The latest edition of the monthly blitz at All Saints Church in central Kingston resulted in a surprise win for newcomer Alan Hayward
After the summer break, the monthly All Saints Blitz resumed on Wednesday 25 September with a cohort of a dozen players. It comprised five rounds, with each player allowed three minutes per game with an increment of seven seconds per move. The tournament controller was John Foley. The event took a brisk two hours from 10.15am with no gaps between rounds.
There was a new winner of the event – Alan Hayward from Pimlico Chess Club (pictured above left receiving his prize), who scored 4/5. It was Alan’s first time at the Blitz, but he showed few nerves as he disposed of four of his opponents. His only loss was to his friend Robin Haldane in the second round, though in the end Robin may have regretted bringing Alan along. Robin led on 4/4 going into the last round against Tony Hughes, both previous winners. Tony bested Robin, leaving Robin and Alan on 4/5, with Alan winning on a tie-break. Tony came third with 3.5/5.
The prizes were purchased from the church’s charity bric-a-brac table (Kingston Chess Club’s generosity knows no limits). They comprised diverse entertainments: a crossword puzzle book (third prize); a John Grisham thriller (second prize); and a game of Agatha Christie Bingo (first prize). Prizes were ordered based on weight rather than intellectual merit.
Alan was surprised to win because he had lost to Robin earlier – it is quite common to treat the head-to-head result as decisive. However, we use the Buchholz tie-break system, whereby the person with the higher sum of opponents’ scores is the winner. Others who finished on or above 50% included David Rowson, Peter Roche, Byron Eslava and Stephen Moss.
The tournament was completed quickly within two hours. Several participants said they preferred to play during the morning when they were wide awake, and one said it always set him up for the day. In addition to the tournament players, four attendees opted to play social chess, adding to the variety of the chess experience at All Saints.
Past winners
- Tony Hughes (Wimbledon)
- Tony Hughes (Wimbledon)
- David Rowson (Kingston)
- Tony Hughes (Wimbledon)
- Robin Haldane (Streatham)
- Alan Hayward (Pimlico)
John Foley
