The idea this time was to allow intending participants a lie-in on a Sunday morning, a leisurely breakfast and time to read the newspapers before setting forth to battle over the chessboard. An alternative suggested by the organisers was to turn up early at the venue and make use of its facilities to prepare for the games ahead. No, not a quick trip to the fitness suite, but something instead designed to take in calories. When I arrived at the venue, a number of players were taking this option, availing of the Sunday lunch in the Whistles Restaurant.
During a rapidplay there is usually very little time to observe what your rivals are up to, but what was abundantly clear was that top seed Michael Waters was cutting a swathe throught the opposition. After the penultimate round he had a perfect 100% score having dispatched Alan Burns, Calum Leitch, Nicholas Pilkiewicz, Damien Lavery and Ian Woodfield along the way. At that stage Michael and his victims filled the top seven positions in the standings with one interloper in the shape of yours truly.
My reward was a final round top-board pairing with the leader. In a Queens Indian, while pursuing as White an apparently logical positional path, I was suddenly subjected to a small tactical demonstration and had to resign immediately. Waters thus finished with a perfect 6 out of 6 and overall victory. Meanwhile on board 2, second place was decided in the game between Leitch and Pilkiewicz with the former prevailing in a hard-fought struggle by weaving a mating net in a Rook and minor piece endgame which forced the win of a Rook.
The Civil Service Club hope to run their next rapidplay towards the end of March with the finale of the series probably late May/early June (depending on exactly when the UCU organise the City of Belfast Championships and the rumoured revival of a Cup competition).
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