Last weekend the qualifiers were held for the UK Blitz Championship. Like last year the Manchester one was held in Bolton. Well-run by the local team, all of the players played 15 rounds in one section.
We were so focused on our performance we didn’t actually find time to take another photo without Mike.
As was the case last year each of us had at least a mini-run at leading the tournament. I began with 2/2 and then managed 0/2 against titled players although I was holding my own for a little while. After that I lost several games with piece blunders, eventually clawing back to 50%. Losing several quick games gave me the opportunity to observe what seemed to be smooth positional play on Colm’s part. He must, however, also have thrown in the odd blunder as he also ended up on 50%.
Steve had a standout performance scoring 8/15 including a loss against tournament winner IM James Adair on top board in the final round. Even more impressively he managed to fork all my pieces in a N v B ending. Steve may well have won a category prize.
But what about the other intra-Chester grudge matches? Colm managed to get the better of Steve. Somewhat boringly Colm and I managed to exchange all our pieces and draw an almost accurately played but rather dull game.
Despite our mixed results it was an enjoyable day out and I would recommend it to other players next year.