Hampshire Individual Championship 2002

Contents

Round One

Alongside the Hampshire Congress, the Under 125 graded tournament was held. In the past the Hampshire Individual Tournament has been held as one large tournament, which anyone could enter. One of the problems with this was that not many players graded below 130 entered, due to being heavily outgraded in the majority of rounds and therefore the tournament was unattractive for them. 

When the Hampshire Individual was resumed, after a break of a couple of years, it was decided that the tournament would be split into two. This was to see if we could encourage more players to enter. Another reason was as Hampshire had a successful U125 team, which had reached the final of the BCF National Counties Tournament in the 1999/ 2000 season we thought these players would enjoy playing in a Hampshire tournament.

I would say that this split has been a success, as the numbers for the Under 125 tournament have been consistent in the last two years and only just under the numbers that have entered the Open tournament.

Anyway, that is why Hampshire now has two separate tournaments, but onto this year's tournament. With 22 entries graded between 59 and 124 the tournament was hotly contested. Before the start of the tournament I would have said that Gillian Moore, Peter Marshall, Mick Garrod, P.Smith and Eugene Geidelberg were the favourites. My thinking on this was:

1. Gillian Moore is an ex British Ladies champion, who has only returned to chess in the last couple of years. 

2. Peter Marshall is an ex Hampshire Team Captain (among other titles) and has been graded at least 165 in the past.

3. Mick Garrod was last year's winner of the Hampshire U125 trophy.

4. P.Smith was the highest graded player, at 124.

5. Eugene Geidelberg is the 2nd highest U11 graded  player in the country

Mind you, with a graded tournament you are always going to get improving players, that are under-graded, so you know there are always going to be a few surprises. 

Gillian Moore had the best start of anyone, winning her first three games, which left her half a point ahead of A.Hayes and Ken Retallack Meanwhile the other players mentioned above were only another half point behind on 2/3 along with 2 other players. Gillian had also beaten one of her main rivals, Mick Garrod in round three.

Ken Retallack held Gillian to a draw in round four, but she still retained a half point lead, as A.Hayes took a bye in round four. This meant that round five was crucial to Gillian, as if she won she would be at least a half point ahead, going into the last round and with a draw in the last round the title would be hers.

J.Carr was the surprise opponent for Gillian, as graded 78 John was having an excellent tournament, with 3 points from 4 games. Unfortunately for John, Gillian was too strong an opponent and Gillian therefore moved onto 4½/5

Gillian did in fact draw in round six and this was enough to win the tournament outright, as the only person who could catch her was her opponent A.Hayes, who took second place on 4½/6. There was a mass tie for third, with 5 players scoring 4/6, Peter Marshall, Paul Flack, Rod Langham, Andrew Mayer and Mick Garrod. 

John Carr also lost his last round, which enabled Darren Radford to win the U100 grading prize on 3½/6, which was a bit of bad luck for John, after his excellent start. This was an great result for Darren though, as he is graded 76.

Gillian's Opponents

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