The club recently had a 5 min Blitz tournament, that consisted of 7 rounds.
The results were:
1st Steve 7/7
2nd Dale 6/7
3rd Kyle 4/7
There is a short breakdown of each round below;
Round 1
Tomos suffered early on in round one, up against the more experienced Anthony Beck. Byron was next to slip a piece away against Steve whilst other games in the room remained solid. John began to feel the pressure, his flag falling against the faster Kyle, and Cameron managed to checkmate Gareth despite his opponent’s attack. Tomos finally crumbled to the clock whilst the flag also defeated Andrew. Last to fall was Byron against Steve in not the easiest of games.
Round 2
John cringed as he gave up his queen in just over two minutes into his game against Andrew. Steve slipped up to lose a bishop for pawn, but the fight was still on with Dale and it came down to Steve’s rook and queen versus a Queen and bishop pair. By this time solid games, like Kyle versus Cameron, were coming to an end as the later slipped thanks to the lack of time. Gareth’s rook and knight couldn’t defeat three of Anthony’s minor pieces coming down on him with such little time, but he managed to get the win when Anthony’s flag fell. Steve and dale didn’t realise both their time was up, but in the end the digital clock showed it was dales who ran out first.
Round 3
In round three Anthony missed the rook and queen mate Dale sprung on him so was the first to fall, and it looked to be the same fate for Cameron when Tomos swooped in to grab his queen. Kyle, one of the leading players, fought to hold his rival Steve’s pawn advance back, but gradually became more and more on the back foot. Despite being a significant amount down, Henry fought on throughout the game as his opponent, Byron, looked for the mate. Unfortunately for Kyle, an illegal move lost him the game. Henry s flag eventually fell and when Cameron’s game was studied, somehow his magic had allowed him to retake the lead and the game
Round 4
Steve’s Ruy Lopez came out against Cameron, the next person to attempt to take a point off the highest rated player. After the first three minutes, all games were impressively even, though some were starting to put more pressure on than others. Six minutes in and the cracks were beginning to show, Steve, dale, Anthony and Kyle taking the lead in their games. The only game still close was Byron v Andrew, the later having the space in a rook pair and queen game against rook pair and queen, but both sides starting to build up the kingside attack.
Round 5
Round five had an early slip up, Dale’s bishop and knight attack allowing Kyle’s rook and king to be forked. Awch. The game not nearly over, Kyle sounded like he’d already decided it was! A few minutes later this was definitely the case. Just when Byron thought he had a significant lead, he found his rook pinned to his queen by John’s bishop and the later was back in the game. Andrew’s position was extremely defensive, yet Steve couldn’t get in and by seven minutes there was no significant lead. However, time was not on Andrew’s side and he eventually broke. Anthony found the bishop check to have all his pieces pouring down on Cameron and just as he resigned Andrew finally fell to Steve.
Round 6
The next round saw Anthony take on the six out of six leader Steve, who rapidly grabbed the centre. John’s attack gave him the lead and Dale stormed into Gareth to make sure he would get the chance to become runner up. With his opponent a minor piece down, Steve looked for the exchanges (boo) and Anthony gradually had less to fight back with. Everyone started to succumb to time and only Tomos fought on well against John, despite being a minor piece down. Even though he began to lose piece after piece under the stress of the clock, the time gave him the win
Round 7
In the final round there were still chances for Dale to get joint first (should he win and Steve lose) or Kyle to get joint second (should he win and Dale lose). John stepped up to fight Steve with Dale hoping Steve’s opponent would take a point off the leader. Despite a fantastic result in the last round, Tomos was starting to tire after six rounds of chess and Dale quickly whopped pieces off the board. Though Dale had been left with a chance at joint first, but overly aggressive sacrifices at the start meant John was a piece down and Steve could finish undefeated. Cameron was on an interesting game with three minor pieces and a queen against a rook, bishop and queen, but his pieces were too trapped. Kyle lost to Anthony, but with Dales win already in the bag he couldn’t get any higher. Final result, third place Kyle 4/7, runner up Dale 6/7, winner Steve 7/7.
