Steve and Lea both played in this weekend's Crewe Congress, in what turned out to be a frustrating time for both of them.
Lea started like a train in the Minor Section, winning his opening 3 games, and going into the final day as the leader by half a point. Unfortunately, disaster struck on Sunday. In his morning game he was 3 pawns up and heading for a win when he overlooked a back rank mate. This was clearly affecting him in his afternoon game when he lost to the eventual runner-up. However, he finished in a very respectable joint 7th place, and his tournament rating of 1540 was far higher than his actual rating of 1416, so although he will be disappointed he should be pleased with his overall performance.
Steve lived up to his draw master reputation in the Intermediate Section, with 4 draws and 1 loss from his 5 games, to finish on 2/5. It could, and should, have been so different though. A blunder in his second game, in a stone cold drawn position, cost him the game. In his final game on Sunday afternoon he had a Rook and 2 Pawns against a Rook, but was in desperate time trouble and was forced to concede a draw. On the bright side his tournament rating of 1584 was 41 points higher than his actual rating, due to the fact that he played higher rated players in every round. So not all doom and gloom.
All of the results can be found on www.chess-results.com - just do a Tournament Search for Crewe.