A handicap event - on the 6th August a few enthusiasts got together to play.

Initially we had set aside 3 Saturdays - as a warm-up tournament to our upcoming September Round Robin. The Time Limit was experimented with - to give everyone a tough game, we also whittled it down to just the one, hectic, afternoon.

The system went thus : basically based on a 'home' limit of G15 the higher rated got less time while the lower-rated player got more. For each hundred points difference the higher 'lost' a minute while the lower 'gained' a minute.
To make math easier (and extend the handicap the player with the lower rating was rounded down while the higher was rounded up (only if their rating was XX50 or higher) : thus a player rated 999 V 1450 = 900 V 1500 and times of 9 mins V 21 mins (the total time almostalways being half hour [Minimum time 2 mins]). Notice the difference between the above and 999 V 1449 - 10 mins V 20 mins


David's 'real' national rating is 286 (largely earnt and maintained in the ACT - I effectively raised it 200 (for local purposes)) since his performance was clearly above that.
Peter is a long-time Correspondence player just getting back into 'clock' chess, has a corresp. rating of 1900 and an 'old' national rating of 1727 - I put him in at a local provisional of 2nd seed. He only stumbled against the top two.

Place Name            Loc  Score

 1-2  Brown, Phil     1413 6.5  Equal 1st
      Farrell, Keith  1401 6.5  Equal 1st
  3   Dorhauer, Peter 1450 5    
 4-8  Hoseman, Bill   970  3    
      Frias, Joe      1465 3    
      Birznieks, Ruth 1020 3    
      Maguire, Noel   1379 3    
      Porter, Les     1069 3    
9-10  Coyle, Mick     704  2    
      Burrell, David  400  2    
 11   Porter, Janet   740  1  President's Award    


Perhaps one of the surprising games was the Round 2 encounter between Keith and Phil, early on Phil dropped a Bishop at the end of some tricky tactics, Keith and he then fought tooth and nail after a backward e-pawn - Keith trying too hard to manufacture something out of a well-defended position - and dropped a Rook. "I felt I had lost a whole Rook ; rather than an exchange" !!
Rnd_2_KeithVPhilEttalong2005 (13K)
Farrell,K - Brown,P
Ettalong Deep Chill August 2005 fast Umina (2), 08.2005
[ notes by Keith]

3rrk2/1R2p3/3p2p1/2p4p/Q5NP/8/P1P2PPK/4q3 w - - 0 1
1.Qf4+ time limit 15 minutes each at the end of round 7 Phil and I shared 1st place - 3rd
having 5 points - one and a half behind 1...Kg8 [ 1...Kg7 2.Qh6+ Kg8 3.Qxg6+ Kh8 4.Rb3 Qd2 5.Nh6 Qf4+ 6.Rg3] 2.Nh6+ [ 2.Nf6+ exf6 3.Qh6 Re7 4.Qxg6+ Kf8 5.Qxf6+ Ke8 6.Qh8+] 2...Kg7 3.Nf5+ draw agreed ½-½

And thus neither knew they couldn't afford a loss.

No  Name            Loc  Score Exp. Chg*K  Rav Rprfm

1.  Dorhauer, Peter 1450 5.0/7 5.60    -6 1207  1365
2.  Brown, Phil     1413 6.5/7 6.23     3 1059  1481
3.  Farrell, Keith  1401 6.5/7 5.25    13 1205  1627
4.  Maguire, Noel   1379 3.0/7 6.09   -31 1059  1009
5.  Porter, Les     1069 1.0/5 3.00   -20  998   758
6.  Birznieks, Ruth 1020 2.0/6 1.74     3 1181  1056
7.  Porter, Janet   740  0.0/4 0.48    -5 1072    73
8.  Coyle, Mick     704  1.0/6 0.42     6 1122   849
9.  Burrell, David  400  2.0/5 0.05    20 1061   989
10. Frias, Joe      1465 3.0/6 4.68   -17 1242  1242
11. Hoseman, Bill   970  2.0/4 0.44    16 1316  1316