Opening Theory Thrown Out the Window on Freestyle Night
Freestyle Chess (also known as Chess960 or Fischer Random) made its second appearance of the season at the club’s First Tuesday social tournament (03/03/26), attracting a healthy field of 16 players keen to test their adaptability in unfamiliar starting positions.
Despite organising the event, I unexpectedly found myself playing throughout as the numbers came out perfectly even. That did mean that the usual between-round duties of collecting results and generating pairings occasionally became a little frantic!
Two newcomers, Siraj and Daniel, were thrown straight in at the deep end with the unusual format, which removes opening theory and quickly leads to creative middlegames. The format clearly suited many of the players, with several lively encounters across the four rounds.
My own tournament began well with a first-round win over Stephen, but things became considerably more chaotic in round two. Skott launched a ferocious attack in a wildly tactical game where both kings came under heavy fire. I attempted a series of desperate counter-sacrifices to muddy the waters, but Skott held the initiative and converted the point.
Momentum then swung again in round three when Leonid, a formidable rapid and blitz player, defeated Skott to keep himself firmly in contention near the top of the table.
Going into the final round, the tournament victory would be decided by the meeting between Dave W and Leonid. The two have had several hard-fought encounters in recent events, often going Leonid’s way, but this time Dave managed to turn the tables, securing the win and finishing on a perfect 4/4 score to take the tournament.
Behind him there was a large tie on three points including Leonid, Skott, Stephen Lamont and myself.
As always, the results feed into the season-long Friendly Shield, our handicapped Grand Prix competition. With only two events remaining (April and May) the standings at the top are extremely tight, setting up an intriguing finish to the series.
The final table was:
| - Rank - | - Name - | - Pts - |
| 1 | Williams David | 4 |
| 2 | Dalley Kevin J | 3 |
| Siedielnikov Leonid | 3 | |
| May Skott K | 3 | |
| Lamont Stephen | 3 | |
| 6 | Smith David | 2 |
| Wastie Asher | 2 | |
| Morrell Curtis | 2 | |
| Cole Chris | 2 | |
| Rowbottom Jake | 2 | |
| Longworth David | 2 | |
| 12 | Cockburn Andre | 1 |
| Gahonia Josh | 1 | |
| Lacey Chris | 1 | |
| Brogius Daniel | 1 | |
| 16 | Ali Siraj | 0 |
See the full results and the current Friendly Shield table in the social pages.
Kevin 08/03/26