September Blitz Results

September’s Blitz, held on Thursday 19th, saw an encouraging number of newcomers, all of whom confessed to playing chess on-line but were now keen to try playing an opponent they could actually see.  We hope the sight didn’t put too many of them off, and that all will become regular club members.  Conversely, all our juniors were absent, which was a pity.  In their absence, we had the closest finish for several months: after five rounds, three players – Pete Morriss, Diego Rodriguez, and Fintan Hegarty – were tied for first with 4 points, a point ahead of the field; the three had already played each other, and therefore had to face lower-scoring opponents. So in round 6, when Pete managed to scrape a draw, he thought that that would put him out of the running for prizes – only for him then to discover that the other two front-runners had both lost, so he was then leading, with four players now sharing second place just half a point behind him. But order was restored somewhat in the final round, when the chastened three scored three wins, thus all emerging to share the prizes: Pete Morriss was first with 5½ points, and Diego Rodriguez and Fintan Hegarty shared second with 5 points.  The grading prize went to one of our newcomers, James Sharkey, with 4 points, including a win in round 6 against one of the eventual runners-up.