The 14th Ealing Lightning Championship
: Created:28 Aug 2009 , byAdrian Ociepka triumphed in yesterday's annual lightning tournament with 9 points. Raj Jhooti and Anuurai Sainbayar were also crowned as champions in the under 155 and under 125 grading brackets respectively.
Read a detailed report of this great event below.
Simon Healeas, Ealing's Tournament Secretary writes:
"Last Thursday we enjoyed one of the main events in the Ealing Chess Club calendar: the annual lightning tournament. In addition to 20 participants we also had present a spectator, a prospective new member and our own in-house photographer, Tony Wood, who had delayed his holiday in the Lake District to be with us that evening.
There were three sections: the Open, the under-155 and the under-125. In the latter, Anuurai Sainbayar won impressively with five points, pipping Gerry Blick into second place with four and a half points. Pierre Davis took a very creditable third place. Shortly after Anuurai's win over Pierre, her father, Bayar, pointed out how in the final position Pierre could have trapped his daughter's queen with Qe2. However, Pierre admitted with great honesty that he would not have found this move. Anuurai's good form continued over the Bank Holiday weekend where she was a section winner at the Berks and Bucks congress in Twyford.
In the under-155 section, Raj Jhooti's success continued (he won the club's under-135 classical chess competition earlier this year) by emerging the victor with six and a half points. It is always instructive to watch his opening play as he fights for the inititiave; speed of development and mobilization of forces are very much his trademark. Eschewing the offbeat Bird's opening (f4), he has resorted to the more traditional e4 as White which is bearing fruit. After an indifferent start Alastair Johnstone bounced back strongly and came second with four and a half points. Watching his games reminds me of Arsenal: highly entertaining, often dominant, but not always securing the win. Dale Gibbons, after a year's absence from the game, finished a very respectable third.
The real dogfight, however, took place in the Open section with only two points dividing the top five players. On an evening where the name at the top of the leader board was changing rapidly, Adrian Ociepka finally emerged as the winner with nine points. If I recall correctly, he did in fact win an incredible eight games in a row mainly with the black pieces. He was closely followed by Michael Turp and Alan Perkins on eight and half points, with Tony Wells on seven and a half. Indeed, had Alan beaten Tony in the final game of the night he would have been the victor but it was not to be.
Overall, a most enjoyable evening and it is particularly refreshing to see so many new members doing well in internal competitions."