The first allegro of 2010 at the MCC bodes well for the future. A strong line up was headed by FM Michael Baron and included 27 players, young and old. The club was absolutely buzzing, and I was a bit thrown because I had got my days mixed up over the holidays and didn't realise it was Saturday. I was looking for a quiet time to do some stuff around the club....no chance today, I just decided to join in the fun
It was good to see some new faces at the allegro (welcome to Emmanual Wong and Reuben Nowak) and also that no one finished on 0 from their played games.
Michael Baron won the tournament quite comfortably to take the $50 first prize, and was followed by Doug Lindberg who finished very strongly to take outright second and $30. I somehow managed third placeand $20 swindling my way out of a few very dodgy positions, especially against Deniz Tuncer and Milutin Krunic. Funnily enough, the only game I felt really good in Dave Beaumont managed to turn the tables on me when I thought I had him and I lost
The first rating prize was set at U-1700 and a four way tie was reached between Ari Dale, Eamonn O' Molloy, Tony Tosevski and Deniz Tuncer all scoring 4 points and having to play some pretty tough games.
The second rating prize was set at U-1400 and was won outright by Michael Tanner (your prize of $25 is at the club waiting for you when you next turn up) who scored an excellent 4/7. Joint second in this category were Michael Steele and Finlay Dale.
The full scores follow, but I have to emphasise that besides the competitive nature of the players, there is a really good spirit at the MCC allegro's. I haven't been to one in a few months and it was a real pleasure which I'm going to have to try to get back to.
Final Scores
6.5 Baron
6 Lindberg
5.5 Gorka
5 Jager, Beaumont, FitzPatrick
4 Kolak, Tosevski T, Dale A, Tanner, Chmiel, Tuncer, Molloy
3.5 Addamo, Stimson
3 Karumbi, Krunic, Dale F, Steele
2.5 Kostrewa, Nowak
2 Tosevski B, Warren, Rayson-Hill, Hughes
1.5 Gurram, Wong