HCA Individual Championship
The HCA Individual Open and U125 Championships were held
the weekend of 10th November 2000. Both tournaments were a success,
with a 17% increase in entries from last year.
This was due to several contributing factors, a superior
venue, more publicity and the continuity of the event being the major ones.
It has to be stated, that the new venue of Eastleigh
College was a huge improvement. The playing hall was large enough to
comfortably hold twice as many players, had excellent lighting conditions and
best of all, no band playing on Saturday night! With the intention to have the
same tournaments and venue in 2001, it has to be hoped that a further increase
in entries is seen again. A provisional date of 9th –11th
November is planned.
The first round of the Open tournament saw some interesting
pairings, not least Fraser McLeod having white against top seed IM James
Sherwin (a player who has drawn against Bobby Fisher). After Fraser lost a
pawn, he grimly held, until the extra pawn began to count.
McLeod,F (160) - Sherwin,J
(208) [A65]
Hampshire Individual Championship (1), 11.11.2000
1.d4
Nf6 2.c4
g6 3.Nc3
Bg7 4.e4
d6 5.f3
0-0 6.Bg5
c5 7.d5
e6 8.Qd2
exd5 9.cxd5
Re8 10.Nge2
Na6 11.Ng3
Bd7 12.Be2
Nc7 13.a4
a6 14.a5
Nb5 15.Nxb5
Bxb5 16.0-0
Bxe2 17.Nxe2
Rb8 18.b4
cxb4 19.Qxb4
Nxd5 20.Qd2
Bf6 21.Bxf6
Nxf6 22.Rfd1
d5 23.exd5
Qxd5 24.Qc3
Qg5 25.Ng3
Rbc8 26.Qb2
h5 27.Rd6
Qc5+ 28.Qd4
Qxd4+ 29.Rxd4
Re5 30.Rb4
Rc2 31.Rxb7
h4 32.Nf1
Ree2 33.g3
h3 34.Rb6
Nh5 35.Rxa6
Rg2+ 36.Kh1
Rxh2+ 37.Nxh2
Nxg3+ 38.Kg1
Rg2# 0-1
The
final position was a very pretty mate!
The second round had the first major upset; with reigning
champion (for the last two years) Dominic Tunks going down to Ian Stenhouse of
Southampton Chess Club. This left two players on 2 out of 2. James Sherwin and
Mike Yeo.
This game was obviously going to have a big impact on the
tournament, especially with Dominic losing his previous game. My initial
thought on this game was that James Sherwin had investigated a previous game of
Mike’s against an Argentinean IM E.Mendez. But Mike has told me that
[While
I had done a small amount of preparation on Friday night for my game against
Sherwin, I had rapidly reached the conclusion that he varies his openings so
much nowadays that it was better to get some sleep rather than waste more
time! He confirmed that he had never played 4....Qb6 before, but knew
that it was "rather trendy"! He also said that he hadn't got a
clue what to do after 5.Nb5 which suggests that he hadn't done any preparation
either!]
So it seems that I was incorrect in my original assumption! Anyway
I will let you decide on the actual game, which is given below. But by winning
this game with Black, it seemed that James Sherwin was going to very difficult
to stop.
Yeo,M (190) - Sherwin,J
(208) [B32]
Hampshire Individual Championship (3), 11.11.2000
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Qb6 5.Nb5 a6 6.Be3 Qd8 7.N5c3 e6 8.g3 Nf6 9.Bg2 Be7 10.f4 0-0 11.e5 Ne8 12.Nd2 d5 13.exd6 Nxd6 14.0-0 Qc7 15.Nce4 Nf5 16.Bf2 Rd8 17.c3 b5 18.Qe2 Rb8 19.g4 Nd6 20.Nxd6 Bxd6 21.Bh4
Bxf4 22.Bxd8
Bxh2+ 23.Kh1
Nxd8 24.Rad1
Bd6 25.Ne4
Be7 26.g5
Bb7 27.Qh5
g6 28.Qg4
Bxe4 29.Bxe4
Qe5 30.Rg1
Rc8 31.Rd7
Bxg5 32.Qxg5
Qxe4+ 33.Kh2
Nc6 34.Rgd1
Ne5 35.Qe7
Qe2+ 36.Kh1 Qf3+
37.Kg1 Qg3+
38.Kf1 Qf4+
39.Kg2 Qf3+ 40.Kg1 Nxd7 0-1
This was confirmed when James Sherwin defeated Ian
Stenhouse and Jeremy Fraser Mitchell in round 4 & 5 respectively. In fact
the only player not to lose to James Sherwin was his 6th round
opponent Jessie Gilbert. This was not a short draw either, the game lasted for
35 moves and Jessie obtained a well-deserved draw.
