Jan Zvolanek beat off the challenge of 47 others to win the 2010 St Benildus Christmas Charity Blitz competition after a tournament filled with upsets and surprises. The staggered time controls ranging from 5 minutes each for players within 50 points of each other to 2 v 8 for gaps over 250 points always proves a great leveller, and probably never more so than this year, when 820-rated Thomas Hurley beat both Sam Osborne and David Murray en route to the final, where Jan proved just one step too far.
Jan was the first player to arrive on the night, and was promptly placed at the head of Group A. He lost early on to Garry Tishkin, but won all the rest of his games with two minutes each time to progress. 2010 Gonzaga Classic organiser Cormac O'Brien would have joined him in the quarters had he not lost to unrated Rory Ellard, one of a number of players from the school who ensure that every game is a potential banana skin; they don't have to win, just hang on for the full two minutes.
Group B saw the only 100% winning record in the competition from Stephen Brady FM. Paul Beirne rated 824 was the surprise runner-up on 6/7, ahead of Tim Walsh (1360) and Kevin May (1418). Sam Osborne usually picks up 7/7 in the groups, but was denied this time by a draw with Ed Tobin, though he still won Group C. There were nine draws in the 176 matches played in total, but no GM draws we usually see desperate perpetuals while way ahead on material but with a hanging flag, or games won on time when only possessing a knight and king. The latter was the reason David Murray and Ciarán Ruane drew in Group D; David went through on 6½, ahead of Dan Hurley (1242, 5½) and John Barry (804, 4).
Group E was my own, which I won jointly with Thomas Hurley. Like Jan, I also had two minutes in all my games and can attest to how much it sharpens up your time trouble and tactic spotting skills. It's one thing to be winning after two minutes, but quite another to checkmate your opponent, as Conor O'Driscoll (1073) demonstrated when defending solidly to beat me on time even though I was a rook up. Thomas and Conor went head to head in the last round in a winner-takes-all tie joint group winners were given first dibs in the best-runner-up calculations. Curiously, the game was a repeat of a game in this season's Bodley, when Thomas won comfortably. This time, he was left desperately hanging on in a Q+1 v R+3 position when Conor's flag fell.
The major shock of the group stages was in Group F, with William Ffrench dumping out Oisín Benson, who'd reached the last two finals. Oisín had a reprieve of sorts when he was one of three runners-up on six points looking to draw a white pawn in a tie-breaker for the last quarter-final spot, but both he and Brendan Cuffe lost out to Paul Beirne.
Three of the quarter-finals saw rating gaps of over 1000 points Stephen Brady (2353) needed a replay to get by William Ffrench (1322), David Murray (2000) beat Paul Beirne (824) and in a sensational upset, Thomas Hurley (820) put out Sam Osborne (2099), usually the club's blitz specialist and a former tournament winner. In a more even tie, Jan beat another former winner me after I sacced a piece for a king hunt and then turned down a perpetual to chase a mate which wasn't there.
The semis saw two upsets Jan beat Stephen, while Thomas beat David. Not only that, but when David's flag fell, he was defending a R, B + P v 2R + P position. Jan who obviously hadn't been paying attention to any of the matches other than his own reacted with disappointment that he'd have two minutes for the final, and obvious surprise at his opponent's rating, initially assuming he'd mis-heard. An attempt to throw Thomas off by opening 1. e4 e5 2. Qh5 didn't work, but after regrouping, he opened the h-file, got a pawn in to g6 and delivered a nice mate with the knight on e7.
With 16 prizes in all, ranging from wine and biscuits to novelty chess sets and cinema tickets, there were, as usual, prizes for all who made the knock out rounds as well as spot prizes in which pretty much every prize went to Group D. Over 500 was taken in on the night for the two charities the Simon Community and the Samaritans and that amount is expected to rise to 700 once other donations arrive in. Special thanks are due to Frank Scott for arranging the event in the school and for Gerry O'Connell for controlling the whole evening, and this year, even pulling out of the competition himself as we had six full groups. The main thanks go to everyone who participated, and we'll be back again in 2011!
1st Jan Zvolanek
2nd Thomas Hurley
3rd/4th Stephen Brady, David Murray
5th-8th Sam Osborne, Paul Beirne, Kevin Burke, William Ffrench