The 1st TAFCA TEAM QUICK-PLAY BATTLE ONLINE
Thurs 29th April 21, 7:31pm to 9:01pm – Lichess
Congratulations to Dundee A on winning the inaugural team battle on 68 points! It was tight mind you with Castlehill A finishing runners-up on 66 points! Fantastic performance by both Dundee A, Castlehill A and all their players!
Castlehill B punched well above their weight taking the last podium spot in 3rd place on 57 points! Well played lads!
Newport Knights A, where the highest placed team not from the, “City of Dundee” and finished in 4th place on 49 points. Castlehill C took 5th place on 46 points which was a remarkable achievement!
The highest division two side was Newport Knights B in 9th place, just 1 point behind Dundee B in 8th on 32 points! Now that is what you call punching above your grade!
The top player was Dundee A`s Jacques Ophoff CM on 19 points, followed by Castlehill A`s Richard Polaczek IM and Ed Spencer (Dundee A) on 16 points.
In all 68 players took part with 274 games played! Some games were still in progress after the 9pm deadline and did not count but could have changed the results if they did! Also all teams played a different number of games depending on how quick they finished their matches. I will let you work that one out when checking the data on the competition!
This was the first time I/TAFCA have held anything like this and to be honest anything could have happened, good or bad? I had no idea how it all worked but what a night’s chess! It was fast paced and lively to say the least! We had ten teams involved which was a good number, but a bit disappointing at first. We had hoped to hold two competitions with a division one & two (20 teams), but not everybody likes 5 minute chess and we found out there is a 10 team limit set by Lichess on any one competition so ten teams it was to be and one competition!
I think once it started, it seemed to go very well and I think most players enjoyed it, I certainly did apart from the fact I as controller seemed to be team less? I was listed as Castlehill B, but it did not have me in any teams and I finished equal 19th out of a field of 68! I would also have preferred the 9pm deadline to stop any new pairings, but allow the games in progress to finish and count! I may drop Lichess a note!
Thank you to all the teams and players that supported this last TAFCA event of the Winter league season 20-21. You make all the hard work worth while and I enjoyed organising it all, I hope you enjoyed playing in it!
For all the results, games, standings and a lot more information than I can process in this report, please click the link below and check it all out at your leisure!