The 1959 Hampshire Individual Chess Championship was held during the 1958/1959 season. There were 16 players who entered with the format being a 7 round Swiss tournament played over the season.
For a list of the winners of the Hampshire Individual Championship and links to any articles I have written the table on the Hampshire Individual Championship is the best place to look. In addition, the table on the Hampshire Tournaments will detail these and any other tournament articles I have completed. Both of these are available from the menu at the top of the site as well.
Tournament Details
The Hampshire Individual Chess Championship has used numerous formats in the last 90 odd years, from the Knockout format in 1930, qualifying sections e.g. 1932 to the current Swiss tournament held over three days. The format used for the 1959 Championship was a 7 round Swiss Tournament held over the season. The tournament controller was JEC Grant.
Researching these articles has been interesting, as to what resources are available. The Hampshire Chess Archives are a little light on this period and I have to rely on the Portsmouth News Newspaper from the British Newspaper Archives. The Portsmouth News had a weekly chess column, although not always published on the same day. The search facility is a bit hit and miss, but searching for participants names is normally a good way to find the article, if the search for “chess” does not identify the column.
But as this is a Portsmouth Newspaper, it does concentrate on Portsmouth Chess, such as the League, Portsmouth Individual and Junior Dupree competitions. But, they do mention the Hampshire Individual Championship fairly often, certainly for this year, with a number of results detailed. No games were published, but I think this was more common in the later years (although these are not yet available).
The list of original entrants and their clubs is detailed below. I have added what I think is their correct club, as the article had many stated as Southampton or Portsmouth Chess club, but this was not the case e.g Pezet was Woolston, rather than Southampton. Favourites were likely Wilf Pratten and Marshall Thompson. Thompson was the current champion and Pratten had won the championship four times previously. The other previous champion was 1931 champion Capt. Graham Powell Britton, who was probably the youngest ever Hampshire Champion at 18 until Iwan Cave won in 2022 at the age of 15.
It seems that Russel Pezet may have also been a previous champion, winning in 1954, although his name is not engraved on the trophy. It was stated in Roger Paige’s Hampshire Chess Games 1950 – 1970, and I see no reason to believe this is incorrect. There is no mention in the HCA Minutes book of the winner of the championship.
- WH Pratten – Fareham
- CH Henshaw – Basingstoke
- Dr BG Wells – Portsmouth
- TO Read – Southampton University
- Capt GP Britton – RNPL
- J Valler – Southampton
- RF Pezet – Woolston
- AM Edmonds – Southampton
- G Daw – Southampton
- JAC Borland – Fareham
- L West – Community Centre
- WC Martin – Fareham
- W Makar – Portsmouth
- S Ryzewski – Southampton
- A Samuels – Southampton
- M Thompson – Southampton
One of the reasons this was a record number of entries, is that for a number of previous competitions the entries were limited to club champions. Unfortunately I have not located all the results of each round and due to these being in two successive rounds I have been unable to correctly calculate the results.
Round 1
In the first round Wilf Pratten defaulted against Geoffrey Daw, and withdrew from the competition (this also happened in the 1960 championship). Winning players were CG Henshaw, Dr BG Wells, TO Read, Capt GP Britton, J Valler and RF Pezet in what looks like a dominating round for the players with the White pieces (unless they were not reported in colour order).
| Player | Club | Result | Player | Club | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WH Pratten (def) | Fareham | 0 | G Daw | Southampton | 1 |
| CH Henshaw | Basingstoke | 1 | JAC Borland | Fareham | 0 |
| Dr BG Wells | Portsmouth | 1 | L West | Community Centre | 0 |
| TO Read | Southampton University | 1 | WC Martin | Fareham | 0 |
| Capt GP Britton | RNPL | 1 | W Makar | Portsmouth | 0 |
| J Valler | Southampton | 1 | S Ryzewski | Southampton | 0 |
| RF Pezet | Woolston | 1 | A Samuels | Southampton | 0 |
| AM Edmonds | Southampton | ½ | M Thompson | Southampton | ½ |
Round 2
Limited results from round 2, with just L West beating S Ryzewski, AM Edmonds winning by default, and Capt GP Britton drawing with Dr BG Wells.
| Player | Club | Result | Player | Club | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CH Henshaw | Basingstoke | TO Read | Southampton University | ||
| J Valler | Southampton | RF Pezet | Woolston | ||
| M Thompson | Southampton | G Daw | Southampton | ||
| L West | Community Centre | 1 | S Ryzewski | Southampton | 0 |
| Capt GP Britton | RNPL | ½ | Dr BG Wells | Portsmouth | ½ |
| A Samuels | Southampton | JAC Borland | Fareham | ||
| W Makar | Portsmouth | WC Martin | Fareham | ||
| AM Edmonds | Southampton | 1 | Default | 0 |
Round 3
The two leaders drew their game and were joined on two and a half points by two Southampton players, AC Barton and J Valler. AC Barton was covered in the 1968 Hampshire Individual, which he won. A strong player, and also a Hampshire Officer for a number of years, including running the Hampshire Individual from 1968 to 1985.
