HCA Ind Tourn 2002 Round Six

Hampshire Individual Championship 2002

Contents

Round Six

Coming into the last round whoever won the top board game would win the tournament. John Wheeler probably only needed a draw from this game to win the Silver Rook, as his sum of progressive score was the best. Bill Purkiss, Jeremy-Fraser-Mitchell and Martin Newbury had to hope that the top board was drawn and for them to win, to share 1st prize.

The Yeo v Wheeler game was quite a bit of theory, but John's position started to fall apart when he played 12...c5. Instead of this 12...d5 looked stronger (this would have been similar to the GM game Campora v Granda Zuniga, apart from the Bishop had moved to d3, instead of the Rook. This would have stopped Michael's Knight moving to e4 where it was very dominant.

In fact from there it moved into d6 and soon afterwards a tactical exchange won Michael a Rook and the Hampshire Championship. This was Michael's first win of the Hampshire Championship, from 10 previous entries, but more of that later.

Click on picture to see larger picture

In the fight for 2nd place, Bill Purkiss and Jeremy Fraser-Mitchell won against Martin Newbury and David Cordner respectively and they therefore shared 2nd place.

Four players were in with a chance of the under 160 grading prize, myself, Andy Mills, Ian Cary and Fraser McLeod. Both Andy and myself had reasonably quick draws (my position was looking a bit ropey when I was offered a draw). This left Fraser and Ian fighting it out for the title, with whoever won their game, winning the prize.

The position though, was a bit comical as after a lot of maneuvering Fraser blundered an exchange, but as compensation Ian had left himself with a knight that could not move (see diagram opposite). Fraser also had a White squared Bishop that had very little scope, as all of Fraser's Pawns were on White squares.

McLeod v Cary Round Six

McLeod v Cary

In fact this position looked so drawn I was wondering why they were playing on, but eventually Ian managed to extract himself from the position and get a winning position. Unfortunately both players had no time at this stage and even though Ian had three pawns and a Rook against Fraser's Rook he proceeded to blunder two of them and reach a drawn Rook and Pawn ending.

So after all that the Under 160 grading prize was shared between the four mentioned players, with Ian taking home the trophy on tie-break. Ian did not know that he was going to win the trophy if we all tied, otherwise he would have accepted Fraser's drawn offer earlier on, rather than risking losing the game.

Richard Perrin did not have the same trouble in winning the Under 140 grading prize, as Ian Matthew sacrificed unsoundly against him and lost in 25 moves.

So, back to the main prize. As mentioned above, Michael Yeo's win against John Wheeler meant he had won the championship at his 11th attempt. Michael was the only undefeated player in the Open Championship and his win was well deserved. All of his games were hard fought and his last round win, ensured he won the trophy in style. It was also pleasing to see that the winner of the tournament, was also the winner of the Hampshire Individual Trophy.

Round Six Results

White	Grade	Res	Black	Grade	Res
M.Yeo	202	1	J.Wheeler	170	0
J.Fraser-Mitchell	170	1	D.Cordner	168	0
W.Purkiss	179	1	M.L.Newbury	165	0
T.Anderson	161	½	D.R.Tunks	187	½
D.Pye	185	1	A.Masters	u	0
F.McLeod	159	½	I.Cary	151	½
S.Nelson	u	½	G.Stuart	144	½
A.Mills	147	½	R.Hunt	126	½
I.Matthew	136	0	R.Perrin	138	1
J.Shaddick	129	½	S.Gonem	143	½
J.Coburn	146	½	L.Allen	143	½

Michael Yeo collecting the Silver Rook Trophy from the Mayor of Eastleigh

So at the end of the competition the prize winners were as follows. We are hoping that next year's tournament will continue, but we may be on the lookout for a new venue. This is due to the increased costs of the current venue, so if anyone has any suggestions please let a member of the Hampshire Chess Association know.

Prize Winners
1st	M.Yeo	5	£120
2nd =	W.Purkiss	4½	£60
2nd =	J.Fraser-Mitchell	4½	£60
U160 =	I.Cary	3	£15
U160 =	F.N.McLeod	3	£15
U160 =	A.Mills	3	£15
U160 =	G.Stuart	3	£15
U140	R.Perrin	3	£50

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