| April 2001 | Newsletter of the British Chess Federation | Online Edition |
Favourites Close in on Title4NCL
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 Julian Hodgson scored 2/2 for Beeson Gregory (photo by John Emms) |
Wood Green and Slough will have to hope that Beeson Gregory drop some game points against both Barbican 2 and Richmond in the final weekend, but in general the title favourites have been particularly ruthless against the relegation threatened teams (they have scored 22½-1½ against the bottom three).
The tone was very much set on the Saturday. Both Slough and Wood Green scored good wins: Slough crushed Poisoned Pawns 7-1 while Wood Green defeated Richmond 6½-1½. But any hopes of gaining ground were when and truly crushed when Beeson Gregory scored an astonishing 8-0 win over Midland Monarchs, the final point coming when Michael Hennigan ground down Stephen Ledger in a rook ending.
Such was the strength of their first team, Beeson Gregory could even boast of having three Grandmasters playing in their second team on Saturday (this must be some sort of record for a reserve team!). The second team didn't have it all their own way, though, and were held to a 4-4 draw by fellow relegation strugglers Thistle White Rose. Elsewhere South Wales Dragons slipped further into trouble after losing 6-2 to Barbican 1, their one high point being Charles Morris's fine win over Mark Ferguson. Guildford kept up some pressure on the top three teams after beating Barbican 2 by the score of 6½-1½.
Beeson Gregory's potential banana skin came in the form of their 8th round battle with Guildford, who for first time this season were at full strength, their 'big five' consisting of Jonathan Rowson, Jim Plaskett, Danny King, Stuart Conquest and Danny Gormally. The top four boards were all GM affairs and were tight games. Flear-King was a reasonably straightforward draw, while next to them on board 2 Plaskett was unable to convert an early edge into a full point against Murray Chandler. Guildford's big chance came on board 4, where Stuart Conquest outplayed Ian Rogers, winning an exchange before slipping up in time trouble to allow the Australian off the hook with a draw. Meanwhile on top board Julian Hodgson nursed a small endgame advantage against Rowson, this turning out to be the only decisive game on the top boards. By the time Hodgson had won, Beeson Gregory had already sealed victory after their greater strength and experience led to wins on boards 6, 7 and 8, although it must be said that the final score of 6-2 was flattering for the title leaders.
 Scotland's Number One Jonathan Rowson (photo by Christine Higgins) |
The second 'big' clash in the 8th round was between Barbican and Wood Green. Last season it was Wood Green's surprising loss to Barbican which prematurely ended their title ambitions. On that occasion Nigel Short was warming the Wood Green bench (along with a certain Mr Morozevich!). This year Wood Green captain Brian Smith was taking no such risks – Short played on board two behind Jon Speelman and Wood Green won five out of the top six clashes, ending up 6-2 winners.
Back to relegation issues once more and Richmond scored a priceless 4½-3½ victory over Beeson Gregory 2. Richmond boosted their top boards with the arrival of the German IM Michael Bezold. Despite him losing on top board to Michael Henningan, the strengthening of the team had its desired effect, and wins for Gavin Wall, veteran Michael Franklin and youngster Murugan Thiruchelvam helped Richmond to their second win of the season.
Poisoned Pawns picked up their third point of the season when they scored a 4-4 draw with Midland Monarchs. The point was more useful to the Monarchs, however, who are now looking reasonably safe with 7 points. They had Stephen Ledger and Simon Williams to thank for their share in the spoils; the finish to Williams's game was particularly brutal viewing.
South Wales Dragons now require a minor miracle in the final weekend after going down by the narrowest of margins to Barbican 2. Only three decisive games here – Richard Palliser won a nice miniature and Andrew Lewis scored Barbican's second win, while Charles Morris won again to make it a successful 2/2 over the weekend.
It seems that number of teams in the first division is just about right at twelve. Going into the final weekend, three teams can justifiably claim they still have a chance of winning the championship, only a couple occupy 'mid-table oblivion' while the rest are all still involved in the relegation dogfight.
England's number one Michael Adams gained 4 elo points in Wijk aan Zee and keeps his World number 4 spot behind Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik and Vishy Anand on the new April 2001 FIDE rating list, just one elo point ahead of 5th placed Alexander Morozevich.
