The Bangor University Chess Club (North Wales) is a relatively new society (created 2 years ago) of students who meet up twice a week to play chess both casually and formally. We are just regular people (sort of), doing all different kinds of degrees, who enjoy the game of chess.

On the 29th November we decided to do our first tournament of this semester year. However with only 3 of us (including myself), who play regular competitive chess, it was difficult to do a serious long time control event, so we made it a simple 5 round swiss system tournament, with 15 min time controls, where everyone in the club could play. It was a perfect oppurtunity for everyone in the club to assess how good there were within the club.

A picture of our Chess Trophy :)

After much debate we decided to name our tournament, The "Simon Armstrong Memorial" after our fallen comrade Simon... who wasn't actually dead, he just never turned up because of 3rd year commitments... Instead we decided on the name as a joke reference to the "Tal Memorial Tournament" (A sick joke I know but blame Adrian...).

A GHOST!!!

With no software to do a proper swiss system tournament I ended up having to do a fairly inaccurate form of pairing using a seeding process. My only problem was sorting out which colours and tiebreaks... Having computer software would make things so much easier!

(1) Jimi (2) Andrew (Me!) (3) Ben (Aussie) (4) Adrian (5) Tim (6) Simon (7) Joe (8) Chris (9) Matt (10) Dan (11) Star (12) Sam (13) Zara (14) Kevin (15) Ben (Tree Guy) (16) Kirstie (17) Alex (18) Robin (19) temmy* * Temmy turned up late in the first round and left after the Third round.

Round 1

1 v 18 2 v 17 3 v 16 4 v 15 5 v 14 6 vs 13 7 vs 12 8 vs 11 9 vs 10

Round 1 was without much surprises. Jimi, Ben, Adrian, Tim, Simon, Joe and I breezed through the first round getting rid of any nerves that had manifested itself at the start of the tournament. Notable games were Chris vs. Star where Star, going down material decided to fight on a little longer creating some complications for Chris. Chris eventually grinded her down to join the leaders of the tournament. Matt and Dan had an interesting game which ended rather Anti-climactically with an accidental stalemate...

A few of the club members relaxing before the first round

Round 1 Jimi w 1 Andrew w 1 Ben (Aussie) w 1 Adrian w 1 Tim w 1 Simon w 1 Joe w 1 Chris w 1 Matt w 0.5 Dan b 0.5 Star b 0 Sam b 0 Zara b 0 Kevin b 0 Ben (Tree Guy) b 0 Kirstie b 0 Alex b 0 Robin b 0 temmy bye 0

Round 2

8 v 1 7 v 2 6 v 3 5 v 4 10 v19 17 v 9 11 v 15 16 v 12 13 v 14

Round 2 was a rather strange round where many surprises happened. Adrian took the lead with a win over Tim. The other top boards ended in strange ways. Jimi was forced to take a draw from Chris, who had been on form all month before this tournament:



























This position led to a draw. Definitely an interesting position.

Ben had a rather uneventful draw against Simon (even though a rather mad opening choice of the Danish Gambit was deployed by Simon).

The Biggest shock of the tournament (rather biasly) came from my own game against Joe. Although I hadn't lost to him since the 24 hour tournament (for which he doesn't let me forget about), Joe had a shock victory against me following some tactical brilliancy with a knight check and queen counter-play. After attempting to claw my way back in the game, due to time trouble I faultered under the pressure, blundered and then conceeded to Joe. My hopes of a clean sheet tournament victory had vanished :(.

The rest of the results ended expectively. Robin also gained a bye victory pushing him into the midtable of the tournament.

Intense concentration in Round 2

Round 1 Round 2 Jimi w 1 b 0.5 Andrew w 1 b 0 Ben (Aussie) w 1 b 0.5 Adrian w 1 b 1 Tim w 1 w 0 Simon w 1 w 0.5 Joe w 1 w 1 Chris w 1 w 0.5 Matt w 0.5 b 1 Dan b 0.5 w 1 Star b 0 w 1 Sam b 0 b 1 Zara b 0 w 1 Kevin b 0 b 0 Ben (Tree Guy) b 0 b 0 Kirstie b 0 w 0 Alex b 0 w 0 Robin b 0 Bye 1 temmy bye 0 b 0

Joe and Adrian led the feild with 2 points each. Ben, Simon and Chris were 2nd with 1.5 points each.

Round 3

4 v 7 1 v 10 3 v 9 8 v 6 2 v 18 5 v 13 11 v 12 19 v 14 15 v 16

With Adrian and Joe on two points each they played in a mini final to see who would lead the tournament. Adrian, using all his Romanian might, quashed the resistance from Joe to become the lone leader of the tournament on 3 points. Jimi, Ben and Chris stayed in 2nd place winning their games. After a very long match against Robin I eventually pushed ahead (but not without a big crowd behind me watching the game).

