2014 Blitz - Ker, Dive, Nyberg Share First

The blitz is for me always one of the highlights of the year - always entertaining, fast-moving, and has the tendency to produce some remarkable results. Last year we had the reigning New Zealand champion being beaten by a 12-year-old Layla Timergazi, and this year we had no less memorable a result, with the current club number 3 being beaten by 6-year-old Pramodh Konakanchi.
Restricting the game to just 5 minutes per player is bound to cause some upsets, (like me beating Russell Dive for example!), but some people are just more skilled at this level. Such as Bob List, who is right in his element here, and even more so Michael Nyberg. It was Michael who, once again, rose to the top of the table, taking the title jointly with our perennial elite, Dive and Ker.

We had 27 players at the start of the tournament, although this rose to 28 when Anthony Ker prevailed upon Don Stracy to step a long way outside his comfort zone, and participate too. Don came up to me later with a worried expression, "This tournament isn't rated is it?".

We split the field into three all-play-all groups, with the top 3 in each group going forward to the final. Russell and Anthony won all the games in their respective groups, but in the C group Nic Croad didn't have it so easy, losing to Pramodh as mentioned above, and drawing with Michael Nyberg. In fact Michael won this group.

In the final all the players suffered some accidents, but Anthony, Russell and Michael suffered fewer than others, finishing on 6/8 half a point ahead of Nic Croad who thus ended up 4th.

A nice friendly send-off, then, to Dive and Ker as they prepare to head off, along with Marany and Layla, to the Olympiad in Norway to battle with the rest of the world, . We wish them every success!

Meanwhile, for the rest of us, it's the Julian Mazur coming up on the 24th - hope to see you there.

Blitz group A  

No	Name	Total	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6	#7	#8	#9
1	Dive, Russell	8	*	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
2	Stone, Andrew	6.5	0	*	½	1	1	1	1	1	1
3	Sellen, Ian	5.5	0	½	*	1	0	1	1	1	1
4	Farrington, Lawrence	4	0	0	0	*	1	0	1	1	1
5	Baker, Jack	3	0	0	1	0	*	0	0	1	1
6	Meravanage, Satwik	3	0	0	0	1	1	*	0	0	1
7	Rose, Nathan	2	0	0	0	0	1	1	*	0	0
8	Bennett, Sarah	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	*	0
9	Cunningham, Pat	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	*

Blitz group B  

No	Name	Total	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6	#7	#8	#9	#10
1	Ker, Anthony	9	*	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
2	Aldridge, Alan	6.5	0	*	1	½	1	1	1	0	1	1
3	Scarlett, William	5.5	0	0	*	½	1	1	0	1	1	1
4	Frost, Paul	5.5	0	½	½	*	0	½	1	1	1	1
5	Sole, Michael	5	0	0	0	1	*	0	1	1	1	1
6	Perry, Roger	4.5	0	0	0	½	1	*	0	1	1	1
7	Stracy, Don	3.5	0	0	1	0	0	1	*	0	½	1
8	Konakanchi, Karthik	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	*	1	0
9	Sole, Chris	1.5	0	0	0	0	0	0	½	0	*	1
10	Scully, Ben	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	*

Blitz group C  

No	Name	Total	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6	#7	#8	#9
1	Nyberg, Michael	7.5	*	½	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
2	Croad, Nic	6.5	½	*	1	1	1	1	0	1	1
3	List, Bob	6	0	0	*	1	1	1	1	1	1
4	Stoeveken, Peter	5	0	0	0	*	1	1	1	1	1
5	Brockway, Andrew	4	0	0	0	0	*	1	1	1	1
6	MacDonald, John	3	0	0	0	0	0	*	1	1	1
7	Konakanchi, Pramodh	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	*	0	1
8	Wight, Joshua	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	*	1
9	Bailey, Daniel	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	*

Blitz group Final  

No	Name	Total	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6	#7	#8	#9
1	Dive, Russell	6	*	0	1	1	0	1	1	1	1
2	Nyberg, Michael	6	1	*	0	½	½	1	1	1	1
3	Ker, Anthony	6	0	1	*	0	1	1	1	1	1
4	Croad, Nic	5.5	0	½	1	*	1	0	1	1	1
5	Sellen, Ian	4.5	1	½	0	0	*	1	1	1	0
6	Stone, Andrew	3	0	0	0	1	0	*	0	1	1
7	List, Bob	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	*	0	1
8	Frost, Paul	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	*	1
9	Aldridge, Alan	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	*