The Summer Tournament 2007
: Created:14 Aug 2007 , byUpdate on Summer Tournament
Since the Second World War, Ealing Chess Club has tried many ways of conducting a Summer/Handicap Tournament. Our esteemed predecessors were imaginative in their efforts to encourage member's attendance during the close season. One year, weaker players were allowed to retract moves against their stronger opponents. Another attempt was to return to the Nineteenth Century tradition of odds play. Removal of the king's bishop pawn plus move were the minimum odds and more distant variations in known playing strength were dealt with by the loss of queen's knight or queen's rook. A more serious approach was taken when quick play came into popular practice but members grew tired of the same strong players winning year after year. A subsidiary problem was that after a long, hard season few wanted to contest rated games (and I have not mentioned the cost of getting them graded!). Our solution has been to introduce a time handicap based on the grading difference between the players. The time differences are punitive against the strongest guys and girls but in deference to the well-being of our clocks, no competitor has less than five minutes.
Positions and some scores this season: 1. Alastair Johnstone (110+) 13.5 2. Syrym Shalabov (140+) 12.5 3. David Ebbett (160+) 10.5 4. Pierre Davis 5. Dale Gibbons 6. Jerry Ball, Sainbayar Tserendorj and Alex Gregory The tournament ends at 11pm on 27th September so there is plenty of time for new challengers to emerge.