REDHILL AND DISTRICT CHESS CLUB

LIGHTNING TOURNAMENT 2007-2008

 

 

 

 

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

tot

Position

1

G Meyer

 

1

1

1

0

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

10

1-2

2

K Thurlow

0

 

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

10

1-2

3

M Harris

0

0

 

0

1

1

˝

1

1

1

1

1

3-4

4

C Howell

0

0

1

 

0

1

1

˝

1

1

1

1

3-4

5

A Sperrin

1

0

0

1

 

0

0

1

1

1

1

1

7

5

6

R Patel

0

0

0

0

1

 

1

1

1

˝

1

1

6

7

R Barnett

0

0

˝

0

1

0

 

1

0

1

1

0

7-8

8

I Bodsworth

0

0

0

˝

0

0

0

 

1

1

1

1

7-8

9

M Loftus

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

 

1

1

1

4

9

10

K Patel

0

0

0

0

0

˝

0

0

0

 

1

1

10

11

M Howell

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

 

1

1

11-12

12

N Lacey

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

 

1

11-12

 

 

This was held Wednesday 2nd January 2008 and attracted a good entry. This is the annual “fun” event, where players have to move as a buzzer sounds, which it does every ten seconds! It was particularly nice to see Tony Sperrin on his annual visit to the club and he showed he was still competitive as he inflicted Gordon Meyer’s only defeat early in the evening, and also beat the reigning champion, Chris Howell. Tony reached 7/8 and was clearly in contention, but then fell away as the tournament drew to a close. Kevin Thurlow was struggling in the first game, against Mick Harris, but kept the game alive and then pounced when the attack faltered.  Thurlow – Howell was interesting when Chris played the Gruenfeld defence as a surprise, but was then thoroughly confused when faced by a very unusual variation. He fought back well, but then blundered an exchange and reached a lost ending. Gordon played the English against Kevin, and a positional struggle resulted. Gordon then found a nice manoeuvre on the queenside to create a dangerous passed pawn, which proved to be enough. Both players had now dropped one point, and in the race to the tape Kevin beat Tony in a wild game, and Gordon gained an overwhelming endgame advantage against Chris. In the last game of the evening, Gordon beat the always dangerous Roger Barnett to share the title. Surprisingly, it was his first victory in the lightning tournament. Kevin celebrates his 19th. The two winners opened up a large gap over the rest of the players, but there were a lot of difficult games.