Stuart Conquest moves up to seventh place on the English list after winning the Hastings Premier last December, while Bogdan Lalic remains the most prolific player.
| Name | Title | Rating | Games | |
| 1 | Adams, Michael | g | 2750 | 13 |
| 2 | Short, Nigel D. | g | 2676 | 0 |
| 3 | Sadler, Matthew | g | 2633 | 0 |
| 4 | Hodgson, Julian M. | g | 2595 | 10 |
| 5 | Speelman, Jonathan S. | g | 2594 | 9 |
| 6 | Nunn, John D.M. | g | 2578 | 0 |
| 7 | Conquest, Stuart | g | 2563 | 9 |
| 8 | Miles, Anthony J. | g | 2562 | 9 |
| 9 | Hebden, Mark | g | 2560 | 18 |
| 10 | Parker, Jonathan | g | 2545 | 0 |
| 11 | King, Daniel J. | g | 2543 | 0 |
| 12 | Chandler, Murray G. | g | 2529 | 0 |
| 13 | Watson, William N. | g | 2527 | 0 |
| 14 | Kosten, Anthony C. | g | 2524 | 7 |
| 15 | Wells, Peter K. | g | 2522 | 10 |
| 16 | Turner, Matthew | m | 2516 | 17 |
| 17 | Emms, John M. | g | 2514 | 0 |
| 18 | Norwood, David | g | 2508 | 0 |
| 19 | Summerscale, Aaron | g | 2506 | 9 |
| 20 | Ward, Christopher | g | 2505 | 10 |
| 21 | Kumaran, Dharshan | g | 2505 | 0 |
| 22 | Lalic, Bogdan | g | 2501 | 27 |
| 23 | Gormally, Daniel | m | 2492 | 18 |
| 24 | McShane, Luke J. | g | 2490 | 19 |
| 25 | Mestel, A. Jonathan | g | 2488 | 0 |
| 26 | Flear, Glenn C. | g | 2476 | 0 |
| 27 | Pert, Nicholas | m | 2474 | 9 |
| 28 | Davies, Nigel R | g | 2469 | 0 |
| 29 | Plaskett, Jim | g | 2461 | 9 |
| 30 | Lane, Gary W. | m | 2456 | 8 |
| 31 | Hennigan, Michael | m | 2455 | 0 |
| 32 | Martin, Andrew D. | m | 2447 | 7 |
| 33 | Levitt, Jonathan | g | 2438 | 0 |
| 34 | Arkell, Keith C. | g | 2436 | 18 |
| 35 | McDonald, Neil R. | g | 2436 | 8 |
| 36 | Webster, Andrew | m | 2435 | 0 |
| 37 | Ledger, Andrew | m | 2432 | 8 |
| 38 | Hunt, Adam | m | 2431 | 0 |
| 39 | Hunt, Harriet | wg | 2426 | 0 |
| 40 | Pein, Malcolm | m | 2424 | 0 |
| 41 | Collinson, Adam | f | 2404 | 0 |
| 42 | Mah, Karl | m | 2404 | 0 |
| 43 | Crouch, Colin S. | m | 2403 | 20 |
| 44 | Crawley, Gavin | m | 2403 | 0 |
| 45 | Kinsman, Andrew P.H. | m | 2401 | 0 |
| 46 | Littlewood, Paul E. | m | 2400 | 6 |
| 47 | Poulton, James | 2391 | 6 | |
| 48 | Rahal, Michael | m | 2390 | 8 |
| 49 | Lawton, Geoffrey W. | m | 2390 | 0 |
| 50 | Dunnington, Angus J. | m | 2388 | 0 |
Oakham School has held many events featuring the world's leading chessplayers including Kasparov, Anand, Kramnik, Adams, Shirov and Short. The latest in the series included players from seven countries competing in a grandmaster tournament. This included last year's winner, Old Oakhamian Nicholas Pert and the young American IM Irina Krush.
 Humpy Koneru (photo by Christine Higgins) |
Krush was in devastating from early on, racing to 4/4 which included wins over GMs Jon Levitt and Colin McNab, plus a very nice sacrificial game in round 1. Pert's progress was less spectacular, but impressive nevertheless. By the time the two leaders agreed a quick draw in round seven, Krush was on 6/7, while Pert was on 5/7.
