En Peasants Open VII

This tournament was the first in the club's history with enough participates to allow for 4 rounds! It was also one with its fair share of match upsets, with lowest-seed player BFOSTER03 finishing with an impressive score of 2.5/4. However, the victory went to Danbranch7, giving him a second En Peasants Gold Medal. Let's take a look at his games...

Round 1 vs Xavxav2

This was a tense and incredibly high accuracy game between two talented Peasants. The game was perfectly balanced according to the engine until move 20, where, for the life of me, I can't fully understand why the position's balance changes so much... nevertheless, the game continued on until a king-pawn endgame with Dan up a pawn. Xav resigned on move 46 when it became clear that his position was untenable. 

Round 2 vs Crthew

Our protagonist takes the black pieces against formidable opponent Crthew (Ryan), featuring a London Opening. As expected, this was another very balanced game which was decided by a seemingly small error on Ryan's part, this time on move 26. Ryan's seemingly promising attack stalls, and Dan found sufficient counterplay in the form of his connected centre-pawns. Ryan resigned on move 39, as he couldn't stop either the checkmate attack or the pawn promotion.

Round 3 vs BFOSTER03

An interesting game, and quite the rating mismatch, likely should've ended when B blundered a knight on move 18. B decided to play on, and, what should've been a relatively easy conversion for the champ (entering the endgame up four points of material), went sour when Dan missed the winning move a5 several times in a row. The match ended in a draw by insufficient material on move 49. It is highly likely that Dan was affected by fatigue, as his previous games were against high-rated opponents and he had no break between them. 

Round 4 vs AshelyHatch1

An early blunder by Dan saw him down a rook on move 14 and dead lost. Nevertheless, Dan was not to be deterred -  he played on and with good reason. He managed to claw back to a drawn endgame due to slight inaccuracies on Ashley's part. Two wins and two draws left him with an impressive score of 3/4.

FINAL RESULTS:

Dan 3/4

Ryan 3/4

Xav 2.5/4

B 2.5/4

Adam 2.5/4

Ashely 1.5/4

Lucy 1/4

Tino 0/4

Danny 0/4

Thanks to everyone for turning out in such numbers. Hopefully we can raise the roof even higher next week!