After another sultry day of chess here in TrafficJam-upon-Thames, the leaders are now Irish IM Conor Murphy, Polish FM Maciej Czopor and English CM Stanley Badacsonyi on 3/3.
First we must congratulate all the players in the tournament, not to mention the officials, on managing to get to the venue at all. As mentioned yesterday, there are huge traffic problems in Kingston-upon-Thames at the moment. Kingston Council reported that "Queen Elizabeth Road Kingston - Urgent Road Closure at the junction with Birkenhead Avenue due to the discovery of a large void in the carriageway. Estimated end date is currently 16 August 2024." Note that those dates coincide exactly with the start and end dates of the tournament, and the road closed happens to be the one immediately outside the venue. How unlucky can we get? The only tournament that comes close in misfortune in this respect is probably the recent British Championship in Hull which coincided with an outbreak of public disorder in Hull which led to the hotel venue having to lockdown at one point. However, thankfully, the large void in the adjoining road has not led to an equivalent void in the list of competitors.
ROUND TWO
One of the other most impressive features of the competitors is their fighting spirit. Round one featured 17 decisive results and just four draws. Perhaps not so surprising for a top vs bottom starter round but the trend has continued. In round two there were again four draws and 18 decisive games. In round three there were six draws and 16 decisive games. The draws have nearly all been full-blooded battles, too, with one going to an eye-watering 137 moves. The tournament organiser keeps nagging me to make a come-back and play the odd game as a filler, but he's got another think coming. Chess as played these days is too relentless for my cowardly blood and I shall remain a devoted spectator, thank you very much. I'm not the only one. We're told that the tournament's LiChess live audience is steadily growing.
A tough start for IM Vladyslav Larkin but he won his round 3 game to reach 1½/3.
Good day at the office for Bob Eames: IM scalp in the morning and a smart win in the afternoon.
In the morning round the higher rated generally did better than in the first round but there were still some surprises. Top seed Ukrainian IM Vladyslav Larkin, who took a half-point bye in the opening round, lost to English FM Bob Eames. Larkin appeared to have escaped some early difficulties and secured an advantage but then blundered away material.
Some of the youngsters who had excelled in round one ran out of luck in round two. George Zhao seemed to be matching Michael Healey blow for blow beyond move 40 and was a pawn up when a small slip enabled White to mount a decisive kingside attack. Similarly Zain Patel ran into tactical trouble against Tom Villiers whose back rank threats proved more potent than his opponent's.
Remy Rushbrooke won an impressive game against IM Peter Large
There was a further surprise as Cambridge University player Remy Rushbrooke beat Peter Large. The veteran IM arrived 20 minutes late for the start - no doubt the traffic problem was to blame - and his opening play proved a little too provocative.
ROUND THREE
All-Irish clash on the top board: Conor Murphy defeated Gavin Wall
Board one in round three was an all-Irish clash between IMs Conor Murphy and Gavin Wall. Black opened with his trusty Philidor's defence but once 12...c5 was played it started to resemble a Sicilian with players attacking kings on opposite flanks. White's 14 Na4 looked odd at first sight but it proved to be a subtle plan to lure Black's light-squared bishop to go after it and win a pawn, enabling its opposite number to control the light squares on the opposite side unchallenged. The plan proved very effective and White's kingside assault soon crashed through.
Macieja Czopor joined the overnight triumvirate of leaders with 3/3 after grinding down Tom Villiers.
Macieja Czopor joined Murphy and Badacsonyi in the joint lead after beating Tom Villiers in a 92-move marathon. After 52 moves it came down to an endgame of knight and two unconnected pawns versus bishop and one pawn, which the tablebase tells us is a draw. A further 40 moves ensued until the black king managed to circumnavigate the white forces and reach a position where White had only one move which maintained the draw. It wasn't a particularly hard one to find, involving the 'shouldering off' of the black to prevent it reaching the passed black pawn via the back gate (if you see what I mean), but, probably in a state of exhaustion, White missed it and was soon lost.
Stanley Badacsonyi reached 3/3 after beating Alex Browning
Stanley Badacsonyi is the third member of the round three leadership group, after beating German-registered Alex Browning. This talented 15-year-old from East Finchley, who won the British Junior Under-16 Rapidplay and Blitz titles in Hull, has started in great shape in Kingston. In round three he opened with the Trompowski against the German FM and was quickly on the offensive after Browning went in for an inferior line which ceded the dark squares and also a pawn to his opponent. It was all over in 28 moves.
I mentioned earlier that Bob Eames had a nice win in the afternoon, neatly bookending his IM scalp of the morning. Let's end by having a look at it.
Round four starts at 1000 BST on Wednesday 14 August, with round five at 1530 the same day. Follow the action live at Lichess.org and find the latest results at chess-results.com. Also look out for me on X/Twitter for regular comments - @johnchess - and also @KingstonChess.
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