"Those who say they understand chess, understand nothing" -- Robert HUBNER

The 12th Ealing Lightning Championship

: Created:11 Sep 2007 , by

Syrym Shalabayev and Simon Randall share first place. Simon Healeas and Richard Mwangi win grading first prizes.

Last year's incredible entry was not statistically threatened but twenty-one players contested Ealing's annual lightning championship on 6th September which by most people's standards is an excellent result.

During the summer, we at Ealing Chess Club concentrate on fun events and we trust that everybody enjoyed themselves this evening although until a second window was forced open, conditions fell a little short of perfect on a muggy night. Our competition is not an all-play-all and we make no apologies if it favours early-comers. Successful players have to hunt down their opposition but luck can play a part because the availabilty of opponents can be a crucial factor. Very Darwinian!

Congratulations are due to Syrym Shalabayev and Simon Randall who shared the Championship with 10.5 points. Syrym was looking odds-on for sole first-place until a shock loss in his last game to Andy Cowdroy slowed him down. When I left the Harvester, the two champions were having their own private contest for ultimate supremacy but their play-off makes no difference to the official result.

Veljko Stanisic can consider himself very unlucky to finish only third with a total of nine points because he had an unbeaten record. Sainbayar Tserendorj was super-quick round the room but was handicapped by arriving half-an-hour after the scheduled start and a couple of losses kept him back in fourth place with 8 points.

Simon Healeas scored an outstanding 7.5 points to take the trophy in the middle section of our tournament. Dale Gibbons and Alastair Johnstone filled second and third place with 5.5 and 4.5 points respectively. For the second year Richard Mwangi won the under 100 grading trophy and this time his five points total was well ahead of his opposition. Three players shared second place - Jason Obihara, Anthony Wood and Pierre Davis , 3.5 - and in a strongly contested section, Jerry Ball was fifth with 3 points,Annuurai Sainbayar sixth with 2.5, and Amardeep Sachdev and Alex Gregory joint seventh with 2 points.

Welcome to Steve D after an impressive first appearance at the club and welcome back to Harvey Grewal, one of our most loyal and strongly performing players in the early Ninety's. Most of all I give personal thanks to all the players who supported Ealing at our 12th Lightning Tournament: Jason Obihara, Alex Gregory, Sainbayar Tserendorj, James Ellis, Steve D, Miguel Sanchez, Andy Cowdroy, Anuurai Sainbayar, Dale Gibbons, Amardeep Sachdev, Richard Mwangi, Pierre Davis, Harvey Grewal, Simon Heleas, Leszek Sarama, Simon Randall, Alastair Johnstone, Velkjo Stanisic, Jerry Ball, Syrym Shalabayev and Anthony Wood.