Baker is Bristol Champ

Chris Baker breezed to victory in the League Congress last weekend when he managed to avoid all the top rated players. This was not Chris's fault; it happened because the other top players all lost in a sensational first round while Chris was taking a half point bye: Beaumont lost to David Buckley, Charles Cobb lost to Melanie Buckley, Roy Phillips lost to John Richards, and Paul Helbig was beaten by Duncan Grossett. When Baker arrived for the second round, it was to find himself half a point ahead of his main competitors, instead of half a point behind them. Four straight wins ensured they never caught up with him.

List of prizewinners

       Open

      U-170

      U-140

     U-110

     U-80

Team prize    Keynsham (clock).

The Open Section

Round One

The usual first round Swiss pairings of the top half versus the bottom half led to a massacre of the top players. David Buckley beat Chris Beaumont when he left a piece hanging, while sister Melanie made it look easy against Charles Cobb. Roy Phillips got into his usual time trouble against me and I found a forced mate in four. Paul Helbig, just returned from Australia, played like he was still jet lagged and lost to Duncan Grossett. Rawlinson beat Z Chris (who claimed a grade of 185, but never played like it). It was left to Simon Buckley to be the only top half player to score the full point when he beat Mike White. Steve Dilleigh got a one point bye to join the early leaders

Round Two

Chris Baker had sat out the first evening with a half point bye. He must have come in on Saturday expecting to be half a point behind Beaumont, Cobb and Phillips, and been delighted to find he was actually half a point in front.

Simon Buckley and Steve Dilleigh both won to become the joint leaders on 100%. The other two Buckleys, Melanie and David, were paired together, so no one was surprised when they drew. With all three amongst the leaders, perhaps it was to be the year when a Buckley became Bristol Champion?

The silliest game of the round, and of the whole tournament, was when I placed my queen en prise on move 13; David Collier must have thought Christmas had come early.

Round Three

Paul Helbig's poor form continued. A loss to me was enough to convince him to withdraw from the tournament. Simon Buckley drew with Dilleigh, allowing Melanie Buckley and Chris Baker to catch up.

Round Four

The Buckleys' chances evaporated this round. Simon lost to Baker and Melanie to Dilleigh. Chris Beaumont overslept and made it to the board with about 3 minutes to spare. He would have been better off staying in bed, as he became my second 200+ scalp of the tournament.

 Leaders:Chris Baker, Steve Dilleigh 3.5; Charles Cobb, John Richards 3.

Round Five

Chris Baker made it all look easy against Dilleigh as he notched up his fourth straight win to become Bristol Champion for the first time. He was relieved he didn't need a tie break as the Controller, Steve Boniface, had decided to use the unusual "average of opponents' grades" as the first tie break method, which would have almost certainly meant that Baker would have lost. Cobb beat me after a very long struggle (the last game to finish) where he missed a couple of wins along the way and almost let me back into it. It was only sufficient for second. My excellent tournament (wins against Phillips, Helbig and Beaumont for a grading performance of 208) ended up with me completely out of the prize money, as Melanie glided past to snatch the grading prize.

John Richards

Bristol League Congress Open  1998

                    1  2  3  4  5 

  1 Baker,CW       +½ +1 -1 +1 -1  4.5/5

                  bye 14  8  5  4

  2 Cobb,C         +0 -1 +1 -1 +1  4.0/5

                    3 16 10  9  7

  3 Buckley,M      -1 +½ +1 -0 +1  3.5/5

                    2  8  6  4 12

  4 Dilleigh,S     +1 +1 -½ +1 +0  3.5/5

                  bye 13  5  3  1

  5 Buckley,S      +1 -1 +½ -0 +½  3.0/5

                   12 10  4  1  6

  6 Collier,D      -½ +1 -0 +1 -½  3.0/5

                   14  7  3  8  5

  7 Richards,J     +1 -0 +1 -1 -0  3.0/5

                    9  6 15 11  2

  8 Buckley,D      +1 -½ +0 -0 +1  2.5/5

                   11  3  1  6 13

  9 Phillips,R     -0 +1 -1 +0 -½  2.5/5

                    7 12 13  2 10

 10 Grossett,D     -1 +0 -0 +1 +½  2.5/5

                   15  5  2 13  9

 11 Beaumont,C     -0 +½ -1 +0 -1  2.5/5

                    8 15 14  7 def

 12 White,EM       -0 -0 +1 +1 -0  2.0/5

                    5  9 16 14  3

 13 Rawlinson,A    +1 -0 +0 -0 -0  1.0/5

                   16  4  9 10  8

 14 Cheung,L       +½ -0 +0 -0     0.5/4

                    6  1 11 12  

 15 Helbig,P       +0 -½ -0        0.5/3

                   10 11  7     

 16 Chris,Z        -0 +0 -0        0.0/3

                   13  2 12