AGM - Competitions Report 2018/19

It was a busy season in terms of the internal competitions, with the number of graded games seeing an increase compared with 2017-18. There were 70 games played in the three regular time control competitions (25 Richardson Cup including the qualifying tournament, 36 Lindsay Cup, 19 Thornton Cup), 14 up on the previous season, while the allegro format saw an increase from 114 to 159 games (54 and 38 in the two Robert Togneri Trophy tournaments, 65 in the Quickplay Cup, 12 in the new David Brodie Trophy and two allegro playoff games in the Lindsay Cup). The number of ungraded blitz games increased slightly, from 77 to 79. A summary of internal games played over the past five seasons is as follows:

Season	Graded regular	Graded allegro	Blitz	Overall
2018-19	70	171	79	320
2017-18	56	114	77	247
2016-17	55	81	62	198
2015-16	65	111	103	279
2014-15	76	125	20	221

The main increase in 2018-19 came in the allegro category, due to three factors: the introduction of an allegro tournament for juniors, the experiment of having two-game mini matches in the knockout phase of the Quickplay Cup, and the overall rise in club membership, with most of the new people being keen on the faster stuff. The number of regular long-form games returned to its normal level after two seasons in each of which two Richardson players started then withdrew during the tournament; this time, happily, all seven were able to stay the course.

For the third season in a row there was no overspill – everything was completed by the last club night, although one of the Lindsay semi-final replays took place away from the club, two Lindsay group-stage games were not played (with no effect on the qualifying places), and the latter stages of the Quickplay Cup became quite complicated due to the old problem of people being away on holiday in the spring.

Once again, thanks are due to Steve Smith for feeding the regular and allegro results into the Chess Scotland grading system. The busy league schedule remains a concern in terms of getting internal games played, and in the coming season it will be a case of people playing games in the internal competitions whenever the league schedule serves up a gap, especially in the first half of the season.

Richardson Cup (main club championship)

Steve Smith retained the title with a score of 4½/6, ahead of David McAlister (making his debut) and Martyn Roe (lowest grader and winner of the autumn qualifying tournament), each on 3½/6. It was one of the closest Richardsons in recent years: with two rounds to go any of four people could still win it, and a tiebreak or even a playoff looked quite likely. It was Steve’s sixth win overall in a sequence dating back to 1988-89, taking him to joint-third in terms of most titles, level with A W Gray, George Owen and James Keddie, and behind only Maxwell Thornton (15) and Paul Prescott (10).

It was the thirteenth consecutive season when the highest-grader won the tournament – the last instance of this not happening was John Blake’s second win, in 2005-06, when he was graded below Steve. It was also only the fourth time in the past 15 seasons when the winner lost a game en route to the title – Steve lost on time to Dave Hewitt this season and the previous examples came courtesy of John losing to Dave in 2005-06 and Paul losing to Robin Hayles and Dave (again) in 2006-07 and 2011-12 respectively.

A more serious point is that this most recent Richardson was the weakest in terms of grading strength for at least the past 15 seasons. With none of Neil, Jim, Graham or Bill being able to play, it comprised two A-team nominees, three from the Bs and two from the Cs, with an average grade of 1522. While this made for an exciting and open tournament, it demonstrates a worrying trend in terms of the overall state of the club: lots of members (good), but a lack of top-end strength (not so good). This coming season, with Graham and Bill potentially back in the line-up, the average Richardson grade should be a little higher, and it’s to be hoped that this marks the start of an upward curve.

The list that follows might be of interest in terms of the comparative strength of Richardson tournaments over the past 15 years. Apart from where indicated, all tournaments had seven players, and the details show the average grade followed by the grade for the highest and lowest players:
2004-05 average 1650, high 1927 Paul Prescott, low 1524 Robin Hayles
2005-06 average 1612, high 1746 Steve Smith, low 1489 Robert Togneri
2006-07 average 1622, high 1939 Paul Prescott, low 1465 Robin Hayles (eight players)
2007-08 average 1598, high 1915 Paul Prescott, low 1488 Gordon Allcock (six players)
2008-09 average 1603, high 1937 Paul Prescott, low 1488 Harvey Kelly
2009-10 average 1631, high 1938 Paul Prescott, low 1495 John Blake
2010-11 average 1592, high 1957 Paul Prescott, low 1288 Gordon Allcock
2011-12 average 1600, high 1972 Paul Prescott, low 1292 Jonathan Blake
2012-13 average 1654, high 1943 Paul Prescott, low 1564 Tony Pitson
2013-14 average 1675, high 1949 Paul Prescott, low 1518 Dave Hewitt
2014-15 average 1751, high 1960 Paul Prescott, low 1536 Tony Pitson
2015-16 average 1725, high 1970 Paul Prescott, low 1460 Gordon Allcock
2016-17 average 1633, high 1910 Shivan Murdochy, low 1469 Robert Leckie
2017-18 average 1543, high 1704 Steve Smith, low 1386 Tom Wallace
2018-19 average 1522, high 1712 Steve Smith, low 1379 Martyn Roe

