The major pairing of this round saw Scott Stewart play the always dangerous Peter Lumsdon. Peter defended with a Sicilian Najdorf and typical double-edged position arose: Scott eventually gained a tricky piece before Peter, in a desperate attempt to save the game, forced Scott’s king on grand adventure from a2 to d8 with a series of checks!. At this point, move 39, Peter ran out of checks and ran out of time as well, an exciting game.

Jamie Brotheridge played John Lavery and found himself facing a Benko Gambit. The game seemed quite even until Jamie blundered horribly around move 27, giving queen for rook. Clint Stewart faced Robert Bailey. Like his brother Scott, Clint seems to like antique openings and sprang the venerable Bishop’s opening on his opponent: Robert was unable to cope with the tricks and dropped a rook and pawn for no compensation before Clint finished him off with a beautiful smothered mate.

Patrick Cook faced Charlie Andrews and knowing Charlie’s penchant for the Kings Indian, didn’t play his favourite Larsen. Charlie’s Knights went on the rampage early and Patrick found himself 2 pawns down right from the opening. He managed to limp into a rook ending, still 2 pawns down and made a valiant attempt to hold the game. Charlie successfully sidestepped various traps and finally forced white to resign after 70 moves.

Patrick’s laconic comment after the game was “I should have played 1.b3”. Jing Jia versus Mitchel Bailey was, unsurprisingly, a Caro-Kann, but the game was adjourned after 16 moves, at Mitchel’s request, due to illness. A generous gesture by the young top seed! Gordon Lindberg versus John Frangakis was played earlier. Judd Madden versus Kevin Perrin was postponed to a later date.