Bd		White	Score		Score		Black
1	GM	Gawain Maroroa Jones	5	½‑½	5½	GM	Michael Adams	play
2	GM	Stuart C Conquest	5	1-0	5½	GM	Shreyas Royal	play
3	IM	Siva Mahadevan	5	0-1	5	GM	Nikita Vitiugov	play
4	IM	Peter T Roberson	5	1-0	5	GM	Ameet K Ghasi	play
5	GM	Daniel H Fernandez	5	0-1	5	IM	Richard G Pert	play
6	FM	Supratit Banerjee	5	½‑½	5	IM	Marcus R Harvey	play
7	IM	Maciej Czopor	5	1-0	5	IM	Yichen Han	play
8	GM	Matthew J Wadsworth	4½	1-0	4½	FM	Frederick Waldhausen Gordon
9	IM	Svyatoslav Bazakutsa	4½	1-0	4½	WGM	Elmira Mirzoeva
10	FM	Neil F Dickenson	4½	0-1	4½	GM	Stephen J Gordon
11	IM	Jonah B Willow	4½	1-0	4½	FM	Rishi Vijayakumar
12	IM	Rajat Makkar	4½	½‑½	4½	GM	Glenn C Flear
13		Henry Adams	4½	½‑½	4½	IM	Tarun Kanyamarala

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In the opening on top board, Maroroa Jones adopted a “don’t go beyond-the-3rd-rank” opening, reminiscent one of a Bird’s Opening setups, but without Bird’s signature 1. f4. Meanwhile, Adams set up a sort of Semi-Slav Defence to a non-existent Queen’s Gambit though getting in … Bg4 before walling up with pawns at e6, d5 and c6. Thus, both sides were in effect playing independent openings. [After 10. O-O, Black had to decide what he was doing 10. … g5, 10. …e5 or the bland 10. … O-O option. White chose 10. … O-O whereupon White played 11. f4, completing writer’s anticipated Bird structure.] Material got reduced to Q + R + 5Ps apiece, though Adams had a central past pawn. A draw soon resulted.

On board 2, Conquest steered the opening into a Queen’s Gambit Declined in reverse. In time White play f4 making it a sort of reversed Dutch Stonewall. When White ventured 20. f5, Black seems not to have been fully aware of the danger, and the response 20. … f6 was met with a knight sacrifice by White, or a win of the exchange is Black declined the sacrifice. Black took the knight and White won in excellent style in 28 moves.

Below board 2, openings were more normal, without the pussyfooting about of the top two boards.

Major Open

Round-8 top 16 pairings were as follows:

Bd		White	Score		Score		Black
1		Arjun Kolani	6½	½‑½	6½	FM	Tim P Wall	play
2		Luis Ortiz Sanchez	5½	½-½	6		Toby Quaite	play
3		Jack Pilley	5½	½-½	5½		Adam A Taylor	play
4		Sooraj Menothuparambil Raju	5	0-1	5½		Livio Cancedda‑Dupuis	play
5	FM	Jonathan P Nelson	5	½-½	5		Zack Norris
6		Liam D Varnam	5	1-0	5		John M Potter
7		Selikem PJ Amoako	5	0-1	5		Koichi B Nicholas
8		Adam Sefton	5	1-0	5		James Thomas
9		Om Reddy Jayar	5	0-1	4½		Alexandre KM Lee
10		Remy Rushbrooke	4½	1-0	4½		John N Sugden
11		Ali Reza Jaunooby	4½	0-1	4½		Mahin Rughani
12		Leo A Keely	4½	0-1	4½	WCM	Kanishka Bhatia
13		Bohdan Terler	4½	1-0	4½		Neev Lukhi
14		Chris Izod	4½	0-1	4½		Adam Sieczkowski
15		Xavier Cowan	4½	0-1	4½		Aaron Rich
16		Frank Richmond	4½	0-1	4½		Jainill Vadalia

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On board 1, the opening was a Two Knights Defence in which White played the relatively staid 4. d3 to which Black deferred castling and played to develop an attack against Black king’s side castled king if possible. It fizzled out to a draw.

On board 2, Black played an old “chestnut”, 5. … g5 in the Alekhine’s Defence Four Pawns Attack, a line played too infrequently for “theory” to make its mind up whether it is bad or not. Some writers dismiss 5. …g5 as bad, while others are not so sure. It’s been around for over 50 years and hasn’t yet been definitively buried. This game too fizzled out to a draw, so 5. … g5 lives on!

Board 3 saw a Sicilian Defence with 3. Bb5 by White. The game was agreed drawn at move 31, in a position in which one or other player, especially White, might be expected to play on looking for a win.

Over 50

Round-6 top 11 pairings were as follows:

Bd		White	Score		Score		Black
1	GM	Keith C Arkell	4½	½‑½	4½	FM	John Merriman	play
2	IM	Chris W Baker	4	1-0	4½	FM	Michael Dougherty	play
3	FM	Chris R Duncan	3½	1-0	4		Peter Jaszkiwskyj	play
4		Eric D Gardiner	3½	½-½	3½	CM	David C Okike
5	NM	Philip J Crocker	3½	1-0	3½	CM	Stephen C Ledger
6		George DA Neave	3½	½‑½	3½		Neil R Farrell
7	FM	Richard J McMichael	3½	0-1	3½		Michael R Handley
8		Robert Thomas	3	0-1	3½		Bruce L Baer
9		Andrew R Brett	3	½‑½	3	NM	Donald J Mason
10		Alan M Brown	3	½‑½	3		Mike J Coffey
11		Michael Ridge	3	0-1	3		Richard Jennings

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On board 1, material got reduced rather fast, with R, same colour B, N & 2P going from each side in the first 19 moves, producing a position which looked like it would require hard work for either side to win, and did in fact end in a draw.

On board 2, Chris Baker won fairly fast, in 29 moves, as his opponent shed more and more pawns for no compensation.

Over 65

Round-6 top 9 pairings were as follows:

Bd		White	Score		Score		Black
1	FM	Terry PD Chapman	4	½‑½	4½	FM	Andrew P Lewis	play
2	IM	Nigel E Povah	4½	1-0	4		Dave J Bray	play
3		Phil J Brooks	4	½-½	4		M Paul Townsend	play
4	IM	Craig W Pritchett	3½	½-½	4		Mark E Page	play
5		Russell G Granat	3½	½-½	3½		Brian WR Hewson
6		Michael J Hardman	3½	0-1	3½	FM	Peter Varley
7	FM	Andrew P Smith	3½	0-1	3½		Steve R Hodge
8	FM	Philip M Giulian	3½	0-1	3½		Roy Hughes
9		Paul A Hutchinson	3½	½-½	3		Stephen Pickles

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