With space being short, I will only give one more game,
which is not from one of the winners, but is an exciting win by Andrew Smith of
Cosham Chess club against Anna Partington, which finished in mate!
Smith,A
(142) - Partington,A (139) [B00]
Hampshire Individual Championship (5), 12.11.2000
1.e4 Nc6 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 g6 4.Be3 Bg7 5.c3 Bd7 6.Bc4 e6 7.0–0 Nge7 8.Re1
b6 9.Nbd2 Na5 10.Bf1 0–0 11.Rc1 d5 12.e5 Qe8 13.c4 c6 14.b4 Nb7 15.c5 b5 16.Bd3
a5 17.a3 a4 18.Nf1 Nd8= 19.Qd2 Nf5 20.Bg5 Ra7 21.g4 Ne7 22.Bf6 h6 23.h4 Kh7
24.h5 Ng8 25.Nh4 25...Bxf6 26.exf6 Nxf6 27.hxg6+ Kg7 28.g5 Ng8 29.Ng3 hxg5
30.Qxg5
|
|
Qe7 31.Nh5+ Kh8 32.g7# 1–0
The prizewinners in the Open were:
|
1st
|
IM
J.Sherwin |
5˝ |
|
2nd
= |
D.Tunks |
4 |
|
2nd
= |
F.
McLeod |
4 |
|
2nd
= |
J.Fraser-Mitchell |
4 |
|
U160 = |
J.Gilbert |
3˝ |
|
U160
= |
I.Stenhouse |
3˝ |
|
U140 |
M.Buckley |
2˝ |
HCA U125 Tournament
Alongside the Open a successful under 125 tournament
was held. This was to encourage players who would not normally play in the Open
to enter. Bearing in mind Hampshire’s recent results in the national U125
championship, this was always going to be a hard fought tournament. The
eventual winner was John Stables from Southampton Chess club. Although John was
ungraded, it should be noted that his results from the previous season
indicated that he would be eligible for this tournament.
The prizewinners were:
|
1st
|
J.Stables |
5˝ |
|
2nd
= |
P.Dallas |
4˝ |
|
2nd
= |
K.Retallack |
4˝ |
|
U100 |
J.Carr |
3˝ |
Click
here for the web site
report.
County Teams
The
under125 has changed captain’s, but not their winning ways. Mike Garrod of
Portsmouth Chess Club has taken over from Ken Retallack. A big thank you is due
to Ken, who has taken this team from humble beginnings all the way to the
National Finals last year. Mike Garrod can be contacted on 023-9283-8506.
The
team have again qualified for the National stages by comprehensively beating
Dorset 11˝ - 4˝. Individual wins were obtained by:
|
Majid
Manzouri |
Peter
Dallas |
Jamie
Chiltern |
|
Matthew
Harborne |
Calum
Smith |
David
Eland |
|
Anthony
Higenbottam |
Brian
Grant |
Graham
Payne |
|
David
Drew |
|
|
The open team are still
playing matches in the both the WECU and the Chiltern League, with mixed results.
Dominic Tunks is the match captain and can be contacted on 01730-302058 or Dominic.R.Tunks@gtuk.com, if you are
interested in playing.
Web Site
The
HCA web sites continues to grow. I have posted all the results I have received
and the Portsmouth results are fully up to date. I am still having problems
receiving all of the Southampton results, but I would like to thank everyone
who has sent in results.
If
you have any of the missing results, please e-mail or send to me at the address
below.
Future Newsletters
With the Web site now fully
functional, I will not now be producing three newsletters a year. The newsletters will be on a more ad-hoc
basis, with the next one coming out around September. If anyone would like to
publish an article, either for the newsletter, or the Web site, please supply
by e-mail or post.
|
Graham Stuart 1 Prospect Cottage The Drove Blackfield Southampton S045 1XB |