News - Page 3

 

1st October 2006

The Monarch Assurance Isle of Man International 2006 was won by GM Alexander Areshchenko (Ukraine), winning on tie-break from GM Sergey Volkov. Both players scored 7/9. The women's prize was won by Elisabeth Paehtz of Germany. Gary Quillan (ENG) and Anna Zatonskih (USA) made IM norms.

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26th September 2006

Liverpool Weekend Chess Congress 2006

This ran from Saturday 16th September - Sunday 17th September. Results round up available on the congress website. This event followed immediately after the EU event in the World Museum. Results and crosstable are still awaited for the Minor section.

 

24th September 2006

A Job Well Done

Professor David Robertson

There can be little doubt that the recently held European Individual Championships at the World Museum Liverpool was a great success. This was no fluke and was in very large part due to the courage, determination, diplomatic skills and hard work of Professor David Robertson, Head of the Public Policy Institute at John Moores University and chairman of the Liverpool Chess Foundation. Messages of congratulation have been flowing in many days after the chess finished. David was the driving force behind the event co-ordinating numerous disparate groups all with one common goal; to put international chess in Liverpool 'back on the map'. It was the strongest event in Britain for 20 years.

 

The tournament generated worldwide interest with over 18 million hits on the official site during the ten day event and over 750,000 viewers watched the live games each day. Press coverage has been extensive and links to the various articles by Malcolm Pein Telegraph, Jon Speelman Observer, Raymond Keene The Times and others can be seen on our forum. The first phase of David's long term aim "to position Liverpool as a 21st century city, via the catalyst of chess, showcased globally through the media and the internet", has been realised in style.

 

GM Nigel Short, Commonwealth Champion 2004, the eventual winner with 7½/10 declared himself "very chuffed" both with his own performance and of the organisers "I’m delighted to win; that was my objective but it has been immensely hard work and gruelling. I do hope this tournament is the start of something. I would like to see Liverpool become the chess capital of the UK.”

 

18 Grandmasters and 10 International Masters competed in a field of 84 over 10 rounds. There were players from a number of European nations the majority being British and in addition to Nigel Short, Luke McShane and Stuart Conquest, together with Zoltan Gyimesi (Hungary) and Thomas Luther (Germany). International Masters Gawain Jones (England) and Stephen Gordon (England) both achieved their first GM norms scoring 7/10. The ECF declared the event 'a triumph for English chess'.

 

 

Daily reports, game downloads, crosstables, results and press details are available on the official website.

 

There are plans already taking shape to scale up next year by organising a yet more prestigious event. David has ambitions to turn his attention to other world-class opportunities. More information and details will be posted on this website and the forum in due course.

 

27th August 2006

 

25th August 2006

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Pre-season Challenge Match (friendly)
Wallasey				v	Atticus
1	b	A. Legge	169	0-1	211	J. Carleton	w	1
2	w	A. Bonnano	159	0-1	193	D. James	b	2
3	b	G. Gray	147	0-1	176	S. Connor	w	3
4	w	D. Clark	146	½-½	170	L. Boumphrey	b	4
5	b	J. Povall	138	0-1	176	D. Robertson	w	5
6	w	B. Corkhill	133	½-½	164	N. Wall	b	6
7	b	D. Hulme	132	0-1	150	D. Stuttard	w	7
8	w	E. Taylor	128	½-½	155	F. Boyd	b	8
9	b	L. Wolszczak	127	1-0	145	P. Rabadan	w	9
10	w	D. Farley	121	0-1	162	J. Williams	b	10
11	b	D. Rennie	113	1-0	140	M. Chard	w	11
12	w	V. Oldham	113	0-1	140	R. Noonan	b	12
13	b	S. McLoughlin	111	½-½	116	C. Wentworth	w	13
14	w	M. Spriggs	105	½-½	107	S. Burge	b	14
15	b	N. Hobro	105	1-0	105	P. Benton	w	15
16	w	M. Wentworth	102	½-½	99	A. Cotterall	b	16
17	b	M. Hargreaves	101	1-0	63	G. Jones	w	17
18	w	G. Heath	90	1-0	-	Default	b	18
19	b	R. Fentrell	-	1-0	-	Default	w	19
20	w	J. Fidal	74	1-0	-	Default	b	20
				10 -10

 

Wallasey board 1 Andy Legge (left) in play with Atticus captain John Carleton.

 

Leon Wolszczak playing Pascual Rabadan on board 9. Leon held a piece advantage

for a long time. Despite Pascual's gallant efforts Black prevailed. 

 

Paul Benton (right) v Nigel Hobro. A close R+B v R+B with pawns endgame. Black's

b-pawn eventually proving too fast and white was forced to concede.

 

Frank Boyd (right) plays EU 2006 participant Edward Taylor. Another hard fought

game which ended in a draw. 

 

Mark Spriggs (black top) on his way to a steady draw against Steve Burge. Chris

Wentworth (Atticus CC secretary and treasurer) further along to the right also on

his way to a draw with Stefan McLoughlin.

 

Atticus captain John Carleton (left) and Wallasey captain Andy Legge jointly receive

the match trophy.

 

If you'd like your game added to the page, please email to me. Send it as a PGN file if you know how, if not, just as a straight text file.  

 

Special thanks must go to the captains for organising such an enjoyable match and to Wallasey CC committee and members for being excellent hosts and providing free refreshments.