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Caergwrle Chess Club

Chess Tournament News

2010 Tournaments

ANAND v TOPALOV WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Vishy Anand won the twelve game match after winning the final game played in Sophia, Bulgaria.
AFTER 10 GAMES
The score is 5-5.
AFTER 2 GAMES
Veselin Topalov won the first game in a Grunfeld defence click here for that, Vishy Anand won the second
WIJK AAN ZEE
finished on 2010.01.31 Magnus Carlsen won the tournament, and he does not seem to be able to do much else these days, click here for official website.

2009 Tournaments

LONDON
Magnus Carlsen the Norwegian world number one won the tournament click here for information. British champion David Howell went through the tournament unbeaten though he only had one win against Ni Hua of China.
Another Norwegian Jon Ludvig Hammer won the FIDE open, click here for news on that. Chris Doran of Chester chess club won a prize in this with a score of 4½/9, Dave Bennion of Caergwrle got 4/9.
Arianne Caoili won the women's tournament, only Susan Lallic could beat her, she won the rest. Welsh ladies international Olivia Smith had a bad start to the tournament, but scored some points later on, click here for news.
EUROPEAN TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP - NOVI SAD, SERBIA
Azerbaijan won the gold medal after winning against Holland in the final round, click here for some individual results. Azerbaijan scored 15 points and Russia were second with 14, Ukraine and Armenia got 12. England had 10 points, Wales 6 and Scotland scored 2.
AFTER 7 ROUNDS - Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan lead with 11 points. Russia play Armenia in round 8, the last round is round 9 on 2009.10.30. England are still in the middle of the field with 7, Wales have 4 points and Scotland 2. Wales had a good 2-2 draw in round 6 against Montenegro who had 3 grandmasters playing for them, click here for the round six games.
AFTER 5 ROUNDS - Azerbaijan are in the lead winning their first 5 matches, they play Russia in round 6. It is two points for a win and one for a draw, England have five points. Wales defeated Scotland in round five and have three points, Scotland have one.
The tournament begun on 2009.10.22, Russia played Croatia on top board, click here for results.
BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIP - TORQUAY
Grandmaster David Howell has won the 2009 British chess championship with a score of 9/11, Simon Williams and Mark Hebden were half a point behind. David went the whole tournament unbeaten, winning seven and drawing four, click here for some of his games. The 2008 winner Stuart Conquest, came with a late challenge but lost to David in round 10, click here for the games from the tournament.
AFTER 7 ROUNDS - David Howell and Gawain Jones still lead the tournament with 6/7 followed by Simon Williams on 5½. Simon defeated Mark Hebden in round 7 after a storming attack, he is white against David Howell in round 8 on 2009.08.04.
AFTER 3 ROUNDS - David Howell and Gawain Jones lead the tournament and have won their first 3 games. They meet in round 4 on 2009.07.30, Gawain has white. David Eggleston defeated British champion Stuart Conquest in round 1, and he was not finished there beating Danny Gormally in round 2. In round 3 he was a bit unlucky against Gawain Jones, when he was a piece up but Gawain had too many pawns and he won the ending.
SOUTH WALES INTERNATIONAL
The tournament finished on 2009.07.16, click here for official website. The Bulgarian grandmaster Radulski won it ahead of grandmaster Keith Arkell Caergwrle's honourary president.
CHESTER
The Chester tournament run by Caergwrle chess club was played on the last weekend of June. Richard Dineley of Wrexham chess club and Mike Surtees were the co-winners with 4/5.
RHYL
The Rhyl tournament is played in mid-May in Rhyl town hall in the middle of the seaside town of Rhyl. Click here for news on the Rhyl chess club website.
WELSH CHAMPIONSHIP - CARDIFF
The 2009 Welsh chess championship was played in Whitchurch, Cardiff, from 2009.04.10 to 2009.04.13 at Easter. It was played over 7 rounds, Richard Jones and Ioan Rees were the co-winners with 6/7. Ioan Rees went the whole tournament unbeaten as did Suzy Blackburn, click here for crosstable. For Caergwrle Dave Jameson did not enter this year, Dave Bennion scored 3½/7.
WIJK AAN ZEE
The tournament sponsored by Corus finished 2009.02.01. Ukraine's Sergey Karjakin was the winner click here for official website.
GIBRALTAR
The English Chess Federation run the Gibraltar tournament, Peter Svidler was the winner Click here for official website.
HASTINGS
The Hastings international chess tournament is played over the new year and has been running for many years. Grandmaster Kurnosov was the winner this time, click here, for official website.

