Tom Leah is the Limewood Blitz Champion for 2020.
He took the title decisively by winning 8 of his 9 games, two more than his nearest rival.
The contest was delayed from the spring by the Coronavirus pandemic. It now took place online using the LiChess platform’s Arena format. 5 minutes per game was on the clock for each player and you played as many games as the LiChess computer served you with within the space of 1½ hours.
As with the curtain-raiser of 2 weeks ago it was a evening of frenetic activity where even the unthinkable could happen (such as Paul May losing BOTH his rooks to knight-forks in the same game) .
For these Arena events LiChess has its own method of awarding points but, however calculated, there was no doubt about the end result. The final ranking of the top 4 players was:
- Tom Leah, 8 wins from 9 games, points (per Lichess) 24
- Paul May, 6 wins from 9 games, points 16
- John Grasham, 5 wins from 7 games, points14
- Sylvan Clarke, 5 wins from 7 games, points 12
You can play through all the games by going to the Limewood Annual Blitz 2020 Arena pages on LiChess.com. Tom’s game against his main contender is now on our Best Games pages and can be played through there: Tom Leah v Paul May blitz