Round 1 of our Rookie Rivals competition is has now been and gone and we’re ready to get onto the quarter finals.
Two big seeds have been knocked out in club stalwart Arnold Hunt, probably the most experienced in the field, and our promising youngster Boris Stoyanov.
But the favourite remains – 129-rated Tim Valentine, although he faces a tough challenge against Theo Wait in the last eight.
Theo is unrated, but has so far swept all before him in his games for Battersea.
Matthew Feeney against Lawrence Cook should be a fascinating match-up. This commentator thinks it will be very close, although Lawrence now has a bit more experience playing competitive games.
On the other side of the draw two of the club’s most attacking players face-off.
Denis Dupuis is our other promising youngster and from what I’ve seen of his games he likes an aggressive gambit opening and usually comes out all guns blazing.
The same could also be said for Joel Morales, another stalwart of the club and perhaps second favourite after Tim. Joel likes to blast open the centre and throw his pieces forward, and it usually works.
The final match-up sees Dominik Palgan take on another new face at the club who has done well, Richard Murphy.
Dominik, like Theo, doesn’t yet have a grade and is something of an unknown quantity but performed well at the Battersea Blitz in June where he finished above several decent players.
So far Richard has played 4 games in London Chess League, winning two one of which was against a player rated 124.
Richard hasn’t got a grade yet but he will in January and it will be somewhere between 110 and 120.
