Fischer Time Trialled at Cheshire Tournament

The 21st Cheshire Tournament became the first event in the UK to use Fischer Time on new BGA electronic clocks. The 42 players successfully used the new system that gives extra time for each move played. The basic time was set at 40 minutes and ten seconds were added each move, remaining a B class tournament; only one game was lost on time (selecting the optional warning beep helped most avoid this) and fast players often had more time left at the end than they started with.

Most of the prize winners were from the two minibusfuls from Cheadle Hulme School. Ali Moin won a 13x13 prize for the most games played (winning 3 out of 9) and Sam Barnett for the best percentage/most wins (with 6 out of 6). These two were also among the eight youngsters who won two games and won some sweets. Five of the youngsters won all three games, namely Hugo Ryan (35k), Ben Geertman (25k), Rahul Surapaneni (19k), Joseph Curtis (17k) and Daniel Gascoyne (15k). Sheffield's Matt Marsh (3k) won a prize for three wins and Peikai Xue (2d) was awarded second place. He lost in the last round to Cambridge's Andrew Simons (4d), who was a worthy winner of the event.

As usual the event was held at the Community Centre in Frodsham alongside the Chess Congress run by Pat Ridley. A date error made a clash with the Cheshire Junior Chess Training which caused a squeeze on rooms. Not usual was co-organiser Tony Pitchford being in Madeira, but Tony Atkins coped without him, thanks to Martin and Helen Harvey taking control of the second room and the 13x13.

Results