Newcastle Mini Congress U160 section

Round Five Full House, though not all in clear view. Whites from front: Abdulbari Kabiri, Steve Lloyd, Doug Barnett, Jon Blackburn and Steve Hill Blacks from front: Roger Walker, John Day, Alan Thomason, Matthew Wyza and Stephane Pedder The Lesser Spotted Sam and The Disappearing Nick did not make it this far.

Alan Thomason Sectional winner of best poser contest

Chess as a spectator sport The crowds are spoilt for choice as the last round draws to a close with those facing the camera watching this section's fight whilst behind them the battle for the U130 title goes on.

It was good to see Doug Barnett back in circulation and making his first visit to this congress. Despite his protestations of not being any good he produced some pretty decent chess. Indeed all the players played well, but inevitably there were winners and losers, and in John the draw Day's case, three draws.

Jon Blackburn was the only player to win both of his first two games, and would have been pleased to return on Sunday to find that despite his half-point bye the previous evening his lead was intact, but then less pleased with his Sunday morning score.

Consequently going into the final round Stephane, Steve and Matthew were tied at the top, half a point clear of Jon Blackburn, with a posse of players a further half point back. Fortunately there was only one way of pairing the top four against each other so there was no question of me making a technical error.

Abdulbari Kabiri Deep contemplation (or merely asleep?)

Of the big four Jon on board two was the first to crack, allowing Matthew onto 4 points and a guarantee of at least a share of the top spot. On top board the game had reached a rook and pawn ending of the sort that gives rise to the saying 'all rook and pawn endings are drawn'. After thwarting Steve's attempt to get a pawn to escape to victory Stephane ground on slowly but surely towards queening a pawn of his own. With Stephane's time running low we were treated to the scene of steve sitting on his hands for the best part of a minute to decrease his time to less than 5 minutes so that he could legitimately attempt to blitz an error from Stephane. To no avail.

Scores

 1  Stephane Pedder  Stafford       154   7+   6=   8=   3+   2+   4   1st=
 2  Steve Hill       Meir           152   8-  11+   7+   4+   1-   3
 3  Jon Blackburn    Holmes Chapel  149  12+   8+   b=   1-   6-   2.5
 4  Alan Thomason    Alsager        142   9=   5=   b+   2-   7+   3 
 5  Steve Lloyd      Chester        137  11+   4=   b=   6-   8=   2.5
 6  Matthew Wyza     Cheddleton     137   b+   1=   b=   5+   3+   4   1st=
 7  Douglas Barnett  Alsager       e136   1-   9+   2-   b+   4-   2
 8  John Day         Newcastle      134   2+   3-   1=  11=   5=   2.5
 9  Abdulbari Kabiri Fenton         131   4=   7-   b+   b=  11+   3
11  Roger Walker     Belper         130   5-   2-   b=   8=   9-   1
12  Nick Mclean      Cheddleton     132   3-   b+