March 13th 2021
A good turnout of 22 players logged online to play in the March online blitz tournament. Robert Novak won the tournament outright 1.5points ahead of the rest of the field. Conrad Thake ended in 2nd place having a better tie-break than Jack Mizzi (3rd), Colin Pace (4th) and Filipina Thornton (5th). Matthias Gatt takes the final Grand prix point by taking 6th place.
The first round immediately started with surprises as Milena Stagno beat Colin Pace and Adam Buckle beat Duncan Vella. Round 2 went according to plan and it was at round 3 where the top clashes commenced. On first board Jack Mizzi beat Robert Nobak on board 1, Conrad Thake beat Tonio Zarb. Timothy Vella registered a good result by drawing against Matthias Gatt while Neil Spiteri beat Claude Licari.
The top board clash of round 4 between the two players on 100% score saw Conrad Thake beating Jack Mizzi. Duncan Vella and Robert Novak played out a draw while Jacob Zammit played great to beat Tonio Zarb. Novak won all his remaining games following this round.
Two ex-champions Conrad Thake and Colin Pace met each other with Pace taking the full point in round 5. Timothy Vella continued achieving positive results by drawing against Duncan Vella.
On top board of Round 6, Colin Pace beat Jack Mizzi, Conrad Thake drew with Matthias Gatt. Jacob Zammit achieved another good result by beating Milena Stagno.
In round 7, Robert Novak beat Colin Pace while Duncan Vella and Conrad Thake’s game ended in a draw. Claude Licari won his 3rd game in succession by beating Marco Gaffarena.
Robert Novak beat Conrad Thake in round 8 while Colin Pace beat Duncan Vella in a typical Dragon (played so many times between these two players). Matthias Gatt beat Jack Mizzi – thus ending Mizzi’s chance of keeping his tournaments winning streak.
The final round saw Robert Novak securing first place by beating Matthias Gatt. Filipina Thornton beat Colin Pace after Pace lost on time.
In the overall Grand Prix classification, Jack Mizzi (26pts) lead by 10 points over 2nd place Robert Novak (16pts). In 3rd place, Conrad Thake (12pts) is one point ahead of 4th place Matthias Gatt (11pts).
Overall Rapid Grand Prix Points