12 November 2014
Our roller-coaster pattern continued in our Mini League match against Rose Forgrove’s M3 team. We won 2 of the 3 games. And the 2 handicap points were split 1½ : ½ in our favour, making the overall match result 3½ : 1½ to us.
‘What are these handicap points?’, we hear you ask. In the Mini League, in addition to the 3 ‘game’ points, 2 handicap ponts are at stake. If the total of the grades of the players in one of the teams is 100 or more over the total of the grades for the other team, then the ‘underdog’ team gets the benefit of both handicap points. If the difference is 31-99, the split is 1½ to ½ in favour of the underdogs. If the difference is 30 or less, the 2 points are divded equally.
What about players who don’t have a grade? There are rules (applied in Steve Hodgson’s case this Wednesday) designed to deal with this situation fairly and sensibly. If you want the gory details, go to http://www.leedschess.org/rules-and-constitution/ and scroll (a long way) down to section D7.