SUMMER TEAM QUICKPLAY 2013

Telepost are Shropshire's quickplay champions for the second successive year after a convincing 4.5-0.5 victory over Church Stretton in the final. But the Shrewsbury-based club didn't have an easy passage, going down to two defeats in the league stage, including, remarkably enough, a 4-1 loss at the hands of Stretton. And they only made it into the knockout stages by virtue of a playoff against county town rivals Shrewsbury. With Telepost and Shrewsbury in a tie for fourth place in the league, with equal "goal difference" as well, they played a five minutes blitz game to decide who would go through to the semis. The tournament was played at the Wrekin Housing Trust premises in Telford and seven teams from all over Shropshire took part, with each player having just 20 minutes on their clock to complete all the moves of the game. The victorious Telepost outfit comprised Nigel Ferrington, Phil Zabrocki, John Bashall, Noel Kiffen, and Kate Walker. Winner of the 3rd/4th place playoff was Newport, beating Shifnal & Telford 3.5-1.5. Toby Neal

The winning Telepost team display the cup l to r Noel Kiffin, John Bashall, Kate Walker, Nigel Ferrington, and Phil Zabrocki.

This year's summer quickplay team competition will be held on Sunday, June 2, 2013, at the Wrekin Housing Trust premises in Telford starting at 10am.

Exact format and time control etc will depend on the number of entries but the intention will be to get as much chess for everybody as possible, so it will be a league followed by semi final and final involving the leading teams.

Time limit is likely to be about 20 minutes, again depending on the number of entries.

Please can clubs let me know by May 25th if they are entering a team or teams.

As last minute pullouts would complicate the organisation, it would be better to enter only that amount of teams you know you can support, rather than extra teams and then cross your fingers hoping that you'll have enough players – clubs will be able to operate a ‘squad' system anyway.

There will be a lunch break with chef-cooked food available (please eat up and keep us in with the management!)

The rules for the 2012 competition are below for guidance – I'm expecting that the 2013 competition will follow this closely.

As last year, if a player wants to play but their club has not entered a team, they will be permitted to play as a “guest” for another club. Teams will be able to field one guest player per round (but I might have to be flexible about that if a team is still short and it's the difference between fielding a team or not fielding a team).  

1 Teams will be of FIVE players.

2 In each round team captains will toss for choice of having the white pieces on board one.

3 Players can only play for ONE team in the competition.

4 Subject to the above rule, teams can play substitutes from their club ranks during the competition. The intention of this is that if, say, a club has six or seven players interested in playing, those ‘extras' will have, at their captain's discretion, a chance to play in later rounds.

5  Time control is 20 minutes per player for the  group games; 10 minutes for the semi final, final, and 3 rd /4 th place playoff. (NB THIS WAS LAST YEAR. EXACT TIME LIMIT IN 2013 COMPETITION WILL DEPEND ON NUMBER OF ENTRIES)

6 In the case of time control disputes, the arbiters in the first instance will be the two team captains. If they are actually involved in the dispute, the arbiter will be the competition organiser, consulting and taking advice as necessary from experienced players. (My default interpretation of the rules will be that a player whose flag falls automatically loses unless:  1. The opponent does not have mating material – and a pawn is mating material as it could promote; 2. The opponent is not trying to win i.e. is just messing about running the clock down).

7  Draws are permitted in the group matches (i.e. no need for board count tiebreaker).  Leading teams from the league stages will go through to the semi finals. ‘Goal difference' will be used to separate teams on equal points. If  points and goal difference are identical, the teams will play a five minute blitz decider.

8 In the semi final and final, if the match result is a draw, the result on the bottom board will be discounted, repeatedly if necessary, until a decisive result is achieved. If all the games are drawn, the team which played black on board one will be declared winner .

SHROPSHIRE QUICKPLAY FIXTURE SCHEDULE 2013 (Held at Wrekin Housing Trust, Telford, Sunday, June 2) Please note that clocks will be started EXACTLY ON TIME ROUND ONE 10am Shrewsbury A v Shrewsbury B Shifnal & Telford v Telepost Newport v Wellington Church Stretton v tea break .................... ROUND TWO 10.50am Wellington v tea break Shrewsbury B v Telepost Shifnal & Telford v Shrewsbury A Church Stretton v Newport ............ ROUND THREE 11.40am Telepost v Wellington Shrewsbury B v tea break Newport v Shifnal & Telford Church Stretton v Shrewsbury A ..................... ROUND FOUR 12.30pm Telepost v tea break Shrewsbury B v Wellington Newport v Shrewsbury A Church Stretton v Shifnal & Telford ............................. LUNCH HOUR 1.10pm TO 2.10pm ROUND FIVE 2.10pm Shrewsbury A v tea break Shifnal & Telford v Wellington Newport v Telepost Church Stretton v Shrewsbury B ................... ROUND SIX 3pm Shrewsbury A v Wellington Shifnal & Telford v tea break Newport v Shrewsbury B Church Stretton v Telepost .................... ROUND SEVEN 3.50pm Shrewsbury A v Telepost Shifnal & Telford v Shrewsbury B Newport v tea break Church Stretton v Wellington ------------------------------- SEMI FINALS 4.35pm League winner v 3rd place League runner up v 4th place ----------------- FINAL 5.20pm (and 3rd/4th place playoff) To be followed by trophy presentation Toby Neal Summer quickplay organiser langrishcaiger@aol.com

 

Toby Neal

Summer team quickplay organiser

toby.neal@shropshirestar.co.uk

Link to last year's tournament report