Friday 25 July 2014

2014 ANU Chess Festival - Pawn Grabbers!

The first event of the 2014 ANU Chess Festival was the ANU University Co-op Bookshop Canberra Club Challenge. It was for teams of 2 players playing blitz (G/5m) in a 5 round swiss. Last years event was for club teams but this year it was opened up to any team of two. Apart from a couple of club teams (ANU Scholars, Belconnen Bruisers), there were a number of 'pick up' teams, and overall the tournament was quite strong.
The first few rounds saw The Ladies who Blitz (Alana Chibnall and Kayleigh Smith) take a clear lead. However their run was stopped by The Lads (Harry Press and Michael Kethro) in the third round. Meanwhile the Pawn Grabbers (Elwyn Teki and William Booth) recovered from a round 2 loss to The Lads, to also take a share of the lead. In the final rounds the Pawn Grabbers scored 2 wins over the Belconnen Bruisers (Stephen Priest and Cam Cunningham) while The Lads dropped a crucial point to Just Met (Damien Van den Hoff and Leron Kwong). This left the Pawn Grabbers in front by a point, with The Lads taking second. Third on countback were The Ladies who Blitz, ahead of defending champions the ANU Scholars (Jeremy Reading and Miles Patterson).
The whole event was more about fun than blood, although the Pawn Grabbers were pleased with their victory. King O'Malley's provided the venue free of charge, and while their regular patrons weren't quite sure what to make of it, a good time was had by all.

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