Alejandro Vilchez had White on board 1 vs Steve Meek. He says “The game started with a Karo Cann defense with the sequence 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. Nf3 cxd4 5. Nxd4 Nc6. I decided to move my knight back to f3 instead of trading it and it cost me the e5 pawn later. I kept my two bishops but did not find a way to use them to my advantage. After that, Black consolidated his attack on the Queen side and kept winning material. After 40 moves and 3 pawns down, Black had a forced mate threat and I resigned”

Alan Papier had Black on board 2 vs David Frydman. He says: “I was Black vs the Smith Morra Gambit vs a player 300 points better than me. I accepted the pawn and went for a 'solid' position with e6,d6, Be7, Bd7. But then I made the poor decision of castling Queenside. I grabbed a second pawn but my king was too exposed on the Queenside. Eventually, I was defeated.”

Lara White had the white pieces on board 3 vs Jonathon Gould. He did well to secure a draw but I have no details on the game.

John Paines had Black on board 4 vs Phillip Lawson. He says: “Phillip played 6. f3 against my Sicilian Najdorf, which I don’t recall facing before. I made an error in the subsequent moves, leaving myself with a weak d-pawn which my opponent was able to pick off. Later while trying to shore up my position I blundered another pawn and although I was able to reduce the game to bishops of opposite colours plus pawns in the hope of obtaining a draw, Phillip was able to make his pawn advantage count and won.”

Ivan Penev had the white pieces on board 5 vs Matt Howells. He says: “In the beginning I lost a bishop and from then I was losing.”

Nick Woods had Black on board 6 vs Jim Rowlands. He says: “I Black against Jim Rowlands’ e4 e5 Nf3 Nf6 opening. I was hoping for the Petroff but Jim played Bc3, the Italian game. In the middle game I lost a knight to a fork and by the end game I was still a knight down and a pawn up. I was down to 3 minutes on the clock, Jim had around 8 Minutes and I decided to open up a file to attack his castled King with my Queen and rook. This was a mistake since it also let him in to attack my King and he was quicker from there. I lost defending my King.”