Augsburg\Hastings

[Mike Mitchell]

And he has won, in a great game to watch. Totally busted his GM opponent, with Black.

[Andy Howie]

Depending on the draw for the last three rounds he needs either 1.5 or 2 for a GM norm!

[Alan Jelfs]

Steve has just drawn as Black against a 2638 GM in round 8 =)

[andyburnett]

Well-played game by Steve today; a pawn sac for a positonal bind but not quite enough in the position to play for more than the draw.

He has white tomorrow against the Ukrainian GM Andrey Vovk (2567) so good luck! The only game Steve has lost was against the Italian GM Vocaturo (and he looked to be clearly winning that at one point) so he's obviously in great form just now.

[David G Congalton]

Delighted to see Stephen playing so well and mixing it with the top players. He is the one titled player that you see at most weekend events on the Scottish circuit. The Hastings event has kept me entertained all week, with some scary games, some positional battles and one or two dubious moves thrown in.

I didn't see IM Jack Rudd's Rook capture of a pawn as being an error (but then why would I, if he didn't). Stephen completely exploited the mistake and just didn't let Jack off the hook. I found yestreday's encounter with GM Sumets unbelievably tense to watch and was relieved when it come up 1/2 - 1/2.

All our other entrants seem to be putting in solid performances, at least and Clement has already pocketed a prize from the pairs tournament.

Also nice to see Sarunas Sulskis in action and in good form. As Scotland's Olympiad team captain and coach he has to be at least an adopted Scot. Apparently a year is a long time and it does seem like a lot has happened since around this time last year when Robin Moore told me the exciting news that he had been in contact with Sarunas and the GM was interested in coming over to play at Prestwick.

Looking forward to today's action and hoping the two previous Prestwick Open winners do well. I wonder if this years Prestwick winner will be challenging at Hastings 2013 over Christmas and New Year.

[Andy Howie]

Win today and it is a GM norm. He is sitting on 5.5 v an average of 2442 and needs 6.5!

C'mon Steve!!

[Alex McFarlane]

Andy,

You've forgotten to deduct the half point bye from his score.

In norm terms he is on 5 so needs 1.5/1 today.

[Andy Howie]

OOOOPS

[George Murphy]

Congratulations to Steve on a wonderful little cameo ending.

Compliments, too, to all the other Scots at Hastings - especially the Seniors, led by the doyen Jimmy Macrae, who put in a real Braveheart performance. What a warrior!

[Patrick McGovern]

Excellent TPR by Steve well done!