Hampshire Individual Championship 2002

Contents

Round Four

The fourth round being Saturday evening you normally only see the die-hards playing, which is why you won't have seen me. In fact I was at a firework display, getting soaked, but still enjoying the spectacle, as other players were toiling away at their chess boards. This also guarantees me at least half a point from the championship, which if you're having a bad tournament is always useful.

John Wheeler may not have had the same reasons as me for taking a bye, but he also did not play Saturday evening and so Khaled Esmat received the upfloat to play Bill Purkiss. If Bill could win this game, he would be in a commanding position, going into the last day. But it was not to be and a fine game by Khaled saw him defeat Bill, after sacrificing a pawn (for what seemed to be little compensation) in the opening.

All the Saturday evening games were decisive, as players fought for every scrap. You had to feel sorry for J.Shaddick, who would have thought that with 1 point from 3 games, he would not be facing the 2nd seed and three time champion Dominic. He still did well, holding out for 49 moves, for which he had the better position for quite a lot of the game.

Without wishing to pick on Sherif Gonem, his game against Joe Coburn was a real struggle, but from a lost position he missed a chance to snatch a draw. In the diagrammed position , Sherif playing White was a piece down and played 38.Qxc3 and lost 20 moves later.

What he missed, which with the time control being move 40 was probably understandable was 38.Rxh6+. This seems to net him the half point as after 38.Rxh6+ Kxh6 39.Qd6+ Kh7 40.Qxe7+ Kg8 Black does not seem to be able to escape the perpetual check, without getting mated.

Martin Newbury played a fine game against Tom Anderson, to move into contention. He main problem now, was to make sure he arrived at a reasonable time Sunday morning!

Round Four Results

White

Grade

Res

Black

Grade

Res

W.Purkiss

179

0

K.Esmat

169

1

M.Yeo

202

1

A.Masters

u

0

T.Anderson

161

0

M.L.Newbury

165

1

I.Cary

151

1

LC.Allen

143

0

J.Shaddick

129

0

D.R.Tunks

187

1

I.Matthew

136

1

R.Hunt

126

0

S.Gonem

143

0

J.Coburn

146

1

Everyone else

 

½

Bye

 

 

 

   Gonem v Coburn Round 4

Position before 38.Qxc3 from Gonem v Coburn

Top of Leader Board After Four Rounds

Name

Score

J.Wheeler

3.5 / 4

W.Purkiss

3 / 4

M.Yeo

3 / 4

K.Esmat

3 / 4

M.L.Newbury

3 / 4

 

Round Five

With all to play for in the 5th round, there were a lot of hard fought games. The board one game between John Wheeler and Bill Purkiss went the distance. I don't know if Bill won the exchange, or John sacrificed it, but John did get some compensation for it. In the end John won the exchange back, but agreed a draw in the quickplay finish, when he had less time than Bill.

Martin Newbury was late for his game and suffered the price, losing on time against Michael Yeo from admittedly a bad position.. Meanwhile Khaled Esmat was blundering all his pieces against Jeremy Fraser-Mitchell in the same way that Jeremy had done against Bill Purkiss in round three and Khaled soon resigned.

Ian Cary had the better position against David Cordner, but went for what he thought was a winning combination. As he said afterwards, he had calculated a mate in three, unfortunately his opponent had a mate in two first!

In the diagrammed position, Ian played 25.Qc3, which threatens all sorts of nasty tricks. Unfortunately for Ian, after 25...Nf3 he had to resign due to the mate from 26.Rxf3..Qxh2+ 27Kf1..Qh1#

  Ian Cary v David Cordner Round 5

Cary v Cordner position before 25.Qc3

My game against David Pye had an interesting opening, but I slipped into a bad position, which went into a tricky ending. David is probably the worse person to go into an ending against,  but luckily for me he went wrong and then over pressed, in trying to extract the full point. I was initially pleased with the half point, but I had miscalculated the position when offering the draw. In fact I had a fairly easy forcing line, which would have won me the game. Still, from the position I was in 15 moves before, I could not have asked for more than the half point - so probably a fair result.

  

Round Five Results

White

Grade

Res

Black

Grade

Res

J.Wheeler

170

½

W.Purkiss

179

½

M.L.Newbury

165

0

M.Yeo

202

1

K.Esmat

169

0

J.Fraser-Mitchell

170

1

I.Cary

151

0

D.Cordner

168

1

D.R.Tunks

187

1

I.Matthew

136

0

G.Stuart

144

½

D.Pye

185

½

A.Mills

147

½

T.R.Anderson

161

½

A.Masters

u

½

F.N.McLeod

159

½

R.Perrin

138

½

S.Nelson

u

½

R.Hunt

126

1

J.Coburn

146

0

L.Allen

143

1

J.Shaddick

129

0

S.Gonem

143

1

Bye

 

 

Top of Leader Board After Five Rounds

Name

Score

J.Wheeler

4 / 5

M.Yeo

4 / 5

W.Purkiss

3.5 / 5

J.Fraser-Mitchell

3.5 / 5

D.Cordner

3.5 / 5

 

 

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