If at First You Don't Succeed Play On

This is a tale that is particularly relevant to Jonathan Calder and chess playing AM Peter Black but the lesson is a pertinent one for us all.

Looking at the 2nd Chess table below it would appear that I came equal second. The winner clearly won all their games and me and the other mid table sitter shared the spoils of our own encounters and beat the player who came last in both games.

However, this was a ranked tournament only for those with a ranking of 1500 or less. With the first round of online play now concluded I got the following email.

Congratulations on winning the 1st round of Intermediate Chess section, 55th GameKnot tournament! The player with the top score in your group has been moved to the next higher section due to their top rating in the past 90 days exceeding the rating limit of the section, so you will be advancing to the next round as the runner-up.

So the lesson is that though at times you may think you are fighting for scraps keep up the effort you may well be rewarded after you yourself had given up hope. Looking at the table above I'd need the victor to make some serious advances over the coming ranks for that feat to be repeated in the 56th Tournament as well.