Hampshire v Yorkshire

Chris Priest

FIDE World Cup 2017

On Saturday 18th May, Hampshire played Yorkshire in the quarter-finals of the Under 140 County Championship in Birmingham. The venue was the Tyseley Working Men’s Club and we played in a large room on the upper floor. The Yorkshire team provided plenty of refreshments including biscuits and a variety of sandwiches. The atmosphere was very friendly.

A couple of hours before the match was due to start, our captain Ashraf had a phone call from of one of our players saying that a family member had had a medical emergency and he could not make it to the match, and nor could the person he was giving a lift to. It was far too late to make alternative arrangements so we had to play the match with only 14 players instead of 16. We started 2-0 down.

The match did not go well. Although 7 players got a draw there were only two winners, John Wiseman and Chris Priest on boards 5 and 6. We lost 7 games and the match, 5.5-10.5. Maybe we will have better luck next year as long as the match does not coincide with a nearby congress again.

The Hampshire Chess Association thanks everyone who played for the Hampshire teams this season.

Chris Priest