Xiao Wins All at Not the London Open

Yicheng Xiao (6d UCL) won all his games to win both the Open and the Lightning at the fourth Not the London Open. He won all six games in the 58-player Open, whilst Chun Fang (6d Edinburgh) only lost to the winner to take second and Yiyang Ding (5d) was third by tie-break. To win the Sunday evening lightning he had to beat Scott Cobbold in the final. Also notable was Rachel Chik (17k) who, as the lowest graded player, stalwartly had to fight against two strong players (Yaoling Yang and Chun Fang) with large handicaps (as shown here). Yiyang Ding won the losers section.

In the Open the cash prizes and certificates went to the top three and the following top threes: Below the Bar Scott Cobbold (3d LGC), Zhuopeng Yu (3d UCL) and Frederic Schlattner (2d UCL); SDK Gene Wong (1k No Club), Michael Kyle (1k Edinburgh) and Kam Chuen Leung (1k LGC); DDK Diego Campoy (11k Cadiz), Horace Stoica (15k LGC) and Lauren Hindmarch (16k Lancaster). Results

Amongst the several visitors from the continent was the tournament's teacher, Hwang In-Seong (8d Grenoble), who had previously been teacher at the 2013 London Open. He reviewed 35 games over the weekend, sometimes being "harsh" at mistakes seen, and ended the weekend with a public analysis (shown here) of the last-round game between the event winner and young Alain Cheung (4d). He was much thanked for his efforts, as too was event organiser Gerry Gavigan for his.