I don’t really know much about J Valler, who played for Hampshire 11 times from 1958 to 1963. I had a search on Britbase and he played in the British Chess Championship Over 60’s Championship in 1977 scoring 6 points. Wilf Pratten also played in this competition and was equal third with 8½ points (he shared 1st the previous year).
JE Hobbs withdrew from the competition after losing his first two games. The report in the Portsmouth News states that Wilf Pratten withdrew, but as mentioned as he did not play any games, this was really from round 1.
| Player | Club | Result | Player | Club | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G Daw | Southampton | RF Pezet | Woolston | ||
| TO Read | Southampton University | 0 | Capt GP Britton | RNPL | 1 |
| Dr BG Wells | Portsmouth | 0 | AM Edmonds | Southampton | 1 |
| CH Henshaw | Basingstoke | 1 | J Valler | Southampton | 0 |
| WC Martin | Fareham | 1 | L West | Community Centre | 0 |
| A Samuels | Southampton | ½ | M Thompson | Southampton | ½ |
| W Makar | Portsmouth | S Ryzewski | Southampton |
Round 4
No details on the pairings, although from the future points indicated Dr Wells won whilst Capt. Britton and L West both lost. It is likely that Capt Britton lost to Dr Wells.
| Player | Club | Result | Player | Club | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capt GP Britton | RNPL | 0 | |||
| Dr BG Wells | Portsmouth | 1 | |||
| L West | Community Centre | 0 |
Round 5
The two leaders met and Pezet won. This was determined from the results from the sixth round. Unfortunately I have no information from the 5th or 6th round. With one round missing I would normally be able to deduce the pairings and results but there is not really a enough information to calculate this.
| Player | Club | Result | Player | Club | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RF Pezet | Woolston | 1 | AM Edmonds | Southampton | 0 |
Round 6
R Pezet won his game (against T Read), as did Alf Edmonds (beating Henshaw). Only Edmonds could catch Pezat, although he would have to win his game and Pezat lose his in the last round.
| Player | Club | Result | Player | Club | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WC Martin | Fareham | 0 | AM Edmonds | Southampton | 1 |
| CH Henshaw | Basingstoke | 1 | A Samuels | Southampton | 0 |
| J Valler | Southampton | 1 | Capt GP Britton | RNPL | 0 |
| M Thompson | Southampton | 1 | Dr BG Wells | Community Centre | 0 |
| W Makar | Portsmouth | 1 | G Daw | Southampton | 0 |
| TO Read | Southampton University | 0 | RF Pezet | Woolston | 1 |
Round 7
RF Pezet drew his last game, which was enough to ensure he won the the Championship. AM Edmonds lost to TO Read, which meant he finished 2nd.
| Player | Club | Result | Player | Club | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RF Pezet | Woolston | ½ | CH Henshaw | Basingstoke | ½ |
| J Valler | Southampton | 1 | W Makar | Portsmouth | 0 |
| Dr BG Wells | Portsmouth | 1 | G Daw | Southampton | 0 |
| Capt GP Britton | RNPL | 1 | S Ryzewski | Southampton | 0 |
| AM Edmonds | Southampton | 0 | TO Read | Southampton University | 1 |
Summary
I have located a lot of the results, but the 4th and 5th rounds are almost all missing. But as can be seen RF Pezet was a deserving winner, with 5 wins and only 2 draws. This was reported in the Portsmouth Evening News. I don’t know much (if anything) on RF Pezet, although he finished ahead of several strong Hampshire chess players including Marshall Thompson and Alf Edmonds.
His prize was £10 10 shillings, and TO Read was half this, these are roughly £300 and £150 in 2024, which is more than I was expecting with just 16 entries. It did not state what the entry fee was.
R. Pezent name on the Silver Rook plinth for 1959 – no engraving for 1954, when it looks as if he won the championship as well.
Games
I do not have any games from the championship, but will add if I locate any.
Acknowledgements and sources:
- Hampshire Chess Archives
- Portsmouth Evening News
- Roger Leslie Paige for details on 1953 and 1954 Hampshire winners.
- Britbase