2008 Tournaments

DRESDEN OLYMPIAD
Armenia were the winners of the 20008 chess olympiad click here for news, Israel got the silver and the USA were third. Georgia won the women's event.
CHESTER LEAGUE INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONSHIP
John Blore won the tournament on tie-break, after finishing equal with Chris Doran. It was played at the Town Crier by Chester railway station on 2008.11.08 and 2008.11.09.
EUROPEAN UNION CHAMPIONSHIP
Grandmaster Jan Werle of Holland was the winner of the European Union individual championship which finished 2008.09.18 in Liverpool. Click here for official website, and Click here for round by round reports.
Chris Doran of Chester chess club was involved in the big shock of round 1 when he beat an eastern European grandmaster, click here for the game, Click here for round 1 report.
In round 9 the young Scottish girl Ali Roy, who is rated well below 2000 was playing Vytautas Vaznonis of Lithuania, who is a 2400 plus player. She was on the back foot for much of the game but eventually held on for an unbelievable draw. For Caergwrle Dave Bennion scored 4½/10 and John Gorman got 3½/10, the two met in round 6 when John converted a small advantage in the endgame to win, click here for game. John thus defeated his Chester league captain, and I will have to remember this the next time I select the team.
WOMEN'S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Grandmaster Aleksandria Kosteniuk is the women's world champion for 2008 after defeating Hou Yifan 2-½-1½ in the final. She beat Pia Cramling in the semi-final, Humpy Koneru was the other losing semi-finalist, click here for official website.
BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIPS
The British Championship was played in Liverpool from Sunday 2008.07.27 to Saturday 2008.08.09. Grandmaster Stuart Conquest was the winner who beat fellow grandmaster Keith Arkell in the play off after they had tied on 8/11, click here for official website. Keith is the honourary president of Caergwrle chess club, and did a simultaneous display at the Derby Arms a few years ago. Chester open champion Nigel Davies was among those finishing third, click here for his views on this. For a crosstable click here.
Steve Lloyd of Chester chess club won the under 125 tournament. Steve is a Chester chess league official, he runs the league web site and the Chester club web site, he also writes match reports for the press and is the league grading officer. There are actually some things he does not do in the league, though it may not seem like it. Mike Friel and Dave Dickson of Caergwrle were also competing in the under 100 tournament.
After 6 rounds seven players lead with 4½/6 grandmasters Nigel Davies ex-Wrexham, Stuart Conquest, Danny Gormally Mark Hebden, Gawain Jones, Bogdan Lalic, and international master Lawrence Trent. Elliott Auckland has a rating of less than 2000 and has scored over fifty per cent, I would doubt that this has been done before.
After 2 rounds grandmaster Nigel Davies, the Chester open champion leads with 2/2. Paul Townsend, Mike Surtees and Oliver Jackson who played at Chester are also competing. Amazingly apart from Nigel Davies, only Stephen Gregory and Lawrence Trent have 2/2 after a lot of the top boards in round 2 drew.
CHESTER
Grandmaster Nigel Davies ex-Wrexham won the Chester chess congress run by Caergwrle chess club at the Cheshire View, Plough Lane, Christleton near Chester. He finished with 4/5 after drawing with Oliver Jackson in the final round, and also had a half point bye on the Saturday evening. Mike Surtees and Oliver Jackson came equal second with 3½/5, the grading prize was won by promising young player Martin Brown of Widnes.
Paul Evans was the winner of the under 160 tournament, as was the case last year, and Brandon Clarke won the under 130 with 5/5. Caergwrle's Steve Barnett was the co-winner of the under 100 with Joe Dilworth. Rhyl players Denis Harvey and John Simmons won prizes in their sections.
There were four Caergwrle players in the open, Bob Clark finished with 2½/5, after a win, two draws, a loss and a half point bye. Dave Bennion scored 2/5 after a win two draws and two losses. Neville Layhe and Dave Dickson had lost all their previous games and met in the last round, victory went to Dave Dickson. Mike Friel got a fifty per cent score in the under 100 as he did at Rhyl.
I do have the scores of the games from the tournament, which I hope to publish on the internet one day. I can promise you that, possibly after the Caergwrle chess club expedition to Jupiter.
SOUTH WALES INTERNATIONAL
The south Wales international is from 2008.07.05 until 2008.07.10 click here for official website.
RHYL
The Rhyl tournament, north Wales' biggest event, took place 2008.05.16 to 2008.05.18. Paul Townsend won the open and the £300 first prize, equal second were Mike Surtees and ex-Caergwrle player Ian Campbell. Martin Burns of Stockport won the under 155 or major and £250, John Hunt who used to be the regular top board for Rhyl came second. Mike Lee of Colwyn Bay won the under 120 or minor and £200.
This was not a good tournament for the Caergwrle players, with Dick Martin, Dave Dickson and Wolfgang Lenze, all losing all four games. Mike Friel faired better winning two and losing two of his games.
EUROPEAN INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Plovdiv, Bulgaria hosted the 2008 individual championships, click here for official website. Tiviakov is the European champion, England's Jones finished with 6/11 and Wells had 5½/11 in the main event in what was a very tough tournament. England's Jovanka Houska scored 7/11 in the women's event, after she had been only half a point off the lead. The young Ukrainian player Lahno won it, Jovanka was one point behind her going in to the last round. She lost her last round game in what was a disappointing end to a good tournament for her.
WELSH CHAMPIONSHIP
Leighton Williams and James Cobb were the co-winners of the 2008 Welsh championship played at Easter. For Caergwrle Dave Bennion lost to Leighton Williams in round 1 and Dave Jameson lost to him in round 7 the final round, suffering the same fate as some grandmasters. Click here for a report on the Welsh chess union website. Dave Bennion's round 5 game against Carl Davies appeared in the Daily Telegraph and Dave Jameson's game against Tom Brown has appeared in the British Chess Magazine.
WIJK AAN ZEE
The Wijk Aan Zee tournament, sponsored by Corus started 2008.01.11 and finished 2008.01.27. Click here for official website.
GIBRALTAR
Dave Jameson was in Poland in December and in January he played in Gibraltar, we are not sure if he is still a British citizen, click here for official website. There has been a Chinese invasion this year with some very strong Chinese players playing. Dave scored 4/10 in the main event though performed better in the challegers 2 tournament, winning three losing one and also a half point bye, click here for details.
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