Blair brings it home! Club member wins Battersea FIDE Blitz

Blair Connell hit 7.5/9 to ensure a home winner of the Battersea FIDE Blitz last night – but only just.

The top seed had Zafar Iqbal, and two Battersea members Midhun Unnikrishnan and Alex Makarov snapping at his heels as he won by half a point.

A final-round thriller against Midhun, which finished in a draw, secured Blair the title. Zafar, Midhun and Alex ended the event locked on 7/9 with Zafar, the only sub-2000 in the top 4, finishing second on tiebreaks.

Seconds out… Round 1! And we're off! pic.twitter.com/etXNDvyKZw

— Battersea Chess Club ♞♜♛♚ (@BatterseaChess) October 19, 2021

The event, organised by the club’s National Arbiter Rejean Dupuis, saw 60 players from several clubs around London duke it out over nine rounds in the first blitz tournament at Battersea since lockdown.

Full results can be found here.

Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo	Name	FED	Rtg	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	Connell Blair N	ENG	2263	7.5	0	42
2	9	Iqbal Zafar	ENG	1932	7	0	41
3	4	Midhun P U	IND	2078	7	0	41
4	3	Makarov Alexander	RUS	2090	7	0	35
5	7	Iyengar Ilya	ENG	1955	6.5	0	40
6	5	Keohane Ben	ENG	2058	6.5	0	38
7	34	Cancedda-Dupuis Livio	ENG	1398	6	0	42
8	8	Finn Peter	ENG	1939	6	0	42
9	2	Benguelo Ryan	ENG	2230	6	0	40
10	29	Konyakhin-Borrelly Gregory Jacques	RUS	1484	6	0	36
11	22	Palmer Alan H	ENG	1630	6	0	34
12	6	Skulte Christopher	AUS	1980	6	0	32
13	24	Buanne Luca	ENG	1538	5.5	0	40
14	21	Jefremov Aivar	LAT	1632	5.5	0	38
15	12	Hill Tom	FRA	1851	5.5	0	36
16	18	Leung Jeff	ENG	1646	5.5	0	34
17	16	Dancy Malcolm	ENG	1660	5.5	0	32
18	23	Harvey Derek	ENG	1555	5.5	0	32
19	27	Lekic Dejan	ENG	1513	5	0	36
20	17	Perez Fadon Andres	ENG	1652	5	0	35
21	14	Foote Joanne	CAN	1763	5	0	35
22	58	Sisupalan Beni	ENG	0	5	0	34
23	25	Dupuis Denis K	ENG	1531	5	0	32
24	11	Groves Howard	ENG	1882	5	0	32
25	10	Ramadan Atef	ISR	1898	5	0	31
26	32	Horan George	ENG	1442	5	0	30
27	55	Magombe Edwin	ENG	0	5	0	29
28	26	Napolitano Domenico	ENG	1522	5	0	28
29	56	Muirhead Samuel	ENG	0	4.5	0	37
30	57	Nguyen Tung	ENG	0	4.5	0	36
31	31	Patel Zain	ENG	1453	4.5	0	31
32	39	Butterworth Tom	ENG	1307	4.5	0	31
33	35	Yedid Lior	ENG	1392	4.5	0	30
34	13	Lundback Anders	SWE	1777	4	0	37
35	41	Bassa Hugo	ENG	1285	4	0	34
36	37	Blicharz Maks	ENG	1335	4	0	34
37	15	Gay Conor	ENG	1754	4	0	32
38	42	Ajili Nour	ENG	1264	4	0	30
39	38	Seet Joshua	ENG	1314	4	0	29
40	28	Welch Stephen T	ENG	1510	4	0	29
41	53	Jankel Jacob Joe	ENG	0	4	0	28
42	30	Palmer Tom	ENG	1470	4	0	28
43	19	Vernon Guy	ENG	1645	4	0	27
44	61	McRae-Taylor Adam	ENG	0	4	0	27
45	33	Clark Edward	ENG	1430	4	0	25
46	59	Spaans Bart	ENG	0	3	0	33
47	60	Turnbull Jack	ENG	0	3	0	30
48	51	de Angelis Alexandre	ENG	0	3	0	29
49	44	Buanne Giulio	ENG	1192	3	0	29
50	20	Colliety Sean	ENG	1634	3	0	28
51	54	Jenner Brodie	ENG	0	3	0	26
52	45	Watt Chris J	ENG	1173	3	0	26
53	48	Bold Matthew	WLS	0	3	0	26
54	36	Flaccavento Marco	ENG	1367	3	0	23
55	47	Antoine Paul-Hector	FRA	0	2.5	0	24
56	52	DSouza Nikhil	ENG	0	2	0	26
57	50	Chopra Dylan	ENG	0	2	0	25
58	40	Slack Edward	ENG	1300	2	0	21
	49	Chan Josh	ENG	0	2	0	21
60	46	Blicharz Aleksander	ENG	981	1.5	0	25
61	43	Press Daniel	ENG	1248	0	0	21