The weekend Fide section has finished. It has been a busy weekend and now I and can a deep breath sit back and relax a little bit! I have found a new sense of admiration for chess organisers as it is a rather hectic job! Dealing with a loud outburst from an individual, getting up early to take down poker tables, put chess equipment up, asking the gym next door to turn the music down… Anyway I will give a quick report on how things are going…

First of all I would just like to make one thing clear. I was not forced to run the chess tournament by some ‘wise guys’ in order to pay back a gambling debt that I owed to the poker club! (This was suggested by one player!) I actually chose to run the event in order to get something going in the London area!

Anyway now that is cleared up onto the event!

The FIDE weekender was headed by 3 times British championship winner Jonathan Rowson.

It was great that Jonathan decided to enter. He lives in London and has recently become the proud father of a 4 month year old son. Most people expected him to walk the event but he came up across tough competition.

In round 1 he was paired against my girlfriend Alexandra Wilson (not my doing!) The game was fascinating with Aly going for a dangerous hack attack.

Jonathan managed to defend and scored the all important win. Jonathan only managed a draw in round 3 against Fonseca Rodriguez which opened up the whole tournament. After 3 rounds there was only one player on maximum,  Paul Dupre. Paul used to be my team mate around about 15 years ago! Unfortunately Paul lost his last two games which obviously must have been a disappointment but chess can be a cruel game that takes no prisoners!

Round 5 was a real nail biter for all concerned. Rowson won a tough game against George Salimbeni which left Mark Rich and Mark Ruston fighting it out for second place.

Mark Rich eventually won which meant that he shared first place with Rowson, a great result and well deserved. To add a bit of spice to the tournament they played a five minute Armageddon game to decide who would take the title home. This is an idea I got from Irish weekenders, they are intended to be a bit of fun and good entertainment for the crowd. Jonathan overcome Mark even though Mark missed a mate in 1! What a result that would have been! Thanks to Alexis Harakis for filming the encounter that can be seen below. Can you spot the mate?

The full list of prize winners for the weekender was:

1st Jonathan Rowson (by playoff) Mark Rich.       £170 each.

3rd-4th Alexis Harakis, Chris Ross                 £40 each and free entry into the next Big Slick tournament!

Grading Prizes:

2100-200 George Salimbeni, Mark Ruston             £30 each

2000-1600  Simon McCullough, David Coates        £30 each

Unrated    Khalid Kamara, Sainbayar Tserendurj    £30 each

An extra £100 was added to the advertised prize fund.

There were some slight problems on the way. One thing that I didn’t count on was the gym next door. As I have only played poker in the evening I didn’t realise that they had a loud gym class in the morning that gave off noise that could be heard through the walls! It didn’t last long but it was amusing to see some people visible enjoying the experience by nodding along and others finding it rather hard to concentrate!

The other interesting moment came when one player made the unusual but very loud outburst, ‘You’re a f###### freak!’

This was then followed by a 2 minute rant at everybody around the area! I have come to expect that kind of thing in the poker but not in chess! Anyway as the experienced organiser that I am, I thought that it would be a good idea to immediately take a photo of the individual rather then ask him to be quiet or leave the venue!

Anyway I think that things went well, it would be interesting to get some feed back and I fully intend to run another tournament in the future. It was a good turn out with 50 players plus the masters.  I will leave some photos below and do a full report at a later date!

Rowson chatting away in the bar area.

Gary O’Grady having a read!

Taking on the poker dealers with a small bet… They have taken enough of my money in the past so I did not feel guilty!

The analysis area!

The playing area.

The Gormaliser!

Mike Basman made an appearance!

It is good to see that even British champions can enjoy the odd drink of Guinness!

A sample of the playing conditions!

One of the owners of the Big Slick club, Nick Clark came down with his son to enjoy a game of chess!

And finally a picture Aly demonstrating to me how to use a camera….. ‘You press that button you plonker!!!’

I would like to thank the following people/parties:

Everyone for coming, any comments, good or bad would be appreciated.

The arbiters, Peter Ackley and David Sedgwick

Anyone who made a donation. Obviously this helps greatly to get an event like this going.

The venue, The Big Slick club. They must be thanked for supporting the event and letting a lot of chess players use the venue.

The bar staff.

Jack Rudd for letting me use some of his photos.

John Saunders for letting me use some of his photos. Check out www.bcmchess.co.uk.

I am sorry if I have forgotten anyone, please forgive me! I will do an update on the master section soon and a more extensive report at a later date! Please leave some comments!!