Off with their heads! Blair, Midhun and Tommaso toppled

The jousting has begun and already there are casualties.

Blair Connell, Midhun Unnikrishnan and Tommaso Penna were all eliminated from our new knockout tournament last night as the Contest of Kings got under way.

It leaves 216-rated Bao Nghia Dong, Viktor Stoyanov (190) and Adam Bukojemski (212) advancing to the next round.

The competition saw three pairs battle it out at the board in a speed chess showdown.

A fourth pair, Adam Taylor and Ali Hill, will slug it out later to complete the quarter final schedule.

The results were as follows:

• On table one Bao beat Blair (191) by 26 points to 18.
• Viktor, the youngest in the field, edged a close one against Midhun (195) 32 – 26.
• And on table three Adam was unstoppable beating Tommaso (183) 36.5 – 9.5.