Quick Links:

  Home

Essex Brit Menu

 Follow the lads...

British Chess Championships 2009, Torquay - 26 July to 8 Aug

Essex Interest

24 July 2009 20:02:52  

Essex entries were:

British Championship - 27-Jul
Lawrence Trent, Andrew Lewis, John Anderson, Subin Sen, Ian Reynolds

British Seniors - 1-Aug
Ivor Smith

British U175 - 27-Jul
Rod Johnson

British U150 - 3-Aug
John Philpott, David Smith

British Under 11 27-Jul
Rory Johnson

British Under 9 - 1-Aug

Rory Johnson

5 Day Open am Week 2  3-Aug
Colin Ramage

5 Day Open pm Week 2  3-Aug
Colin Ramage

Weekender Atkins - Open
Rod Johnson         31-Jul

British Championships

Page Nav: British Ch | Seniors | U175 | U150 | W2am | W2pm | w/e Atkins | U11 | U9

Games: Essex at the British Acknowledgement: BritishChess09.com

The 2009 British Championships in Torquay, can be accounted one of the most successful for Essex interests. No fewer than five entries in the main event, the British Championship, all acquitted themselves well and had an exceptionally good last round, scoring 4/5 between them.

You can find all the details in this page and in the daily bulletins we have been running via the above links. You will now find all the Essex games played in the British Championship in the 'Essex at the British' database (above) plus an offering from the U150. Full details of the British Championships congress can be found on the BCC website:

British Chess Championships Website

Roving Reporter

During the second week, we had a 'Roving Reporter' on the ground in Torquay to augment the sometimes slow data on subsidiary events. Roving Reporter contributions are annotated "RR".

While the BCC website provided an excellent service in the main event, the British Championship, information in the subsidiary tournaments was often. It was therefore of great service that frequent and informed reports were supplied throughout the second week by RR and the Webmaster is grateful for this valuable assistance in augmenting the service to our readers in this way. Not just snippets of information, but illuminating photos. The identity of Roving Reporter was a thinly-veiled secret until the end of the event, when RR was revealed to be none other than ECA General Secretary, John Philpott. Thank you John for the frequent reports and pics.

Here's one pic he didn't take himself. Roving Reporter: John Philpott

RP Pics - Picture 1 | Picture 2

Quiz night success An Essex team outscored the competition for a convincing win in this year's quiz night (02-Aug 20:00) at the British Championships, hosted by Kevin Staveley. Mike Adams, at one time a candidate for the Saxons but ending up on the Guildford team as the maximum team size was 6 adults, kindly took the team photo. - RR   Qiz Pic 1 | Quiz Pic 2 | Special Events

Graded Championships We commented in week 1, apropos the British U175, that five rounds seems a short course for a national championship. (Don't seem to have retained that comment, but you see it here now.) RR reports: "In response to feedback received, the Congress Managers have indicated that an increase in the number of rounds for the grading limited championships is under active consideration."

British Championship

Round 7 pictures: Lawrence | Ian

Round 8 pictures: Lawrence | Andrew | Ian | Subin | John

Round 9 pictures: Reynolds-Lewis

Round 10 pictures: Andrew-Subin | Andrew-Subin (2) | Ian | Lawrence | John

Pairings for R11 Last Round - 07-Aug 14:15

David Howell has won the British Championship with 9/11, agreeing a draw with Gary Lane after 19 moves.

Board 8 Lawrence Trent 2471m (6) 1-0 Jovanka Houska 2392m (6) - Picture

Board 18 Tryfon Gavriel 2138 (5) 0-1 Andrew Lewis 2281f (5) - Picture

Board 26 John Anderson 2248 (4½) ½-½ Philip Bonafont 2124 (4½) - Picture

Board 30 Ian Reynolds 2092 (4) 1-0 Dominic Mackle 2175* (4) - Picture

Board 32 Subin Sen 2093 (4) ½-½ Roger De Coverly 2127 (3½) - Picture

It was an excellent last round for Essex. None of our quintet lost and there were wins for Lawrence, Andrew and Ian with John and Subin getting draws.

Lawrence soon had Jovanka Houska on the back foot in a sharp line of the Caro Kann and won the exchange in 11 moves and the game in 63. Andrew Lewis had a pairing straight out of the North Circular League, Andrew of Ilford CC beating the Barnet top board, Tryfon Gavriel.

John Anderson had a quick draw after 22 moves of Najdorf Sicilian theory, while Ian Reynolds finished with a win and Subin a draw.

All Round 9 and 10 games are now available in pgn download, or view on screen.

There is a video of Lawrence's time scramble in R9 against Thomas Rendle. Follow the Video link below.

Cross table | PGN Games | Video

British Seniors

Ivor Smith played in the British Seniors, an event he won 10 years ago.

Ivor scored 4½; Progressive: ½, 1, 1½, 2½, 3½, 4, 4½.

