66-year-old Glen Flear, who could have been playing in the over 65s had he wished, held 56-year-old Stuart Conquest to a draw without breaking too much sweat, in what might be seen as an “upset” in terms of expectation based on ratings. Click here to play through the game on screen.

That Michael Adams beat Jack Rudd in itself was hardly an upset in the rating sense, but the way he won in only 20 moves must have been fairly traumatic as seen from Black’s side of the board. Click here to play through the game on screen.

Another upset rating-wise, taking only 22 moves, was the demolition by Nigel Davies of Stephen Gordon’s uncastled king’s position. Click here to play through the game on screen.

The following gives results of all those who had 2½ or 3 points after 3 rounds, or were among the 11 top players as ranked by rating (marked “T”), or are identified as Northern players (marked “N”).

Title	Name		Rd.3 Result	Total ex 3
GM	Nikita Vitiugov	T	1	3
GM	Ameet K Ghasi	T	1	3
GM	Shreyas Royal	T	1	3
IM	Yichen Han		1	3
FM	William Claridge-Hansen		1	3
GM	Michael Adams	T	1	2½
IM	Matthew J Wadsworth	T	1	2½
IM	Jonah B Willow		½	2½
IM	Marcus R Harvey		1	2½
IM	Maciej Czopor		1	2½
IM	Siva Mahadevan		1	2½
FM	Gordon Frederick Waldhausen		1	2½
GM	Mark L Hebden		1	2½
FM	Lorenzo Fava		½	2½
GM	Nigel R Davies		1	2½
GM	Gawain Maroroa Jones	TN	1	2
GM	Stuart C Conquest	T	½	2
GM	Daniel H Fernandez	T	0	2
IM	Brandon Gi Clarke	T	1	2
IM	David J Eggleston	N	0	2
IM	Svyatoslav Bazakutsa	TN	0	1½
GM	Stephen J Gordon	TN	0	1½
IM	Andrew J Ledger	N	½	1½
	Owen Crawford	N	1	1½
CM	Edward Jackson	N	1	1
	Sheng Liang Bernard Chan	N	1	1
	Marek Korsinskij	N	1	1

Major Open

The following gives results of all those who had 2½ or 3 points after 3 rounds, those who were among the 12 top players as ranked by rating (marked “T”), and those identified as Northern players (marked “N”). Only the top 28 boards were showing on the live screens, suggesting a wiring problem somewhere.

Title	Name		Rd.3 Result	Total ex 3
	Arjun Kolani	T	1	3
	Koichi B Nicholas	T	1	3
	Remy Rushbrooke	T	1	3
	Ali Reza Jaunooby	TN	1	3
	Livio Cancedda-Dupuis		1	3
	Bohdan Terler		1	3
	Sanchez Luis Ortiz		1	3
	Adam A Taylor	T	½	2½
	Fahim Nasiri	T	½	2½
FM	Tim P Wall	TN	½	2½
FM	Jonathan P Nelson	TN	1	2½
WCM	Kanishka Bhatia		½	2½
	Tetsuaki Sanada	N	1	2½
	Michael Green		½	2½
	Toby Quaite	N	1	2½
	Raman Vashisht-Pigem		1	2½
	Zac Welling		1	2½
	Patrick Joseph	N	1	2½
	Finn Schell		1	2½
	Colin J Davis		½	2½
	Leonardo Gupta		½	2½
	James Thomas		1	2½
	Adam Sieczkowski		1	2½
	Sooraj Menothuparambil Raju	T	1	2
	Liam D Varnam	T	½	2
CM	Jonathan W Arnott	TN	1	2
	Alan Peart	N	0	2
	Sai Vaddhireddy	N	1	2
	Andrew Savage	N	1	2
	Chris Izod	N	½	2
	Aaron Rich	N	0	2
	Damian M McCarthy	N	0	2
	Alfie Melia	N	0	2
	Sithun De Silva	N	½	2
	Michael McDonagh	N	1	1½
	Mahin Rughani	N	½	1½
	Joshua Blinkhorn	N	0	1½
	Junhao Xian	T	0	1
	John P Williams	N	½	1
	Dennis Owen	N	½	1
	Leo A Keely	N	1	1
	Joel Bartlett	N	1	1
	Dylan Mize	N	0	1
	Seth Woozeer	N	0	1
	Cameron Storey	N	0	1
	Ved Sudeep Boganadham	N	0	1
	Sanjoy K Banerjee	N	1	1
	Nikolas Korsinskij	N	0	1
	Samidh Saxena	N	0	1
	Aytek Koyun	N	0	1
	Adam Bedi	N	-	½
	Laurence Coe	N	0	½
	Albert Eldridge	N	½	½
	Charlie Wainwright	N	0	0

