It was the usual format of 5 rounds of two games at 25’ + 10” increments, ran during the season with a window of about 6 weeks for each round. The trickiest part was trying to find Tuesdays when neither player in a pairing was playing a league match, especially when many of us were helping out other teams. Somehow only two pairings were not completed in the allocated window. Huge thanks to all the players.
The 12 competitors were Mike B (defending champion), Mike N-E, Drag, Felipe, Nikolai, John H, Paul, Mark, Marian, Tom P, Ben & Marshall.
With the exception of Paul taking a point off Nikolai, round one was comfortable for the higher seeds over their lower seeded opponents.
Round 2 saw a huge 1.5 – 0.5 win by Mike N-E over defending champion Mike B. Felipe also scored 1.5 points v Drag while Paul beat Ben 1.5 – 0.5.
In round 3, Mike N-E continued his fine form by beating Felipe 2 – 0. Mike B returned to form with a 2 – 0 win over John H. Paul produced the shock result of the round with a very easy 2 – 0 win over an off form Drag. Nikolai had a nice 2 – 0 win over the ever tricky Marian, while Tom P did the double over Marshall. In the final match, Mark and Ben shared the points.
After 3 rounds Mike N-E led the way with 5.5 points, closely followed by Mike B and Paul on 4.5 points. Nikolai was half a point further behind.
In round 5 Mike N-E left the door ajar slightly for Mike B by dropping 0.5 points in a 1.5 – 0.5 win over Paul (ending Paul’s chances of winning the title) and Mike B showed no mercy to Nikolai, winning 2 – 0. Felipe gave himself an outside chance of winning the title by beating Mark 2 – 0.
The leading scores going into round 5 were: Mike N-E 7, Mike B 6.5 & Felipe 5.5. They were the only members who could still win the title.
The final round draw saw Mike B v Felipe and Mike N-E v Nikolai. Mike B efficiently demolished Felipe 2 – 0 to move to 8.5 points. All the pressure was on Mike N-E who had to win 2 – 0, and he handled the pressure by winning both games, and the title with 9 points from his 10 games.
Congratulations to Mike N-E on his 1st Gambit Rapidplay Title.