Adams, Short Tied For First Entering the Last Round
In round 10 (of 11), Michael Adams equalized with Black and a bit more against Nicholas Pert, but it finished as a draw. Thus, after Nigel Short defeated Peter Wells, the top two players in the tournament were once again the top two players on the tournament table. Both have 8 points.
Jonathan Hawkins and Gawain Jones are half a point back, having both won their games. Jones beat Summerscale with Black, while Hawkins got a bit of a gift. He was suffering for a long time in a queen and minor piece ending against David Howell, but trying too hard to squeeze something out Howell sacrificed and blundered his way into a lost queen ending.
All of the top four have played each other, so there's some serious downfloating in the final-round pairings:
- Adams (8) - Yang-Fan Zhou (6.5)
- Gordon (6.5) - Short (8)
- Jones (7.5) - Pert (7)
- Wells (6.5) - Hawkins (7.5)
Does any of you know what will happen if there's a tie for first? Maybe you can find something on the tournament site.
Reader Comments (4)
From the tournament programme:
"Should the tournament be tied, a ply-off determine the title. The play-off will commence on Saturday 6 August [Saturday 8 August on the programme!]
...
The play-off will take the following form:
2 player playoff Two rapidplay games 20 minutes each + 10 seconds per move. Should there still be a tie, an Armageddon game will be played [no clue about color drawing and rate of play]
3 or 4- player playoff An all-play-all with a faster rate of play. Again should there still be a tie, an Armageddon finish will be used [again no clue about color drawing and time]"
They said a playoff but no more details than that.
There's provision for a playoff tomorrow but I can't see if a straight points tie triggers that or if there are other conditions.
tie break Saturday after the prize ceremony.
2 rapid games + armageddon if necess
(more if multi-way tie for first)