A Different Year, A Different Rapidplay!

No Free Lunch and No Snow Plough Required!

Exactly one year after the last face-to-face chess event was played, the 1st Dorset Online Rapidplay Championship held last Sunday was the first ‘official adventure’ into the online tournament chess world by the Dorset County Chess Association. We did not know what to expect or what level of interest there would be but by offering a free entry and a prize fund of £260 we were hopeful of a good field and we were not disappointed. Indeed, there were a few regular past Rapidplay players who chose to play online chess for the first time which was pleasing to see. Unfortunately, there was no free lunch nor any free refreshments but we are hopeful that ‘normal service’ will be resumed next year!

The tournament ran very smoothly, everyone appeared to enjoy themselves, the face to face virtual ‘Chat room’ worked well, particularly for the Opening Ceremony, and everything ran to schedule finishing at 1.15pm.  In total, 23 players won cash prizes which was well over a third of all entrants and is consistent with the Rapidplay’s tradition. All the winners are listed in the full tournament report.

With 60 players and over 200 games there was a lot of interesting chess played.   This week, we will focus on the key games played by the three joint winners plus a few games played by the veterans and juniors, with light annotations by either me or Peter Anderson. And by way of a bonus, in the middle of the games  you will find three fun Rapidplay trivia questions.

Next Saturday, we will look at some games from the winners of the grading categories plus cover a few mishaps as often happens when games are played at such fast speeds!

Martin Simons
20/3/2021

Games

We start with a tense and complicated game from the final round between the long time leader Andrej Furjel and one of his chasers, Peter Anderson.

Apart from one hiccup which turned a win into a loss, Christian Westrap played solidly throughout the tournament.  He shows his alertness in this next game to win a piece and then comfortably convert.

Throughout the tournament Andrej Furjel’s play showed excellent chess understanding combined with practical moves that kept his opponents under pressure.  Here is a nice positional win from him.

Games Continued

This game was played in round 4 by two of the most promising juniors, Florence Spirling and Georgia Headlong, and shows good play by both players.

Georgia Headlong had an excellent tournament and with a score of 5 points came equal 6th also winning the junior Under 18 prize and we are pleased to feature a second of her games. In this 2nd round contest, she outplayed her much higher graded opponent only to miss a mate in 2 and other wins near the end. We will pick up the game after Black’s 38th move.

Matthew Deacon had a great tournament scoring 4.5 points, winning the junior under 12 section and also the 111 to 125 category. In this game against a fellow strong under 12 player he finds a good tactic that wins a piece.

Alan Dommett jointly won the Veteran’s prize and in this 7th round game he demonstates the power of the pin.