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Last Tuesday the Taunton Chess Championships finished. There are still two outstanding games but the tournament is decided.
Before the tournament there were a handful of players for winning this tournament: Mike Redman (185), Mike Richardt (175), Nick Wilson (168) and Chris Price ungraded but clearly a good player.
Unfortunately for Mike Redman and Chris Price both had to withdraw from the tournament due to work commitments or personal reasons. So it was clear that title would be decided between Mike Richardt and Nick Wilson.

In Nick’s case that was clearly true. Nick won his first 4 games with no problem at all. Mike Richardt on the other hand lost unexpectedly in the second round to Jorge Pineda-Langford. In a winning position he blundered horribly and had to resign on the spot. Gone was the dream of winning the Club Championship.
In round 4 Nick won against Jorge and I won my game as well. Nick was on 4/4 and three players, Jorge Pineda-Langford, Mike Richardt and John Wilkinson all on 3/4 chasing him in the last round.
It was clear that Nick had to play Mike Richardt as he had already played Jorge and John in the previous rounds.
So last week Nick and Mike played their game. Nick needed only a draw to win the Club Championship and Mike had to win to equal first.
Mike opened the game with 1.d4 and Nick played Albin’s countergambit (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5). Fortunately for Mike it is quite difficult to get him out of book in the first 10-12 moves unless his opponent plays something very strange. After 11 moves Mike had a little advantage and then Nick made a small blunder and his game went down hill from there. Mike could have won earlier but he wrapped the game up just after the time control.
Due to Jorge’s win against John Wilkinson three players finished on 4/5. So all three players agreed that there had to be a decider to determine who would be Champion. It was decided that we would play two 10 minute games against each other, one with white and one with black. Surely that should decide who will be the new Club Champion.
First game was Mike – Nick and Nick played again the Albin’s Countergambit. Unfortunately for Nick Mike was better prepared this time and Nick lost a piece without compensation. Nick resigned straight away.
Next game: Jorge – Mike: Jorge should have won this game. A nice piece sacrifice on h7 exposed Mike’s King and Jorge was clearly in the driving seat. But with time running out Jorge couldn’t always find the best moves. Mike gave the piece back and won on time in a game which he never should have won.
Jorge – Nick: Nick had some advantage after the opening and first won two pawns and then after a discovered check, a whole piece. Jorge was clearly out of the contention for first place now.
Mike – Jorge: A strange opening (1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nf6 3.cxd5 Qxd5 4.Nc3 Qa5 5.Bd2 Qb4 6.Nd5 (6.Nf3 is much better)) where white gained some advantage and in a complicated middle game black lost a piece. Jorge resigned.
Nick – Jorge: Nick needed to win this game and win the next game against Mike to have a chance of the title. A very strong opening from Nick but to find the best plan he ran out of time and in time trouble he couldn’t find the best moves. Jorge 3 minutes ahead on time (compare to Nick’s 45 sec.) kept a cool head and started an attack himself. In a tricky position Jorge offered a draw and Nick accepted it with 20 sec. left on the clock.
Mike had won the Club Championships. A little bit of luck in the rapid games but this is what you need to win tournaments.
The cross table for the decider:

Club Championship
Player	Nick	Jorge	Mike	Pts
Nick		B:1 W:0.5	B:0 W:-	1.5
Jorge	W:0 B:0.5		W:0 B:0	0.5
Mike	W:1 B:-	B:1 W:1		3

When the last remaining two games have been played I will send the final standing with all the results of each round.
I don’t know how to calculate the BCF performance but maybe someone else can do that for me. I know different rules apply when your opponent is “weaker” by more than 40 grading points.

Cheers
Mike Richardt