Richard Proctor is crowned champion of Cockle Row Blitz. Photography: ChessNI

Cockle Row Blitz Championship

Groomsport, County Down

Tuesdsay 29 June 2021

Congratulations to Richard Proctor of Bangor Chess Club, crowned champion of the Cockle Row Blitz at Groomsport on Tuesday 29 June. 2nd Place was won by Adam Rusheand 'Best Newcomer' was awarded to Sylwek Furman.

Adrian Dornford-Smith (Toomebridge) and Evan Elwood (Millisle) also delivered many impressive wins to finish in 5th and 6th place respectfully. Newcomer Danny Cochrane (Ards) got a win and a draw in a super tough section!  

The format of this tournament was an all-play-all of 7 rounds. Under this format the normal Swiss tie-breaks (Buchholz, Median Buchholz and Progressive) do not work and after 7 rounds, three players were tied on 4 points, all of whom had beaten one of the other two players (i.e. Sylwek beat Brendan, Adrian beat Sylwek and Brendan beat Adrian!). Therefore it was impossible to rank these three players by 'Direct Encounter'. Therefore a 3 round blitz-off was played at the same time control of 5+5. Players were given the opposite colours to those they had in the tournament when facing the same player.

Round 8: Sylwek Furman [0] v [1] Brendan Jamison

Round 9: Sylwek Furman [1] v [0] Adrian Dornford-Smith

Round 10: Brendan Jamison [1] v [0] Adrian Dornford-Smith

So the blitz-off gave Brendan 2 points, Sylwek 1 point and Adrian 0 points. This allowed for final ranking order, as below: