Who Let the Animals Out!

On April 1st, fifteen players came to Derby Chess Club to try out some weird and wacky openings in a fun themed competition. From elephants to hippopotami and orangutans - all were represented!

Again John Tompson won the competition (he is the becoming master of every extraordinary format I throw at him!). Skott May and Alan Kennedy came a creditable second equal (the latter beating your correspondent as I managed to throw a rook away - my revenge will be sweet!).

-Rank -	- Name -	- Pts -
1	Tompson John C	4
2	May Skott K	3
	Kennedy Alan	3
4	Cockburn Andre	2½
5	Dalley Kevin J	2
	Smith Justin	2
	Morrel Curtis	2
	Rowbottom Jake	2
	Oyeleye Oyedotun	2
10	Wastie Asher	1½
11	Meulion Camille	1
	Ledger Owen	1
	Smith David	1
14	O'donovan Tony	½
	Videira Hugo	½

Full results are available here.

The opening positions used are given below (two for each round).

Birds - From Gambit

1.f4 e5 2.fxe5 d6 3.exd6 Bxd6

1.2 Birds - "Leningrad" Style

1.f4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.g3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7

2.1 Orangutan 

1.b4 e5 2.Bb2 Bxb4 3.Bxe5 Nf6

2.2 Orangutan

1.b4 e5 2.a3 d5 3.Bb2 Bd6

3.1 Elephant Gambit 

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d5

3.2 Black Lion 

1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nbd7

4.1 Hippopatamus

1.d4 g6 2.e4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Bg5 a6 5.a4 h6 6.Be3 b6 7.Nf3 e6

4.2 Hedgehog

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nb5 d6 6.c4 Nf6 7.N1c3 a6 8.Na3 Be7 9.Be2 0-0 10.0-0 b6

Kevin 06/05/25