The Club has entered the second League of Mayhem Knockout with one team. There are eight teams in all. The first round is quaintly called a “Qualifier” whereas most would use the term Quarter-Final.
Tie-breaks are also novel: the first tie-break is “Lower-rated team wins”, which makes a change from Board Count; second tie-break is “elimination of TOP board downwards” – convention is BOTTOM board upwards, which always seems to mean that batting long counts for nothing, so an alternative is welcome.
The Club is in the same half of the draw as the winners of Knockout 1 – HMC (which stands for Honorary Members Club, a legacy from the now-defunct London Commercial League).
Qualifier
Played 20 May 2021
| Petts Wood & Orpington | v | Wanstead & Woodford | |
| 1 | Daniel Lindner 2208 (W) | ½-½ | John Hodgson 2103 (B) |
| 2 | Jacob Watson 2050 | 1-0 | Ian Hunnable 1968 |
| 3 | Anthony Baldwin 1825 | Void | Ian Reynolds 1915 |
| 4 | Anthony Langley 1578 | 0-1 | Istvan Karacsony 1945e |
| 1½-1½ |
Another bizarre evening on lichess.org! Top and bottom boards were the bookends of sanity – John’s solid draw against CM Daniel Linder and Istvan’s efficient dispatch in 19 moves. Between those bastions, Board 2 was a classic “defeat snatched from the jaws of victory” and on Board 3, skipper Pete explained: “Ian’s opponent messed up with challenging using the correspondence time control and also had home internet issues” resulting in the game being awarded to us.
It was subsequently decided, in the spirit of League of Mayhem, that we would prefer to discount the point gianed on a technicality (Board 3) – where the game wasn’t played – and treat that board as void. On the three games played, with the scores tied at 1½-1½, the tie-break (lower rated side) goes to Petts Wood & Orpington, who therefore progress to the next round.