For 2019-20, the intention is to retain the seven-player format, comprising the champion (Steve), the Lindsay Cup winner (Tom Wallace), the next four by grade who want to take part, plus the winner of the now customary KO for the next four graders, contested in the first few weeks of the season. The scheduled dates for the first two rounds are 14 October and 4 November, while the qualifying KO dates are 23 September (semis) and 14 October (final).

Lindsay Cup (reserve championship)

Tom Wallace won the Lindsay for the second time in three seasons (and hence the second consecutive time he had played in it), beating newcomer Kenny MacPherson in the final on the last night of the season. Both semi-finals went to replays (and in one case a second replay at a faster rate) and were exciting for players and spectators alike, with the defeated players (Nikolai Herrmann and Mick Bloor) each having chances to win.

With an increased number of players due to the early-season surge in membership, the Lindsay reverted to a four-group format (having had just two large groups the previous season), with five or six players per group. There was the usual issue with people dropping out during the autumn, and groups A and D ended with just three players each, groups B and C five and four respectively. Two players went through to the quarter-finals from each group, with the closest group being C, where Nikolai – who had an excellent first season and was, like Kenny, rewarded with an eventual first grade in the 1300s – beat Robert Togneri, more than 60 years his senior, in an allegro tiebreak to split first and second place. Two more newcomers – Ross Coupland and Jordan Leach – also did well in the groups and qualified for the KO phase. Indeed, it was very encouraging to see each of the four quarter-finals being contested by an established member and someone who hadn’t attended the club before this past season.

With numbers still looking high, the intention for the new season is to again use the four-group format with two going through from each group. At present, even without the addition of more new members, it looks as if there could be around 18 starters in the Lindsay, so the intention is to begin fairly early – the first scheduled date is 21 October – with the group phase being completed around Easter and the KO games being played during May. As ever, it’s open to everyone who is not in the main Richardson all-play-all (including the three players defeated in the Richardson qualifying KO).

Thornton Cup (lower-grade knockout)

The previous season’s winner, Alex Scott, was unable to defend the title due to being on the other side of the Atlantic, but 18 members took part and the cup was won, early in the new year, by Gordon Allcock who beat Tom Wallace in an interesting final. As with the Lindsay, both semis went to replays (the losing players this time being Nikolai Herrmann and Robert Togneri), but oddly there were no other drawn games in the tournament.

There was a slight amendment to the qualification rules, due to a knock-on effect from the weaker than average Richardson. In recent seasons the Thornton ceiling has been a grade of 1450, but no one taking part in the four-player Richardson qualifying KO has been eligible even if their grade was lower than this. However, all of last season’s Richardson qualifying contestants were graded below 1450 (in fact all four were below 1380), and excluding all of them would have given the Thornton a somewhat odd structure, so it was decided to allow the three Richardson non-qualifiers (Robert Togneri, Gordon Allcock and Mick Bloor) into the event. It remains to be seen how things shape up for the coming season, but assuming the Richardson becomes stronger again the Thornton would revert to no sub-1450 players from the Richardson qualifying event being eligible. This is largely to give the lower-graded and ungraded members more of a chance of winning silverware than they have in the Lindsay.

The intended start-date for this season’s Thornton is 30 September, with games being slotted in as and when the league schedule allows (the introduction of a Stirling E team complicates matters with both the Thornton and the Lindsay), and the final will be played early in 2020. As with the Richardson and the Lindsay, games (including first replays) will be played at the rate of 30 moves in an hour followed by a quickplay finish of 20 minutes.

Keddie Cup (festive handicap)

An enjoyable pre-Christmas evening saw a junior member win the Keddie for the fourth season in a row, with 2017-18 runner-up Idris Benwell (grade 376) going one better this time and beating newcomer Harry Gray (estimated grade 1100) in the final. Harry was perhaps a bit weary in that his semi against Kenny MacPherson had gone to a second replay, whereas Idris had beaten Jordan Leach at the first time of asking, but it was a good final and an excellent tournament all round. Thoughts of a record entry didn’t quite come to fruition, but 27 was still a healthy number. Five group winners and the best three runners-up went through to the KO phase. In two groups it was impossible to split ties by normal means, so lots were drawn, although both of these runners-up (Garth Armitage and Tom McKay) were unlucky in that they still didn’t qualify for the KOs.

Given the sequence of junior wins, there has been some discussion of adjusting the rules to give the adult players a bit more of a chance. From an organisational / handicapper point of view, my feeling is that the recent sequence – with four different junior winners – is less of a concern than if the cup was being won by the same player repeatedly (and it should be noted that there were three consecutive adult winners – again all different – immediately before the current run of junior wins). One suggestion is that the lowest time-allocation (where the grading gap exceeds 720) should be upped from three minutes to four. I’m not sure about this – until a few years ago it used to be two minutes, and quite a few games were won by the higher-graded player on that basis! – and it might be worth seeing what happens this December before making another change of that kind. However, one adjustment that might be made immediately is that whereas the current system uses a player’s allegro grade, henceforth the higher of a player’s two grades could be used. Clearly this affects higher-graded adults as much as low-graded juniors, but the effect would probably be more marked for juniors. On that basis, only one member on the new grading list would have a Keddie grade below 500 (Douglas Pringle, 408) and only one more would be below 600 (Alex Brimlow, 548). The last two Keddies have both been won with grades below 400.

Thanks to all who assisted with arrangements and provided raffle prizes and home baking in the 2018 event, much appreciated as ever. The 2019 Keddie will be held on 16 December.

Robert Togneri Trophy, November and May editions (27th and 28th in the series)

Remarkably, and very impressively, these were again both won by Graham Anderson, with 4½/5 and 4/5 respectively, taking him to four wins in a row and two clear in the series (nine wins, ahead of Steve Smith on seven and John Blake on five). Runner-up in the November edition (which had a joint-record entry of 23) was Richard Warcup, with Brad Duthie, David McAlister, Tony Pitson, Steve Smith and Tom Wallace in a big tie for third. In May (17 entrants), Brad Duthie, Dave Hewitt and David McAlister came joint-second. Both tournaments were played at a rate of 15 minutes for all moves, although in the May event Aaron Nobile was given an extra three minutes per game as an experimental adjustment for disability. The autumn allegro for 2019-20 will be on 2 December; at present there is no date for the spring edition, but it’s likely to be played in May.

Opening-night blitz

There was only time for four rounds of this (played at three minutes plus two seconds per move), but there was a clear winner: Graham Anderson, 3½/4. Brad Duthie was runner-up with 3/4. Eight players took part.

New Year blitz

This was well attended, with 18 players, all of whom stayed for the full seven rounds. Winner: Steve Smith, 6/7. Runner-up: Graham Anderson, 5½/7. This season’s tournament will be held on 6 January 2020.

Quickplay Cup

This was something of a stop-start affair, with a batch of games played in the autumn, then a long gap before a flurry of activity in the final couple of months of the season. The time control reverted an incremental one, 12 minutes plus five seconds per move (having earlier been a flat 15 minutes), and there was also a change in the structure, with two all-play-all groups each producing four qualifiers who then contested the knockout rounds in a series of two-game mini-matches. Curiously, none of the seven matches required extra games: five matches ended 2-0 and the other two 1½-½. The jury is thus out on the structure (which has the potential for Armageddon playoffs), and the suggestion is that the same structure is tried again this coming season – although with the group stage being completed earlier, ideally by Easter. Bill Cook and Tony Pitson both qualified from the groups then withdrew, their places in the quarter-finals being taken by Nikolai Herrmann and Kenny MacPherson respectively. The final was on the last night of the season, with Richard Warcup taking the title courtesy of a 2-0 win against Tom Wallace – who had already played (and won) the Lindsay Cup final that evening, and who had an excellent tournament season overall, reaching the final of each of the three competitions he entered. Richard became the seventh player to win the Quickplay Cup (which doesn’t have an actual trophy, just undying fame), with only Graham Anderson thus far having won it more than once.

David Brodie Trophy

A new addition to the calendar, a one-night, double-round allegro held in April for the junior members – five in this case – and played at a rate of 12 minutes plus five seconds per move. Alex Brimlow won with an unbeaten 5/6, ahead of Idris Benwell, 3/6. A fine new cup was kindly donated by Jim Shemilt, and it was very good indeed to see this presented to Alex by Marissa and Nadine, daughters of the much-missed club stalwart in whose memory this tournament is played. This season’s edition will be played sometime in spring 2020.

Dave Hewitt, competitions secretary, August 2019