Krush, however, lost her momentum after that, losing her final two games when requiring 1/2 for a GM norm. Pert also narrowly failed to make the norm, but a finish of 1½/2 ensured that he once again took 1st prize. Krush's 6/9 was enough for second, while British Ladies Champion Humpy Koneru had another successful tournament in England, coming third with 5½/9 and securing an IM norm. This was a tournament that most of the grandmasters would wish to forget. Only Scotland's Colin McNab scored more than 50%.
 Bob Wade and David Anderton (photo by John Emms) |
A party was held at Jon Speelman's flat to celebrate Bob Wade's 80th birthday. David Jarrett, FIDE Treasurer, presented Bob with the certificate recording his appointment as an Honorary Member of FIDE. This is only the second such honour accorded to a representative of the BCF in the 77 years of FIDE's history. The first recipient was The Hon Frederick Hamilton Russell who presented the gold cup for the champion team in Olympiads. David Anderton, BCF International Director paid tribute to Bob's many varied and unselfish contributions to British and World Chess.
The NCCU 'Open' County Championship sadly saw just two entries this season; again from Yorkshire and Lancashire. These two counties met at Alwoodley Chess Club, Leeds on Sunday 10th December.
The match was far closer than last year's 9½-2½ win by Yorkshire. Indeed the final result of 9-7 to Yorkshire was by no means certain until the fifth and final hour of play. By then IM Angus Dunnington and Sheffield University's FM Richard Pert had won at the top, and Yorkshire's slightly greater strength in depth subsequently saw them home.
Yorkshire now progress to the national quarterfinals, whilst Lancashire go out despite making the match closer than last season's final between Yorkshire and Essex.
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d3 Nc6 4 g3 g6 5 Bg5 Qb6 6 Nbd2 d6 7 Nc4 Qc7 8 a4 Bg7 9 Bg2 h6 10 Be3 e5 11 Nfd2 Nge7 12 f4 b6 13 0-0 Be6 14 f5 gxf5 15 exf5 Nxf5
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16 Rxf5 Bxf5 17 Qf3 Bd7 18 Ne4 Ke7 19 Rf1 f5 20 Nexd6 Raf8 21 Qh5 Na5 22 Qg6 Rhg8 23 Bd5 Nxc4 24 Bxg8 Nxd6 25 Qxg7+ Nf7 26 Bxh6 Rxg8 27 Bg5+ Kd6 28 Qxg8 Be6 29 Qf8+ Kc6 30 Qe7 Nxg5 31 Qxg5 Qd6 32 Qe3 Qd5 33 Re1 Kd6 34 c4 1-0
| No. | YORKSHIRE | Grade | Result | LANCASHIRE | Grade |
| 1 | Angus Dunnington [w] | 222 | 1-0 | Brett Lund | 209 |
| 2 | Richard Pert | 206 | 1-0 | John Littlewood | 207 |
| 3 | Richard Palliser | 208 | ½-½ | Craig Hanley | 209 |
| 4 | Peter Gayson | 201 | ½-½ | Jeff Horner | 210 |
| 5 | M. Paul Townsend | 204 | ½-½ | Nick Ivell | |
| 6 | David Adams | 198 | 1-0 | Ben Hague | 196 |
| 7 | John G Cooper | 206 | ½-½ | H.R. Hughes | 197 |
| 8 | F. Norman Stephenson | 192 | 0-1 | L. Kay | 189 |
| 9 | Peter Hempson | 195 | ½-½ | Mike O'Hara | 189 |
| 10 | Iain Gourlay | 1-0 | S. Barnes | 176 | |
| 11 | Roelof Westra | 189 | ½-½ | Mike Conroy | |
| 12 | David Wise | 187 | ½-½ | D George Ellison | 178 |
| 13 | Gawain Jones | 182 | ½-½ | M. Peacock | 179 |
| 14 | Scott Fraser | 184 | 0-1 | S. Appleby | 176 |
| 15 | Mark White | 180 | 1-0 | R. Newton | 170 |
| 16 | Ihor Lewyk | 160 | 0-1 | S. Horrocks | |
| 9-7 |
Richard Palliser
ContentsDownloadable Games Late News |
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(Zipped) 529 games: |