Tim won his match joining me in 3rd place. Star lost another match, which she thought she should have won. After many blunderous errors she lost in a surprise defeat against Sam. Sam as a result was on 2 points in 3rd place. Kevin and Kirstie won their first matches to claim their first points on the board. Alex got a bye to win his first points of the tournament leaving only two people without points (Treeguy+Temmy).

Me (back facing) against Robin. As you can see we created quite the crowd. Kirstie is to the left of the picture still playing Ben (Tree Guy). From the left standing: Kevin, Simon, Sam, Adrian, Joe and Chris. Zara is sitting down on the right.

Temmy would then leave after this round so there were no longer any bye wins.

Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Jimi w 1 b 0.5 w 1 Andrew w 1 b 0 w 1 Ben (Aussie) w 1 b 0.5 w. 1 Adrian w 1 b 1 w 1 Tim w 1 w 0 b 1 Simon w 1 w 0.5 b.0 Joe w 1 w 1 b 0 Chris w 1 w 0.5 w.1 Matt w 0.5 b 1 b. 0 Dan b 0.5 w 1 b 0 Star b 0 w 1 b 0 Sam b 0 b 1 w1 Zara b 0 w 1 w 0 Kevin b 0 b 0 b 1 Ben (Tree Guy) b 0 b 0 w 0 Kirstie b 0 w 0 b 1 Alex b 0 w 0 Bye 1 Robin b 0 Bye 1 b 0 temmy bye 0 b 0 0

Adrian obviously happy with his lead

Round 4

1 v 4 3 v 8 12 v 2 7 v 5 6 v 10 9 v 11 13 v 18 16 v 17 14 v 15

With 4 people still in the running for 1st place, round 4 was a pivotal round for a few players.

Kevin would had a tough battle against Ben (Tree Guy) which ended with victory for Ben. Kevin said after the tournament that it was the closest game he has ever had!

Kirstie would continue her winning streak by beating Alex.

Zara beat the President, Robin, getting her 2 points.

Matt had a tough match against Star. Star knowing she could do better in the tournament was able to overcome Matt propelling her to 2 points. Simon, now without much chance of winning, was able to beat Dan lining him up for a good placing in the tournament.

The upper half of the tournament was a conflicting battle. After a solid performance by Sam in the opening, his concentration faded meaning I was able to hit him hard with tactical fireworks on his king. I, now on 3/4 points had a small chance of winning now.

Ben was able to overcome Chris helping Ben to reach the final. The final match was between Jimi and Adrian. An interesting endgame was reached. I decided to look over for a brief second to see a match shrouded in uncertainty. Jimi was finally overcome Adrian giving him a final spot over Adrian.

Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Jimi w 1 b 0.5 w 1 w 1 Andrew w 1 b 0 w 1 w 1 Ben (Aussie) w 1 b 0.5 w. 1 w 1 Adrian w 1 b 1 w 1 b 0 Tim w 1 w 0 b 1 b0 Simon w 1 w 0.5 b.0 w1 Joe w 1 w 1 b 0 w1 Chris w 1 w 0.5 w.1 b 0 Matt w 0.5 b 1 b. 0 w0 Dan b 0.5 w 1 b 0 b0 Star b 0 w 1 b 0 b1 Sam b 0 b 1 w1 b 0 Zara b 0 w 1 w 0 w1 Kevin b 0 b 0 b 1 w 0 Ben (Tree Guy) b 0 b 0 w 0 b 1 Kirstie b 0 w 0 b 1 w 1 Alex b 0 w 0 Bye 1 b 0 Robin b 0 Bye 1 b 0 b0 temmy bye 0 b 0 0 0

Jimi and Ben (Aussie) were in the final, having not lost a single match. However there was a major problem. If the match ended in a draw there would have been an interesting position of a possible 4-way tie... moreover Ben was an exchange student from Australia! If he won he would have been unable to defend his title (unless we did some sort of Ashes competition with him...).

Possible winners after Round 5

Jimi 3.5

Ben (Aussie) 3.5

Joe 3

Andrew 3

Adrian 3

Round 5

3 v 1 4 v 2 8 v 7 11 v 6 12 v 5 16 v 13 18 v 9 10 v 15 17 v 14

Most results in the lower half of the tournament went without much surprises. Kirstie managed to overcome Zara to continue her winning streak of 3 games helping her finish in the top half of the tournament. Simon, with only a chance of placing high would end up losing to Star's returning strong form.

Zara (left) vs. Kirstie, Matt (left) vs. Robin

Joe would end up beating Chris giving him a chance to win the tournament. In my Game against Adrian we reached an interesting endgame. A draw was offered by me but it was quickly rejected by Adrian:

With the Victory I was in for a chance of winning, despite my loss in round 2.

Jimi and Ben was an interesting affair. Before the match Ben made it clear that he would try to aim for the draw (which would have been annoying for everyone). Thankfully Jimi was able to win giving him an impressive record of 4.5/5. Jimi was crowned our winner!

Robin (President) and the winner Jimi

Adrian admitting his defeat to Jimi