There are several unusual aspects to the event, including the pairing and scoring rules.
In each round the top seed faces the highest-rated opponent he has not already played, the next-highest available player faces the player nearest to him (all entrants are male) in rating, etc.
Although colour requirements are taken into account, no attention is paid to the players' scores, the idea being the system minimises rating mismatches. I can see how this will work in the early rounds, but I suspect later rounds will feature rather large rating differences.
As for scoring, a win is worth three points, a draw two points and a loss one point, but taking a bye scores nothing. This means two draws are worth the same as a win and a loss, as is the case with normal scoring, ie 1-½-0.
I thought at first the idea of this new scoring system is to encourage participation, but, if I am reading the rules correctly, the tournament is decided by each player's best seven results.
Not only that, but it seems points are not taken into consideration - instead rankings are decided by rating improvement (the rules do not specify whether this is based on Fide ratings or ECF ones, but I suspect they were drawn up when the ECF still had grades, so I presume Fide ratings are what count).
I had to take a bye in round one and have booked three further byes for rounds when I will be playing abroad, but I hope to play the remaining 10 rounds.
My game this afternoon was a repairing "due to opponents needing to isolate."
Spanton (1965 ECF/1747 Fide) - Arthur H Meaton (1309 ECF/1225 Fide)
Irregular
1.Nf3 d6 2.d4 h6!?
It is easy to shake one's head when a low-rated player makes a move like this, but titled players have also tried it.
3.e4 e6
Boris Gelfand (2684) - Timur Gareyev (2598), World Blitz Championship (Moscow) 2019, saw 3...g5!? 4.Nc3 Bg7 5.Be3 a6 with a position that Stockfish14 and Komodo12.1.1 reckon strongly favours White (but 0-1, 30 moves).
4.c4 Be7 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 Nf6 7.h3
The game's first new move or, at least, the first move not to appear in ChessBase's 2021 Mega database. Incidentally, for what it is worth, ChessBase classifies the opening as "French: Exchange Variation."
7...0-0 8.Be3 c6 9.Qd2 Bd7 10.0-0 b5?!
The engines prefer 10...d5, but reckon White has a large advantage. After the text they believe White already has a positionally won game.
11.e5
Gaining space, but also clearing the e4 square for the queen's knight in case of Black playing ...b4.
11...dxe5 12.dxe5 Nh7 13.Rad1 Ng5 14.Nxg5 Bxg5 15.f4 Be7 16.c5 a5 17.Ne4
 |
| Position after 17.Ne4 - Black is horribly cramped, but not yet losing material |
*****
*****
*****
*****
17...Na6?? 18.Qxd7 (1-0, 31 moves)
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