English Chess Federation

World School Chess Championships - Round 6

Matt Hunt reports:

Saturday 29 th April 2006 . It's a lovely day here and the pigeons are settling in the outfield … [RUBBISH! - ed]. Actually, he's right. The sky is grey and threatening - some of the old-timers on the trip recall this from before, when we were all in good ol' Blighty: "clouds" they call it - and a cold wind is blowing off the ocean. Is this an omen? If so, it would presumably have to be Omen VI. And in any event the sequels generally are never as scary as the original. But nonetheless I will tread warily today (perhaps we should all follow in Neil "Wary" McDonald's trepidatious footsteps?), and advise the rest of the party to do likewise. Oh boy, we'll make a funny sight wending our way to breakfast, single file. Should ensure a table though, if not several.

It is another "2-rounds-in-a-day" day today. Everyone is up early and coaching commences at 08:30. Dan and Samuel both have FIDE rated opponents again, and Joseph on Board 4 in the U11, George on Board 9 in the U13 and Callum on Board 7 in the U15 section all face tough games. Having knocked the top seed off Board 1, Dan retains pole position in the U11, playing white again, this time against the second seed. So his game will be transmitted live on the InterWorld WebNet again. Not sure I can take much more of this!

And what's this wet stuff falling from the sky? It is a hurried walk across to the Athos Palace, no one thought to bring an umbrella although The Team Mascot thinks she has the answer (see photo). The Powers That Be wisely stay at the Pallini Beach, although this will force The Players to take what will be the "sprinkly skip of joy" or the "puddly walk of shame" to get back to the coaches and go through their games...

And now the Chess bit:

Round 6 commences on time. The routine is established. A few diehard Responsible Adults stand and watch, or sit in the lobby waiting for the players to emerge. One or two go for a walk along the beach. The rest congregate at the pool-side café, for a slice of spinach pie and a pint of beer. Well, with the clouds around today we can only guess at whether or not the sun is over the yardarm. There is an exception - yours truly. The Team Mascot's hotel room door will no longer shut so I cannot leave the room until they fix it. I take the opportunity to dial up and watch Dan's game on the WideWeb WorldNet. Talk about paint drying! But somehow, both The Mascot and I are glued to watching a screen that only changes once every 10 minutes or so...

Then The Players start to come out. Patrick wins! Ed V-R wins! Ben wins! Ben? Already? For the second time in a row he is out in less than 4 hours! Even more surprisingly, he is nowhere near being the last out. At least a win is a win...

Then comes Polly - a draw. Joseph is just behind, he has lost to his Romanian opponent, never having recovered from going a pawn down early in the game. Jessica is out, followed shortly by Harry - both of them have wins. Things are looking good for team England! Then comes disappointment for Sharan - having worked hard to get a piece up, he loses it in the end game so comes away with no points this round.

Next, over 3 hours since they started, comes George with a "pressure win" - securing and then putting pressure behind a small advantage. That leaves Callum, Samuel and Dan still at the Boards...

Callum is next out: he was probably ahead anyway, but wins when his opponent blunders their queen and resigns in the end game. At the 3½ hour mark Samuel emerges - he's lost. It is not until 4 hours have passed that Dan emerges from his marathon match and ... he has won! His Responsible Adults are finally told the news once they have been located in the cardiac recovery room (aka The Bar).

Overall an excellent start to the double-day for England with a final tally of 8½ out of a possible 12 points in Round 6. Now The Players need to rapidly re-group and recover, in time for Round 7 at 17:00 local time.

The full results of Round 6 are as follows:

No time for highlights of Round 6, nor to wait for the draw for Round 7. Suffice to say that I am advised by TPTB that the Swiss Pairing system being used in the tournament to calculate the pairings means that everyone is in with a chance, and there's everything to play for, in the second game today, Round 7.

I will press upon TPTB the importance of some real chess reporting and hopefully we will get some highlights or interesting snippets from this morning's round for all you chess aficionados out there...

The Players' results to date: