This year the top section in the City of Belfast championships (for the Nemtzov Cup) was a 6-player all-play-all rather than the usual Swiss. The luck of the draw had paired Richard McMaster and Gareth Annesley, the two leaders with one round to go, in the fifth and final round. They put on a grandstand finish battling each other to a draw (and a shared title) with only seconds remaining on the clock after a complicated endgame.
From the position in the board below McMaster played 1. g7 Rd3 2. Ke2 Rd8 3. g8(Q) and a draw resulted, but his analysis shows he missed a couple of wins. He wonders whether Gareth might have found a Black win earlier in the complications.
Over to Richard:
