Edwards the Eagle soars to online Christmas triumph.

DAVID Edwards proved consistency was king when he romped to victory in the club’s inaugural online Christmas blitz competition, which saw 16 club members battle it out across two hours and 63 wild games of speed-chess (time control: 5 minutes with a 5 second increment), writes Tom Maiden.

The 11^th December tournament, organised by Edwards, was run on Lichess.org as an arena – a format which eschews a fixed number of rounds in favour of a fixed duration within which as many games as possible are played. Every won game earned the victor two points, draws were worth one, and losses nothing. However, three or more back-to-back wins would double points earned until the win-streak was broken. As such, it is a format that more than anything rewards consecutive success. Two players who had the same number of wins may therefore end up with different score: a win-win-win-loss would be worth more than a win-win-loss-win, for example.

Tied scores were broken by win rates.

Players were paired for their first game by rating (#1 vs #2, #2 vs #3, etc.), while every subsequent game matched opponents closest to them in the standings from whoever was waiting in the lobby to play. Like Swiss tournaments, this meant competitors played those of similar success, but unlike the Swiss format, it was possible for players to meet more than once (though not consecutively).

Edwards had hit the ground running immediately on his path to the gold, being the first player to hit that coveted double-points streak. He was also the only player in the event to have more than three consecutive wins at a time, with a run of five from his first five games making him an apparent lock-in for first place for most of the arena.

A draw in his final match-up, however, was enough for the incumbent club treasurer to narrowly pip his nearest rival to the top spot by a single point.

“I was delighted to come away with the win,” reflected Edwards after his triumph, “I’d like to say it was down to sound strategic chess but I can’t. I managed to keep the pace up in some tricky positions though, and got some good breaks along the way.”

Second-place Dr. Olesegun Ilesanmi boasted the highest performance rating of the night (a whopping 2019 over 7 games), and had kept pace with Edwards during the early rounds with a three-win streak of his own. A chaotic time-scramble against Shane Greenwood in his fourth game, however, prompted a fatal, streak-breaking error. Despite bouncing back in the closing rounds and finishing with a near-perfect record (6/7), this lone defeat proved to be a decisive one, and the good doctor had to narrowly settle for silver.

Third-place Freddie Bennett had a mixed start to the competition, but a sustained surge in the final stages (including an impressive upset of A-team captain Dan Lockett) was enough to claim the bronze.

A five-game undefeated run (not scoring double points because of a draw), and a surge in the middle of the event, helped new member Patrick Fitch and Greenwood respectively round out the top five.

The event is the latest sign of the club’s commitment to its autumn pledge to revive its online offerings, and comes on the back of the club’s first foray (as the Shrewsbury Pirates) into the 4NCL online League. The move is partly inspired by the influx of online-happy new members in recent months.

“Although we are primarily an ‘over the board’ club, most of our members play online chess as well, including some who aren’t able to get to our club nights,” explained Edwards.

“The feedback from the evening was very positive,” according to club officials, and its success has already prompted murmurings of further such tournaments in the New Year.

Watch this space!

The arena, all games, and final standings can be viewed at: https://lichess.org/tournament/hNrdnu5F.