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The regular Isle of Wight Monday night Lichess Blitz was supercharged on the 12th of August, attracting 18 titled players out of a total of 86 participants. Some well-known names in British Chess joined the fray, including GM Keith Arkell, IM Adam Hunt, and GM Matthew Turner.
There was a strong line-up of English junior players as well, with CM Jan Murawski, CM Jude Shearsby and recent winner of an open British Blitz, CM Stanley Badacsonyi.
The format was a 7 round Swiss and ECF Online Blitz rated. Using the slightly longer Blitz time control of 5 minutes plus 3 seconds.
The tournament attracted a mix of ratings all hoping to win the first place prize of Wildcard entry to the IOW Masters in February + various runner up prizes. We saw excellent play at all levels with lower rated players competing for an U2000 rating prize. Several Islanders competed and achieved respectable scores in the strong field.
Available to watch live, it attracted a good following and dozens of non-playing spectators could be seen watching and chatting as the top tables played.
Greek FM Haralambos Tsakiris (Haris) claimed victory with an impressive 6.5 points out of 7.
Tsakiris put on an incredible display beating Welsh FM Jonathan Blackburn in R4. Continuing his dominance with a win against Scottish GM Matthew Turner in R5. Then a deciding head-to-head with 5 for 5 Stanley Badacsonyi in Round 6 (game below).
Badacsonyi (Black) played the French and put up a fight, going ahead slightly on move 10 after a premature castle by Tsakiris (White). Tsakiris later played a brilliant rook sacrifice on move 26 but missed the follow-up attack on the Queen.
Badacsonyi edged ahead with the sharp tactics he’s become renowned for in Blitz but ultimately missed the mating threat from a rogue Rook. White’s Queen/Rook combination was fatal, but Black managed to stay in the game, putting up some great counterplay that distracted Tsakiris from the mating sequence. The attack did gain material, however, and despite the last stand, Black was unable to evade check and ultimately resigned with no hope of a draw.
The win put Tsakiris out front as joint leader going into Round 7, where he managed to overcome some sharp play by Slovakian IM Juraj Druska. Both players entered the match with 5.5 from 6 and were playing for first place.
Druska (White) attacked early with a tricky queen, which can be terrifying in blitz against a higher-rated opponent. Black managed to keep his nerve and stabilise the game. After some sharp play, both players struggled with accuracy going into the endgame as the clock ran down, but Tsakiris (Black) emerged ahead, and White lost material. Black managed to keep the pressure on and secure the victory.
The loss pushed Druska off the podium and the final places after Lichess tiebreaks were:
1st FM Tsakiris, Haralambos 6.5/7 - Greece
2nd IM Bazakutsa, Svyatoslav 6/7 - Ukraine
3rd IM Malyy, Alexey 6/7 - Ukraine
4th CM Badacsonyi, Stanley 6/7 - England
5th CM Villiers, Thomas 5.5/7 - England
6th IM Druska, Juraj 5.5/7 - Slovakia
7th GM Turner, Matthew J 5/7 - Scotland
8th Mathur, Pranav 5/7 - India
A very Impressive performance from untitled Birmingham junior player Pranav Mathur.
10 players in all won prizes with the U2000 rating prize going to Leon Nelson. The English junior put up a great performance with 4/7. Finishing 26th and claiming wins against much higher rated players.
We play these events at a smaller scale every Monday at 8pm. Register to be the first to know when the next large event is. Sign up here.
And you can join us for this in real life next February at the Isle of Wight International, Blitz and Congress.
Congratulations to Tsakiris and we look forward to hosting you next year. Thank you to all players and spectators. We really hope we can do this again soon.
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