Late NewsMichael Adams won the Redbus Knockout for the second successive year after defeating second seed Julian Hodgson 2-0 in the final at Southend Civic Centre. In all 16 grandmasters took part (full report in the next issue). World number one Garry Kasparov defeated millionaire businessman Terrence Chapman 2½-1½ in their Charity Odds Match at Simpsons-in-the-Strand (full report in the next issue). |
For the latest Book Reviews go to articles index |
LEGEND
*
Terence Chapman Group Grand
Prix
@ FIDE Rated
#
Qualifying Tournament for the Smith & Williamson British
Championship
TERENCE CHAPMAN GROUP
|
||
| GRAND PRIX | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | K Arkell | 173.6 |
| 2 | M Turner | 148.1 |
| 3 | B Lalic | 139.9 |
| 4 | D Gormally | 139.7 |
| 5 | M Hebden | 120.0 |
| 6 | J Hodgson | 107.0 |
| JUNIOR PRIX | ||
| 1 | A Ghasi | 74.2 |
| 2 | R Palliser | 67.0 |
| 3 | T Khoo | 35.5 |
| 4 | N Pert | 26.9 |
| 5 | S Williams | 24.6 |
| 6 | S Hegarty | 22.2 |
| PRIXETTE | ||
| 1 | T Khoo | 48.8 |
| 2 | H Hunt | 33.3 |
| 3 | A Partington | 32.1 |
| 4 | S Chevannes | 26.0 |
| 5 | S Khoo | 25.0 |
| 6 | S Hegarty | 22.0 |
| AMATEUR PRIX | ||
| 1 | D Jameson | 26.0 |
| 2 | R Dean | 17.0 |
| 3 | J Stephenson | 16.2 |
| 4 | R Bryant | 16.0 |
| 5 | R Clegg | 16.0 |
| 6 | D Everitt, C Pemberton | 16.0 |
| SENIOR PRIX | ||
| 1 | J Sherwin | 30.8 |
| 2 | D Everitt | 16.0 |
| 3 | Three Players | 9.0 |
| DISABLED PRIX | ||
| 1 | D Hartley | 29.4 |
| 2 | J Whitfield | 14.0 |
| 3 | D Hodgkins | 9.0 |
| 4 | R Dunn | 6.0 |
| For full details of the 2001 Terence Chapman Grand Prix, visit http://www.bcf.org.uk/grandprix | ||
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| Pos | Team | Score | Rd 1 | Rd 2 |
| 1 | Essex | 19 | 9 | 10 |
| 2 | Warwickshire | 15½ | 8 | 7½ |
| 3 | Hertfordshire | 14½ | 5 | 9½ |
| 4 | Kent | 12 | 7 | 5 |
| 5 | Surrey | 11 | 5½ | 5½ |
| 6 | Cambridgeshire | 8 | 5 | 3 |
| 7 | Suffolk | 4 | 2½ | 1½ |
Of all the Inter County Team Chess competitions, the one which seems to have eluded Essex for longest is the Under 18 Championship. Although the (adult) First Team has had a wait of almost 30 years since they won the Open Championships, the Essex under 18 team has not won their event since 1962.
This year, Essex were hosts and the event took place at Brentwood School, where the support staff could not have been more helpful. It had been hoped that entries would be increased this year, as there has been a steady decline in the number of teams taking part over the years and in response to this trend the BCF decided to make the event Open, reduce the time controls to all moves in 65 minutes and play 2 rounds instead of 1. In this respect the National Body can claim partial success in that the number of teams increased from 5 to 7. I suspect that there would have been rather more had the event been held in the Midlands again. It may well be the case that a central venue has been chosen more often than not, and perhaps it is no coincidence that Warwickshire's name apears on the trophy no fewer than 10 times. Middlesex have won the trophy most frequently, 16 times.
Warwickshire were definitely pre-tournament favourites. Ameet Ghasi, currently British Rapidplay Champion (the youngest ever) was their board 1 and, with a grade of 199, the highest ranking player there. Chris Charman, their board 2, is a former British age-group Champion and a very able performer. With British under 13 Champion Sabrina Chevannes on board 9 (Bobby Payne, the Essex board 3, shared this title with her) the Defending Champions looked as though they meant business.
