Monday evening saw the return of Ealing’s popular annual blitz tournament for the first time since the pandemic. The 23rd edition of the event saw a packed Sports Bar at the Actonians with 21 members battling away.

With the age of contestants ranging from eight to nearly four score years this was a decidedly inclusive competition. There were some highly commendable performances from some of the younger players who may have finished even higher up the leader board if tiredness and the call of bedtime had not halted their progress. Special mention must be given to Gabriel Palmer and Kayden Tan, two of our talented cadre of cadets. Gabriele came within a whisker of winning the whole event while Kayden had reached 4/5 before he had to retire for the night.

Happily, all the participants, young or old, managed to notch a score in what is essentially a fun event. There was only one note of contention during the evening when that old chestnut of ‘playing for a win’ vs. ‘running down the opponent’s clock’ arose. This was ultimately resolved by the creative recourse (if not entirely within the rules of chess) of awarding a win to one player and a draw to the other.

The outcome of the competition was in the air right up to the final game. In the end three players finished on 7½ points but one achieved this score from 11 games another from 9 but one from 8. Andrew Harley was therefore duly declared the winner.

Full results were as follows:

• Andrew Harley 7½/8
• Hristo Colov 7½/9
• Gabriele Palmer 7½/11
• Tony Wells 7/9
• Mark Winterbotham 7/9
• Leslie Pringle 6½/9
• Simon Healeas 5½/8
• Alex Lushpa 4½/8
• Kayden Tan 4/5
• Orson Combrinck 4/7
• Harry Symeonidis 4/9
• Daniel 3/7
• David English & George Masefield 3/8
• Subas Subbaraj 3/9
• Jason Neish 3/10
• Lev Combrinck 2½/7
• David Websdale 2½/8
• Neville Rowden 2/9
• Emmanuele Mollica 1/7
• Ravi Gupta ½/7