Alex Holowczak's School Wins Lightning Tournament (February 2, 2007)
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I play chess for my school, King Edward VI Five Ways. On Friday we had a lightning tournament - i.e. five minutes each on the clocks (as opposed to the normal hour each on the clocks). I enclose the report to be read out in assembly tomorrow morning...
Report
On Friday night, Five Ways First and Under 13 teams went to KES for the annual Lightning Tournament. The tournament was for the first time a four-round jamboree format, with an odd number of schools in attendance.
The Under 13 Team started badly, scoring only 5½ out of 12 in the opening round. But they improved as the night went on, scoring 9½ in the final round to finish on 30½ out of 48 – good enough for second place, ahead of Queen Mary’s Walsall, Solihull and Wolverhampton, but behind hosts KES. Phillip Purcell was the top scorer, scoring 6½ out of 8 in his games. Second was not bad considering the best Under 13s were playing in the First Team.
The First Team followed a similar pattern. After scoring 7½ in Round 1, they were third behind Walsall and KES. In Round 2, they improved with 8½ to put them into a shock lead, by one point from KES, and Walsall ½ a point behind. After another 7½ in Round 3, they were back into a share of the lead with Walsall. In Round 4, all the players played brilliantly, scoring 9 and giving Five Ways a resounding win by 2½ points from KES and 3½ from Walsall. Considering KES had dropped their top two players thinking they would still win anyway, it was a particularly sweet victory. All players scored more than half of the maximum score. The best player was Ashley Davis, who scored 7½ out of 8, the best of anyone on the night. Chris Smith scored 6 out of 8 playing on Board 1.
Five Ways won the Lightning Tournament for the first time, and interestingly have now won two trophies in two attempts when Mr Trigger has been transporting the team.
Me personally
I "only" scored 4.5 out of 8 on Board 2, which wasn't bad, but could have been obviously better. Playing KES' Board 1 twice didn't help. But still, we won! It's been a good week following on from my victory over Manny Stiles in the first ever Mega Bowl of Chess.
Date
February 2, 2007
