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54th Welsh Chess Championships, 21-24 March 2008Last Edited: Thursday March 27, 2008 6:19 PM
View/Download games of the 54th Welsh Championship (101 Championship games, 103 from the Major and 44 from the Minor)Note that the result of Summers-Bennett, round 4, was corrected to 0-1 on 27 March at 18:10. This amendment has had knock-on effects elsewhere in John Thornton's report, including the final positions in the tournament. Report by John Thornton28 players entered this event held at Whitchurch High School in Cardiff, which seemed to prove a well-liked venue in Cardiff. The players would have set out with different priorities, but, rather on the lines of a Grand National summary, I will eliminate players as their chances of winning the main prize – the title of Welsh Champion - disappeared. I am including a few games, but will highlight other games of interest which should be available on the WCU website with a (*). By the end of Round 2 the following had slipped out of contention: Dave Perrett (0/2) had missed clear winning lines in a very interesting game against Alan Spice (*) in Round 1 and then blundered in the opening against Gareth Morris. David Bennion (0/2) dropped pieces against both Leighton Williams and Rudy Van Kemenade. Tom Brown (0/2) had been outplayed by Pat Bennett in Round 1 and then fell to a sharp attack by David Jameson (*) in Round 2 David James (½ /2) lost without a fight to Charles Summers in Round 1 and then couldn’t convert an extra pawn against Joe Fathallah (½ /2) in Round 2. Joe had already collapsed under pressure from Jon Blackburn in Round 1, so his good draw in Round 2 against David nevertheless put him out of contention. Lee Davies (½ /2) outplayed Richard Jones (*) in Round 1, but failed to find the likely win at move 30, and only drew. That was as good as it got, as Lee lost to Michael JR White in Round 2, and only scored one win out of the remaining 6 rounds. E Michael White (½ /2) had taken a bye in round 1 and losing a long game against Michael Lexton who found a nice mate in a R + opposite bishops ending finished his chances. Joseph Turner (½ /2) made Richard Jones work for a long time to convert a 2 pawn advantage in a double rook ending but following his bye in round 1 was now out of the running. Carl Davies (½ /2) had obtained a good draw against Francis Rayner in Round 1 but was outplayed by Dave Sully in Round 2. On the basis that anyone with fewer than 2/3 at the end of round 3 might be a ‘kingmaker’ but would not be the king, the following slipped away:- Pat Bennett, Charles Summers and John Trevelyan all on 1/3; and Dave Sully, Jon Blackburn David Jameson Rudy Van Kemenade and Francis Rayner on 1½ /3. Pat Bennett lost to Suzy Blackburn while Charles Summers lost to Alan Spice, leaving him to play for grading points. John Trevelyan had been very fortunate not to lose to Suzy in Round 2 (*), but was less fortunate in a series of exchanges against the other lady, Olivia Smith, who competently converted the material into a full point. Francis Rayner at this stage could not stop drawing, in this round with Rudy, whilst Jon Blackburn’s tactical sequence of exchanges produced nothing better than a drawn rook ending against David Jameson, who was having a good event. Dave Sully was on the worse end of things once Richard Jones opened up the centre, and steadily went downhill from there on, a somewhat premature resignation maybe enabling him to save his energy for later. Round 3 also saw the first heavyweight pairings with James Cobb drawing with Tim Kett and Leighton Williams unable to get past Sven Zeidler in a long battle where a lot was simmering below the surface (*). The biggest heavyweight contest, between the two IMs Leighton Williams and James Cobb was in Round 4 with not much happening, and a relatively short draw. This left Tim Kett who had beaten Sven Zeidler out on his own on 3½/4. Michael JR White was eliminated from contention in Round 4 by Richard Jones, who picked the exchange off him and won the ending. Suzy Blackburn was unlucky to lose to Gareth Morris, in a game which went to the end of the session, endless manoeuvring producing no advantage to Gareth, who persisted in playing on to the end. I’m told Suzy missed a mate in one long after the players had stopped keeping score. Her well deserved reward for playing tenaciously throughout the tournament, to this point and in later games was both the Ladies’ and the U-21 titles. Olivia Smith tried hard to beat Alan Spice (*) but only ended up losing the game. In Round 5 Tim Kett, playing a home-brewed idea on the Black side of the Lopez caused pressure on b2 and his win almost saw the end of an out-of sorts Richard Jones’ challenge.