Saturday 3 August 2019

Joshua fails to qualify for the British Championship (part 7)

We are moving towards the end of the tournament, and we have some silverware to report on in this edition.

Team Sprog

Another draw for David today means he is one point off the lead in the U16 event with one round remaining. However, a good draw means he is playing the person in 1st place, so a win still gives him a chance of shared first place (there is one annoying person half a point behind the lead who can still spoil that ending).

Team PAYE

I managed to acquire some kind of illness today, I assume a result of too much fresh air and not enough time spent in a still, airless office in my job. Consequently fighting spirit was at a Very low level, so I was very happy to achieve two of the world's most boring draws today. I guess it is positive I still have the ability to kill all the excitement out of a game when desired, but not perhaps the most exciting talent to have. On a more exciting note, another fine win for Andy means he is currently on track to make a gain of over 50 rating points in one tournament, something which I haven't seen happen too often for anyone older than about 11.

The best result of the day though was definitely Ben. A win and a draw would be good results in any circumstances, but the win in the morning means he finished joint third in that event. A first piece of silverware for the club means for the first time in the event I get to dig out the official "Third Place Medal" emoji - 🥉

Team Charlemagne

Very much a mixed bag of results today. Bernard picked up a very creditable draw with the black pieces against a player rated of 200 points higher. Mark unfortunately was not able to match this result, and his defeat means he is one point off the lead with two rounds to go, so the same position as David found himself in this morning.

Roy as usual though managed to result to rescue the day for his team. His afternoon draw was nothing to write home about, coming against a player I'm sure must have been stronger than her rating of 1040. The more important result though was in the morning, where a victory means he finished joint second, meaning a second relevant emoji can be brought in to play - 🥈. We now just need someone to win an event and I'll have the full set.

Team Eclectic

Two draws for our dynamic duo today, though I guess objectively David Howell's draw with Michael Adams must be ranked very slightly higher than Bruce's with a very welcoming Frenchman.

Current standings

Team Sprog: 72% (13/18)
Team PAYE: 57% (16/28)
Team Charlemagne: 66% (16.5/25)
Team Eclectic: 48% (11/23)

There is no doubt that for today's featured game we should look at the flawlessly played win that took Roy to the podium in his event:

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