City of Belfast Day 1

The provisional starting list published in my previous post saw some changes come Saturday morning. Overall there were five "withdrawals" but also one addition with Richard Morrow entering the fray in the Nemtzov Cup. Richard started very well overcoming a 300 point deficit to defeat Danny Roberts and later in Round 3 he held second seed Damian Marchlewicz to a draw.

Play underway in Round 3 with Daniil Zelenchuk (left)
and Robert Lavery in the foreground

After Day 1 in the Nemtzov, Gareth Annesley (winner of this event in 2011) leads with a 100% score after defeating Ulster Champion Stephen Rush in Round 3 and is already at least a full point ahead of his rivals.

Nemtzov Cup Crosstable after Day 1

No Name                  Rtg  Total  1    2    3  

1  Gareth Annesley       1908 3     10:W  8:W  4:W
2  Damian Marchlewicz    1948 2      3:W  4:D  5:D
3  Modestas Razbadauskas 1412 2      2:L 10:W  9:W
4  Stephen Rush          1799 1.5    7:W  2:D  1:L
5  Richard Morrow        1530 1.5    6:W  9:L  2:D
6  Danny Roberts         1830 1.5    5:L  7:D  8:W
7  Daniil Zelenchuk      1463 1.5    4:L  6:D 10:W
8  Kamil Marchlewicz     2068 1      9:W  1:L  6:L
9  Danny Mallaghan       1778 1      8:L  5:W  3:L
10 Robert Lavery         1601 0      1:L  3:L  7:L

The draw for Round 4 showed some absentees and it looks like the two Marchlewicz brothers have withdrawn from the tournament.

In the Henderson Cup the lower ranked players faced opponents 300-400 rating points above them. They performed well above expectations in four of the seven games with Geoff Hindley and Nived Binu Daniel taking the full point while Tyrone Winter and Vincent O'Brien secured draws.

In Round 2 the surprises continued with Geoff Hindley holding 2009 Champion William Storey to a draw. Even bigger news was that 1060-rated Tyrone Winter beat top seed John McKenna.

The results in Round 3 were along more predictable lines and at the end of Day 1 three-time winner Pat McKillen was leading on three points with Storey just a half-point behind.

Henderson Cup Crosstable after Day 1

No Name                  Loc  Total  1    2    3  

1  Patrick McKillen      1311 3     10:W  9:W  6:W
2  William Storey        1343 2.5   13:W  3:D 11:W
3  Geoff Hindley         1050 2      5:W  2:D  0:D
4  Martin Kelly          1359 2      6:D 11:D  9:W
5  Dmitry Zelenchuk      1354 2      3:L 12:W 10:W
6  Tyrone Winter         1060 1.5    4:D  7:W  1:L
7  John McKenna          1526 1.5    0:D  6:L 13:W
8  Adrian Dornford-Smith 1148 1.5    9:L 13:W 12:D
9  Nived Binu Daniel     700  1      8:W  1:L  4:L
10 Paul Anderson         882  1      1:L  0:W  5:L
11 Cathal Murphy         1329 1     12:D  4:D  2:L
12 Vincent O'Brien       919  1     11:D  5:L  8:D
13 Louie McConkey        1030 0      2:L  8:L  7:L

Here's the pairings for Round 4

In the margins of the tournament, there was some significant news about the Chess NI organised summer trip to Saint Petersburg. Here's Chess NI's Brendan Jamison on the latest development:

We offer our sincere thanks to Daniel Roberts and Joanne Ritchie from Language Training Solutions who share our passion for the educational merits of a cross-cultural chess match in Saint Petersburg, interweaving the role of play and creativity with learning new language skills and improving communication techniques. When chess players from around the world move to Northern Ireland and have little grasp of the English language, many begin their integration process by joining our local chess community. We get extremely excited by players from overseas who join us at Belfast tournaments as they greatly enrich the cultural life of the city. In recent years, we have welcomed players from China, India, Egypt, Russia, Kazakhstan, Poland, Lithuania, Hungary and The Phillipines. Hopefully this trend will continue and expand over the next decade as Belfast enjoys a rebirth as a vibrant cosmopolitan city." 

L to R: Danny Roberts and Joanne Ritchie from Language Training Solutions
presenting the travel sponsorship to Brendan Jamison of Chess NI on behalf of
the children travelling to Saint Petersburg, two of whom are pictured here:
8 year old Dexter Harris and 13 year old Daniil Zelenchuk.