(*) Mike Lexton missed his chance against Sven Zeidler, whose sacrifice on f6 was unsound if Mike had found 19…h6. Zeidler,Sven (2223) - Lexton,Michael [B23] The only surprise after Gareth Morris’ series of errors against Leighton was that the latter missed a mate in 2 at move 19! (*) Alan Spice was doing fine against James Cobb (*) until he went active at moves 21 and 23, and although the spectators and possibly Alan may have thought he had chances at that stage, there was nothing in it for him, with James playing accurately from there on. Also in Round 5 was what, for me, was the sacrifice of the tournament, with David Bennion producing an attack completely out of the blue to decimate Carl Davies. Bennion,David (2070) - Davies,Carl (1876) [C54] So at the start of Round 6, only 3 remained in true contention - James Cobb, Leighton Williams and Tim Kett, with Tim in pole position on 4½. Richard Jones, Sven Zeidler and David Jameson (who had come back with a series of good results) realistically had too much to do from 3½. Already there had been considerable interplay amongst these players. In this round, James as Black enterprisingly sacrificed two pawns against Sven (*) in the early middle game to hold the initiative, and was one pawn behind for a long time. Maybe in the end his greater determination to win was the deciding factor. Meanwhile, Leighton was showing his class against Tim, whose error at move 15 cost a pawn from an approximately level position, and thereafter he was spared no mercy. Kett,Tim (2243) - Williams,Leighton (2389) [B60] Richard Jones’s challenge disappeared with a rather tame draw against David Jameson. The last round had Richard Jones paired as Black against James Cobb, David Jameson as Black against Leighton Williams and Tim Kett Black against Michael JR White. Those who were prepared to stay to the bitter end, were given a feast of fighting chess which went down to the last five minutes. Probably Leighton was always in command against David, but to the spectators at least, the game was in the balance throughout. Williams,Leighton (2389) - Jameson,David (2033) [D61] Richard fought like a tiger against James with probably his best chess of the weekend, but after failing to find 43...Bf5!, his attack petered out rapidly, and James got the point and a share of the title with Leighton. Cobb,James (2412) - Jones,Richard S (2344) [E70] Tim Kett’s excellent result against Michael White was thus only enough for 3rd place and a bundle of grading points after the toughest set of pairings throughout the event. Francis Rayner went unbeaten after draws in Rounds 1 to 5 and two subsequent wins, and John Trevelyan showed there is no-one better in Wales at outplaying opponents in approximately level endings. I include his last round win against Sven where at White’s move 30, Fritz 9 gives Sven as marginally better, yet only 15 moves later he is resigning. Trevelyan,John (2178) - Zeidler,Sven (2223) [B10] Final Positions: 1= James Cobb, Leighton Williams 6/7, 3 Tim Kett 5½, 4= John Trevelyan, Francis Rayner 4½, 6= David Jameson, Gareth Morris, Richard S Jones, Alan Spice, Michael Lexton, Rudy Van Kemenade, Michael JR White 4, 13= Sven Zeidler, David J James, Tom Brown, Suzy Blackburn, Pat Bennett, Dave Sully 3½, 19= Jon Blackburn, Charles Summers 3, 21= Dave Perrett, Joe Fathallah, Olivia Smith, Joseph D Turner 2½, 25= David Bennion, E Michael White 2, 27 Lee Davis 1½, 28 Carl Davies 1. Women's Champion: Suzy Blackburn. Under 21 Champion: Suzy Blackburn Tom Weston MajorThis was won jointly by Jason Garcia, last year’s winner and Paul Hatchett, both on 6/7. Paul had beaten Jason in Round 5, but drew with Bill Hunt in Round 3 and then with John Waterfield in Round 7. James Thomas beat Bill Hunt in the last round to share 3rd place with John Waterfield. Final Scores: 1= Jason Garcia, Paul Hatchett 6/7, 3= James M Thomas, John Waterfield 5, 5= Paul Tew, Julie Wilson, John Bowers, David Jiles, Mark Cooke 4½, 10 Yinglun Teng 4, 11= Bill Hunt, Paul Bridges, Jimmy Stewart, Hugh Price, Richard Hanscombe, David Buttell, Lorenzo Basso, Megan Owens, Ian Eustis 3½, 20= Beryl Hughes, Russell Dodington, David Cleverly 3, 23= Tony Gutteridge, Matthew Francis, Jon E Blackburn, Bob Hurn 2½, 27= Wyn Howells, Frank Trombley, Sandra Blackburn 2, 30 Malcolm Probert 1½. Jeremy Jones withdrew on 0/3 and CJ De Mooi, who presented the prizes, filled in to avoid a last round bye and won his game! John Bishop MinorA junior, Ashley Davis produced consistently the best chess, but conceded an unnecessary draw in round 5 to Alex Bullen by accepting a sacrifice leading to perpetual check when winning easily. Alex Wills had the quickest win of the whole event with the following very plausible opening trap, which Ben Thomas had avoided in Round 2 having been caught identically earlier this season! Crowley,Clive - Wills,Alex (1199) [C57] Final Scores: 1= Bill Wilkins, Ashley Davies, Vince Williams 5½/7, 4 Andrew Trickey 4½, 5 Ben Thomas 4, 6= Alex Bullen, Alex Wills 3½, 8= Phil Smith, Nick Ban, Matthew Lunnon 3, 11= Kevin O’Rourke, Clive Crowley 2½, 13= David Kett, Nathan Trickey 2. Home Page: www.bcmchess.co.uk |
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