Hampshire Individual Championship 2000
Round 1
This years Hampshire Individual Championship was held at Eastleigh College, on the outskirts of Southampton. The change of venue was hoped to encourage more players to enter, as the conditions were far superior to the Eastleigh Unity club, where it has been held for the last couple of years.
The strength of the tournament certainly increased, with IM James Sherwin (208) and Mike Yeo (190) joining reigning champion Dominic Tunks (190) as the highest graded players. In total the Open tournament had 17 and the U125 15 players, which was an increase on last year. It is hoped to increase the number of players to over 40 next year, bringing us back to the numbers of 6 or 7 years ago.
The room used at Eastleigh College will certainly hold 80 - 90 players and with the lighting conditions being excellent and with no outside noise to distract the players (remember the band and football from last year!), this target can easily be achieved. I have managed to get hold of some games from the tournament, which can be found on the Games Viewer Page.
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Diagram 1
Diagram 2 Final position in McLeod v Sherwin |
The first round brought
some interesting pairings, not least Fraser McLeod having White against the top
seed IM James Sherwin (left). In the position in diagram 1 Fraser allowed a tactic that won a pawn.
If 
