Saturday, November 26, 2011

The 2011 MRL Paradigm Rapid Event

The 2011 MRL Paradigm Rapid Event was a great success and proved to be very exciting. It was indeed action packed fighting chess that was on display at the Primi Piazza Cafe at Canal Walk Shopping Mall on Saturday.

This new dynamic form of the game tested the tactical ability of some of the top players in the province in an 8 player round robin. Most positions, soon after opening and basic principles were applied, started taking shape into interesting middle game battles. The endgame was where the real struggle lie, because no agreed draws, perpetual check, or threefold repetitions were allowed. Only one draw throughout the tournament due to insufficient material, between Kenneth Willenberg and Bryan Aguirre in a Queen vsRook and Pawn time trouble ending could seperate the players from each other’s throats.




All 7 of the 8 (8th position being the normal chess position) positions were made available to the players which still allowed for the professional element of the game, preparation. Interestingly all selected positions proved to be as playable for black as it was for white with the ratio of wins being very equal 14 white /13 black.

International Master David Gluckman in the end was crowned the paradigm king with a convincing score 6 out of 7 score.

Second was Kenneth Willenberg with 4.5 and third after a (5min + 5sec increment play-off in the 8th paradigm position) with Maxwell Solomon was Donovan van den Heever with 4 points.
The Paradigm anti-draw concept poses a new challenge to the game, forcing the player to fight for the win and avoids agreed draws in playable positions, which we see more than often in tournaments nowadays.Thus the objective was achieved of an increased win rate overall. We certainly would like to see more of these tournaments being played in the true battle spirit of the game.
Thank you to the organizers, Primi Piazzi and Lourenzo van Niekerk for making this event possible. 
Look forward to the next Paradigm challenge

Article by: Craig Willenberg

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