After 3 rounds Benjamin triumphantly leads with 3 straight wins after defeating Sabrina last Sunday. He is closely followed by James and Miguel Angel who won their games against Harold and Samach respectively.

Ronald, Rachel and Teddy had straightforward wins against the youngest players Louis, Samuel and Steven. Ray played precise, with confidence and winning appetite against Thomas who actually played a good game but Ray’s energy was overwhelming. In chess, skills, knowledge, calculation and inspiration are all magnified when combined with the absolute will to win. Today it was Ray who was energized more. Tomorrow, an energized Thomas will win his game – and thus by playing chess we all gain qualities that are useful in real life!

Coming back from dubious philosophy to the competition, Richard and Mei Jing played a tense game that ended with a king and few pawns against king with few pawns in a Stonewall set-up: draw. In the longest game of the day Andy with white managed to beat Oliver by controlling an open file with his rook which he placed on the 7th rank; and according to the great Nimzowitsch this is a decisive advantage. Marco had a 0.5 points BYE for not being able to play today and Toby got a full point BYE due to odd number of players.