R5 Picture: - Ivor

R7 Pairing Last Round - 07-Aug 09:30

Board 201 David Anderton 2215 (4½) ½-½ Ivor Smith 2132 (4) - Picture

Leading results, final round:

201 Anderton, David W 2215(4½)  ½-½  Smith, Ivor B N 2132 (4)

202 Dodgson, John A 2126 (4)    0-1  James, Geoffrey H 2204 (4)

203 Norman, Kenneth I 2181 (4)  ½-½  Timson, Paul F 2119 (4)

204 Habershon, Paul 2079 (4)    0-1  Ashby, Anthony C 2177 (4)

205 Crombleholme, Alan 2094 (4) ½-½  Kendall, Paul S N 2060 (4)

The two on 3½ drew.

So =1st David Anderton, Geoffrey James, Tony Ashby, 5; =4th Ivor Smith, Ken Norman, Paul Timson, Alan Crombleholme, Paul Kendall; 4½... 30 entries

Cross table

Roving Reporter 06 August: There is quite a lot of grumbling from some particpants in the Seniors about the outcome on board 1 in R6 [see Day 11 report top of page], and there is a school of thought that the "honourable" course of action would have been for David Anderton to take a half point bye. I myself think that David is absolutely blameless. This becomes, of course, academic if Ivor beats him tomorrow. - RR.

RR 07 August: What happened was that Ivor conveyed to David Anderton the unhappiness of some of the players at the proceedings in round 6, and suggested that he agreed a draw so that those on 4 out of 6 had the opportunity to become co-champions.  David thought about this, and gentleman that he is, agreed to Ivor's suggestion. Ivor thereby deprived himself of his own opportunity of becoming co- or sole-champion.  In the circumstances I rather hope that all the other top board games are drawn. - RR

It was a great shame that what was shaping to become a tremendous contest over the last two rounds, with as many as 10 players in contention, became marred as a contest by an unfortunate circumstance. It was magnanimous of Ivor to sacrifice his own chances in the interests of getting the competition back on course.

Senior Pairings | Cross table

British U175

In the Final round, Rod Johnson drew with Alec Toll (158) and finished =3rd on 4/5 and a grading performance of 160 (+14).

1 Peter Mercs 165 4½/5; 2 Daniel Staples 147 4; =3rd Graham Blowers 137, George Dickson 166, Rod Johnson 146, Eric Key 152, Allan Pleasants 167, 3½; 32 players.

U175 Cross table

British U150

Round 3 Picture: David

Round 4 Picture: David

R5 Pairings Last Round - 07-Aug 09:30

Board 65 Graeme McCormick 128 (3) ½-½ John Philpott 142 (3)

Board 79 Colin Payne 115 (2) ½-½ David Smith 130 (2)

There are five players on the leading score of 3½, so John needed to win and hope the other results went in his favour. One plus point here, the top two boards, accounting for four of the leaders, are between players of similar grades and the other leader is playing a higher graded player.

Roving Reporter: Unfortunately RR was out of book on move 3, missed a good early opportunity to complicate and ended up in a position where a draw was inevitable.  Still 3½ out of 5 was not too bad a result.

David Smith wound up by drawing an ending where Colin Payne had rook against bishop and two extra pawns! I watched the post mortem and was almost screaming at Colin to push his extra pawns on the queenside. - RR

1st Robert Clegg, 4½; =2nd Norman Blake, Ian Jamieson, Brendan O'Gorman, 4; =5th Guy Batchelor, Daniel Gibbs, Laurence Jones, Graeme McCormick, David Patrick, John Philpott, Jonathan Wright, 3½; ... =24th David Smith, 2½... 55 entries

Cross table

5 Day Open am Week 2

Colin Ramage, Score 2½; Progressive: 1, 1, 1½, 1½, 2½

Round 4 Picture: Colin

R5 Pairing Last Round - 07-Aug 09:30

Board 56 Charles Rochford 67 (1½) 0-1 Colin Ramage 149 (1½)

AM Week 2 Pairings

5 Day Open pm Week 2

Colin Ramage, Score  3½; Progressive: 0, ½, 1½, 2½, 3½

R5 Pairing Last Round - 07-Aug 14:15

Board 89 Colin Ramage 149 (2½) 1-0 Faye Ainscow 89 (2½) [Changed pairing - RR]

PM Week 2 Pairings

Weekender - Atkins Open

Having finished with the U175, Rod Johnson played in the Weekender Atkins Open:

Round 5 - drew as White against W. Elworthy (110).

Final score: 1½/5.

- RR

Atkins Open Cross table

British U9

Rory Johnson's main event, the U9 Championship takes place this weekend, playing Saturday and Sunday. During this time, they will play seven rounds; three on Saturday, four on Sunday.

No pairings, let alone results, have yet been published for the U9s who played their first round this morning and have another two rounds this afternoon.

RR: Details of Rory's games yesterday (Sat):

R1  Won as White against R. Nayak

U9 Cross table

British U11

Rory Johnson - Rory's main event was the U9, so he played in a class above in the first week.

Rory finished with a draw and a final score of 3 points. More importantly, his grading performance of 34 is markedly above is current grade of 18. Though he started slowly, he finished with a win and two draws; in a group above his nominal level, this must give him much encouragement for the U9 event.

U11 Cross table

Essex Chess Association

About | Clubs | Links | Site Map | Contact us