Mark finally plays some chess ! Calvin digs into a comfortable 2nd place going into the last, and Alistair battles hard in another against-all-odds* clean sweep

*The bookies have been ever so confused since the grading confusion debacle, and have started handing out the best odds to players who haven't even started. A clean sweep from Alistair is probably odds-on favourite if bookies weren't so all over the place. Mind you, they've been rating Calvin highly and boy has he been bringing home the goods !

A week after Boris told us that we could play golf with a friend, we played chess. With a traditionally willful disregard of convention and kind suggestions from Mr de Pfeffel, Grendel marches onto the battlegrounds, once again kindly hosted by chess.com. My, their fields must be messy. Or they have really quite a good clean up team. That reminds me of "Viscera Cleanup Detail", a video game, where you play as a janitor in a space station having to clean up after heroes have battled their way to victory against sci-fi horror nasties. Perhaps chess.com hire their janitors in a similar way, getting video game players to do their dirty work for them, and get the players to pay them instead of paying the clean-up team ! A marvelous stroke of genius if indeed that is how they operate.

I went to the park to see a friend the other day ! It was lovely ! I haven't seen many other faces for a couple of months now so it was lovely to see a good friend out in the sun once again. We didn't play chess though. Or golf. I don't think we even talked about either. Truth be told, I'm losing a bit of momentum with chess. I am enjoying teaching it to people, and it also does fill my time every day when I have 2 minutes spare to play a bullet game online. Which might be part of the reason why I tire of it... it's become somewhat of an addiction, I feel. An unhealthy one ? I'm not sure. I think it doesn't help concentration levels when I can so easily fly away into a chess game at the press of a couple of buttons.

Alas, I feel like I'm sitting on a black and white chequered coach in a counsellors office, being listened to by an attentive wise Bishop, who waits patiently for the perfect moment to ask me deep questions about my h1-a8 diagonal.

I HOPE YOU'RE ENJOYING MY FUNNIES ALISTAIR, this is all for you. And me a bit actually, it's quite entertaining writing this and giggling uncontrollably to myself every so often. So, thank you Alistair ! For cheerleading me through this process. And apologies for my earlier sarcasm.

The chess !

Going into today's round, we had Alistair well in the lead after two wins, myself in second, closely followed by Richard and Calvin just one point behind, with others scattered a few points behind. If there was any chance of Alistair not winning, it needed to be now or never to deprive him of a third win on the trot. Unfortunately, Victor informed me that he would be pulling out of this tournament as he was finding the games tough. Thanks for participating in the first place Victor, sad to see you go, but fair enough - these time controls can be tough.

With stir fry in front of me, I faced Alistair in the very first round ! And with me as white again, the same as the other two rounds ! Alistair had prepared this time after the embarrassment of a loss in round 2 - with Nh5 later on in a Benoni. I felt under the cosh throughout the midgame, but rudimentary analysis puts us even throughout, until I try to reach out too far to counteract my assumed poor position. Alistair easily capitalised, and he was off to a flying start.

In Mark's first round, he battled fiercely against his opponent, who seemed to be non existent. A bye, but one that no doubt instilled confidence in Mark, who had up to this point scored 1/7 in the games he has played this grand prix.

Calvin and Patrick faced each other over the 64 squares that they had done before in the previous two tournaments - it was 1 each, with white winning both games. It was Calvin's turn to be white, and after an evening looking midgame, Calvin pushed against Patrick's awkwardly defending king's side, pushing Patrick into defense mode. Calvin eventually translated this into gaining a central passed pawn, which proved troublesome for Patrick's backward pieces. This was converted into one pawn grab, swiftly followed by a second, and a third, before Patrick sacrificed/blundered his knight for Calvin's advanced e-pawn. Resignation swiftly followed, and Calvin was on 1 point.

Richard was white against James and had achieved a dicey position out of the Maroczy Bind, pushing all his kingside pawns. The needle of analysis was swaying wildly from one side to the other with every move, though the last few moves had James well in command with a couple of dangerous looking knights and a queen staring down Richard's central king. Unfortunately at this point, Richard didn't have the chance to attempt a defence - I'm not sure what had happened - loss of connection perhaps ? Richard didn't return until round 3. Distraught at his position perhaps. Regardless, James took advantage of Richard's advanced pawns well, and found himself one point up going into the second round.

Roger and Mike faced off in the last of the first round matches. Roger opted for h3 and g4 in his attempt against Mike's King's Indian Defence, but once he had castled queenside, fell foul to long, weak diagonals, capitalised upon by Mike's two bishops. Not falling into a pinned queen, Roger gave up a rook for Mike's bishop. A few moves later, with some chance of attack, but clearly not enough for Roger, he resigned, leaving Mike on one point.

After the video game janitors had kindly cleaned up the battlefields for us, Alistair and Calvin faced off once again for a crunch match. After a fairly even looking opening, though Alistair having more space, Calvin blunders perhaps ? With a non-looking Kh8 move, leaving his rook hanging. Alistair went an exchange up. A very pretty looking Nf4 was attractive for Calvin, a move which was sacrificing a knight in exchange for a three way fork - a rook, the queen, and checkmate on g2 with the queen ! Very sexy looking indeed, but alas ! Alistair had the backup of back rank mate threats stopping this tactic. Calvin couldn't find a way through, and found himself up against strong attacks from Alistair, before finally succumbing. Alistair was looking well on his way to another tournament win with 2/2 against current 2nd and 3rd placers overall. But everyone in this tournament is strong, Alistair still has to battle his way through

Mark finally plays some good chess ! Getting some very nice attacking pieces into the heart of Mike's defense, he claims a pawn or two, before lulling Mike into a catastrophic blunder, losing too much material to continue. Mark was also on 2 !

There were wins for James against myself, and Patrick against Roger.

Mark faced Alistair in the third round. I'm getting bored writing this now. Apologies. I'll continue being brief. Things looked fairly even, but Mark was left with a backward pawn in the centre. After a few exchanges, this was too much pressure, Alistair grabbed a pawn, creating a passed pawn, which was enough pressure to come through with a victory. Alistair was 3 for 3, and Mark was still on 2/3, much improved on previous tournaments.

Calvin won against James, Mike won against Patrick, and I won against a newly returned Richard - playing his first and unfortunately only full game of the day... his last was a bye to take him to 1 point, even with Roger.

In the last, I won against Roger, leaving myself one above bottom in 7th, Mark won again ! A triumphant return to form leaves him 2nd place ahead of Calvin, who Mark left teetering above the rest in 3rd place. Patrick won against James, leaving them both equal in 4th, joined also by Mike.

Mike and Alistair battled in their 4th round, a game in which Alistair had very strong attacking pieces, but Mike was defending equally strongly, with a usefully attacking queen. Mike became slightly ahead in the analysis after his rook joined his attack. Unfortunately, he took his eye off his defense, played a couple of weak moved, and Alistair was ruthless in capitalising, eventually forcing Mike to make mistakes. Alistair wins with a strong 4/4 !

Captain Will