A Jamboree event, in which each team is randomly allocated a letter to show the pairing they will follow, is the traditional manner of playing multi-team events. The draw was perhaps not kind to the Warwickshire top pair. In round 1, Ameet faced Lorin D'Costa, another 190+ player and one of the few players in the tournament hall capable of taking a point off Ameet. This is precisely what Lorin did, in one of the last Round 1 games to finish. The Warwickshire player was subject to a formidable array of pieces attacking the f7 square (black's king was on f8) and the time deficit also helped Lorin. Chris Charman had to play Ezra Lutton and this was a most convincing win for Ezra. 0 / 2 on the top two boards was not what Warwickshire had expected and two further losses left them in second place, behind Essex on 9 / 12.
The Essex top player, Lawrence Trent, had been involved in a long game against the Surrey top board, Ross Rattray, and this too had reached a time-scramble. Both sides pushed pawns, but Lawrence queened first and after that the win was in the bag. The other game between the leading sides was a win for Alan Hawrami. Four Essex players agreed draws, but three of these at least were protracted rearguard actions.
When the second round began it seemed highly likely that this would end up as a two-horse race. Few early results were forthcoming for either team, but then each side won a couple. Alan Hawrami agreed an early draw, but Warwickshire had the better of it in the games against Essex: John Sneesby's position against Simon Williams was double edged after very few exchanges. Heather Walker, also faced with a Warwickshire player, played a bad move and lost queen for rook. Other key games were not promising. Lawrence, while never losing, had reached what looked like a fairly sterile queenless position against Alistair Atkinson (Suffolk) and was deep into the endgame before he took advantage. Ezra had drawn the short straw this time, having to play Heather Richards, the Kent board 1. Heather had won a pawn, the queens were off and her knight was definitely better than Ezra's bishop. This game had been written off by no less a person that Jonathan Rogers himself and it was a considerable bonus that Ezra managed to win the pawn back and draw the game.
 The victorious Essex team. Standing: Graham Walker, Heather Walker, Alistair Hung, John Sneesby, Michael Bridger, Stewart Trent, Arnold Lutton (manager) Seated: Ezra Lutton, Kyle Bennett, Alan Hawrami, Lawrence Trent, Dana Hawrami (res), Iain Gunn, Bobby Payne (photo: Peter Walker) |
Whereas Ameet Ghasi won comfortably enough for Warwickshire this time, his board 2 was in for his second ordeal of the afternoon. He had to play Rosalind Kieran (Kent) and went the exchange down. He desperately tried to whip up some threats with a couple of knights and two passed pawns, but Rosalind's king and knight had everything covered. In addition, her rook was on the seventh and she had a passed pawn of her own on the h-file. Once this moved to h7, black could not stop mate next move.
During the last few minutes of play, the results came thick and fast and they were not good for Warwickshire. John Sneesby was the beneficiary of a queen blunder and the Warks board 5 also capitulated, this time to Hertfordshire, who had a splendid second round, picking up 9½ points to take their total to 14½ and thereby winning the Minor Counties' Title. Essex, however, scored 10 to give them a 3½ points margin of victory over the Warwickshire side. Let us hope that we do not have to wait another 39 years for the next one!
When I first joined Wolverhampton Kipping Chess Club in 1957 their Club Champion and strongest player was Victor Jenson. He was generous in helping the aspiring juniors to develop and ultimately overtake him. We played together for Club and County for many years and became good friends. He was a distinguished academic at Birmingham University. He worked tirelessly on grading at local and national level and was a prime mover in the initial introduction of computerisation of the BCF Grading System. He was well respected in the Chess World at every level. Above all in his play and his debate he was quietly but remorselessly logical. We will miss him.
David Anderton
10 March - GM Keith Arkell
shares first at Dyfed, IM Matthew Turner ties at Bunratty, IM Danny Gormally
wins Portsmouth;
Prixette: Anna Partington performs well at
Yateley and Richmond to take over the lead;
Junior: Ameet
Ghasi is Warwickshire's youngest champion, Simon Fowler takes Crewe
and Dyfed;
Amateur: David Jameson, 22, of Colwyn Bay, grade
104, wins Redcar and Dyfed;
Disabled: Dean Hartley is still
ahead;
Senior: IM James Sherwin, twice conqueror of Bobby
Fischer, takes the Richmond Open.
Leonard Barden
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