Over 50

The following list shows the top 9 entrants in descending order of rating (marked “T”), plus players identifiably connected with Northern Counties (marked “N”). There were 61 entrants in all.

Rating Ranking	Name	Club etc			Rd.1 Result
1	Keith C Arkell	4NCL Cheddleton	T		1
2	John Merriman	Petts Wood & Orpington	T		1
3	Chris R Duncan	Watford	T		½
4	Chris W Baker	4NCL The ADs	T		1
5	Robert Thomas	Merseyside	T	N	0
6	David C Okike	Uxbridge	T		1
7	Philip J Crocker	Chester	T	N	1
8	Neil R Farrell	Scotland	T		0
9	Richard J McMichael	Kings Head	T		1
	Jeff R Smith	Chester		N	1
	Steve Kee	Atticus		N	1
	Michael R Handley	Sheffield Nomads		N	½
	Mike J Coffey	Wallasey		N	½
	Glenn Trueman	Marple		N	½
	Eric D Gardiner	Hull & East Riding		N	0
	Steven Potter	St Helens		N	1
	Phil Cook	Hebden Bridge		N	1
	Paul May	Limewood & Scarcroft		N	0
	Richard Kelly	Wallasey		N	0
	David Tuke	Preston		N	½
	Rob Letton	Rose Forgrove		N	½
	Simon Richards	Northwich		N	0
	Derek Rooney	Atticus		N	0
	Jonathan Miller	3Cs		N	1 (bye)

Over 65

The main round-1 upset rating-wise was the defeat by Hull’s 1900-rated Mark Collinson of 2137-rated Stephen Orton. Click her to play through the game on screen.

The following list shows the top 12 entrants in descending order of rating (marked “T”), plus players identifiably connected with Northern Counties (marked “N”). There were 81 entrants in all.

Rating Ranking	Name	Club etc			Rd.1 Result
1	Stephen Pickles	Australia	T		½
2	Terry PD Chapman	Cavendish (Essex)	T		½
3	Andrew P Lewis	Manningtree	T		1
4	Nigel E Povah	Guildford	T		1
5	Charles W Kennaugh	Atticus	T	N	0
6	Craig W Pritchett	4NCL Barbican	T		½
7	M Paul Townsend	Eagle and Child	T	N	1
8	Russell G Granat	Wimbledon	T		1
9	Stephen LA Orton	Norfolk & Norwich	T		0
10	Phil J Brooks	Ashtead	T		1
11	Peter Varley	Bristol	T		1
12	Andrew P Smith	Bourne End	T		1
	Michael J Hardman	Liverpool		N	½
	Mike J Surtees	Great Lever		N	1
	Sheila Jackson	4NCL Spirit of Atticus		N	½
	Paul A Hutchinson	Scarborough		N	1
	John T Fletcher	Woodseats (Sheffield)		N	1
	Steve R Hodge	Eagle & Child (York)		N	1
	Geoffrey W Sage	Southport		N	0
	Ian Campbell	Widnes		N	0
	Simon Johnson	Bingley & Keighley		N	1
	James N Hawkins	Liverpool		N	½
	Brian R Ewart	Atticus		N	0
	Mark I Collinson	Victoria Dock (Hull)		N	1
	Ian Paul Stephens	Liverpool		N	0
	Robert A Newton	Rochdale		N	½
	Brian Stevens	Scarborough		N	0
	Alan A Hall	Marple		N	0
	Janos Mak	Preston		N	0
	Mike J O'Mahony	Wallasey		N	0
	David Barnes	Wallasey		N	0
	Steve Clare	Wallasey		N	1
	Joe W Butterworth	Prescot & Knotty Ash		N	½
	Julian C Clissold	Bolton		N	0