lengthy process for me at the best of times) Leitch calmly offered the pawn up to his opponent - after all, he only needed a draw!
For those who want an entertaining if fictionalised account of the event I warmly recommend the Beard's gossip column at the Ballynafeigh Chess Club website. I see the Beard is concerned about the embarrassment of not resigning when you've been completely mashed and provides video evidence of this phenomenon. I understand the Ulster Chess Union had arranged extensive video coverage of the event (coming to YouTube some time soon) so I look forward to examples of the equally embarrassing spectacle of some bozo having a completely won position and simply sitting there until his time runs out.
At the closing ceremony John Cairns announced that the next UCU competition will be the Williamson Shield. Although not absolutely confirmed as yet, expect it to be held on the first weekend in February at its normal venue, the Maynard Sinclair Pavilion in the Stormont estate. If I'm wrong, you didn't hear it from me!
Finally, those who have not lost the will to live (or at least visit these pages) due to my rather infrequent blogs will note that the website has had a makeover - Black is the new Black in Ulster chess circles as I now realise I have come dangerously close to plagiarising Sam Flanagan's house-style over at his Malone Chess Team website. Still it has to be better than the purple shag pile over at Ballynafeigh. BTW, congrats to my team-mates on the Angels for topping the League table at Christmas (my absence from the team-sheet obviously instrumental!)
1 comment:
I executed my first smothered mate yesterday 37 years after learning how to move the pieces. 1975 until 2004 I played at the very most 500 chess games. Since then I've played over 10,000 mainly on the net
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