Patchy blog, as got playing some friendlies!!
Fiddling the top-order draw owing to byes (King and Matar), my failure to spot Jalal-and-Danny’s previous encounter resulted in an incorrect Provisional Draw. For a second time, Craig Fay’s pairing against Austin had to be abandoned, and Craig got the plum tie against Jalal (“but with White!” I pointed out). A no-show allowed the re-pairing of Alexander’s planned bye, so an even 11 matches.
Things stayed quiet until about an hour in when suddenly Danny, Eric and Jalal (as usual) charged quasi-isolated advanced pawns into their opponent’s position. Craig was comfortable with this, but suddenly found it going astray. Danny’s proved decisive, but Eric lost faith in his c6 outpost, went for a cheapo instead of defending it, and eventually succumbed to Duncan. Elsewhere, Liam made the wrong rook move in an even position, leaving Brian a win.
Meantime, it was becoming clear this was not a night to be White (sorry, Craig). Jim O’Neill moved up the rankings with his second consecutive success, this time against Jainill. Julien had a solid win vs Gilbert; newcomer Kaveh continued to defy assessment (I mean, the guy likes an annotated board to help write down the moves..) with another win; and arguably the “shock” of the night, Angus ground down Mahmoud to join Danny on four points. Though, looking at his other recent results – maybe not that much of a shock.
And we got some draws! Dairena had the end-game advantage v John Eldridge, and when Alex doubled rooks on the seventh rank, it looked like a turnaround for Whites, but both failed to convert.
Oh yeah, and the two Roberts drew.
But that was a given.
So, two questions:
Can anyone catch Jalal? (Should I waive the “can’t enter the competition after Christmas” rule, and invite Iain Swan and Larry Kirk to play?)
And, more importantly:
Does Craig finally get to play Austin…now with Black?
| R5 Results | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | C. Fay (3) | v | J Shahin (4) | 0 - 1 |
| 2 | M Alagha (3) | v | A Mclean (3) | 0 - 1 |
| 3 | D Breslin (3) | v | A Connor (3) | 1 - 0 |
| 4 | C Takahashi (2.5) | v | K Alizade (2.5) | 0 - 1 |
| 5 | G Alomenu (2.5) | v | J Papillon (2.5) | 0 - 1 |
| 6 | R Gibb (2) | v | R Innes (2) | 0.5 - 0.5 |
| 7 | J Vadalia (2) | v | J O'Neill (2) | 0 - 1 |
| 8 | E Martin (1.5) | v | D McClymont (2) | 0 - 1 |
| 9 | D Gaffney (1) | v | J Eldridge (1.5) | 0.5 - 0.5 |
| 10 | L Power (1) | v | B Fitzpatrick (1) | 0 - 1 |
| 11 | A MarshaLL (0.5) | v | A Goss-Pastor (0.5) | 0.5 - 0.5 |
Provisional Half-Point Byes: T Clarke, C Anderson, A Heron, J Prentice, S Osman
Updated 1st March : Positions after Five Rounds
Postponed match, King v Matar, won by white.
| 5 Points | J Shahin | ||
| 4 Points | G King | D Breslin | A McLean |
| 3.5 Points | J Papillon | K Alizade | |
| 3 Points | M Alagha | C Fay | A Connor |
| D McClymont | J O'Neill | ||
| 2.5 Points | R Gibb | T Clarke | R Innes |
| M Matar | C Anderson | G Alomenu | |
| C Takahashi | |||
| 2 Points | J Eldridge | B Fitzpatrick | A Heron |
| J Vadalia | |||
| 1.5 Points | E Martin | D Gaffney | J Prentice |
| 1 Point | L Power | A Marshall | A Goss-Pastor |
| (S Osman) |
