President’s Prize Tournament 1933

Hampshire had a new president for the 1932/33 season, with CF Chapman replacing JH Blake. Mr Chapman sponsored a new tournament for the summer. This was named the President’s Prize Tournament, and the format was a knock-out, with 68 entries¹. It was mentioned that this had been held before, but I think think this was the first time. It seems to have been played again, but details on this are not so clear.

Several strong Hampshire players entered the tournament, which ran from June to September 1933. The majority of the entrants were from the east of Hampshire, although there were a handful of strong players from Portsmouth.

Unlike the Hampshire Individual Championship, the President’s Prize Tournament was not restricted to just the club champions, and therefore allowed players of all strength the chance to compete.

Round One
Round Two
Round Three
Quarter Final

Semi Final
Final
Acknowledgements and Sources

Round One

Looking at the draw, this had been completed on a regional basis, to ensure players did not have too much travelling to play their matches. 64 players were paired in round one, with the highlight being the CHOD Alexander and FJH Elwell matching. I wonder if this was a pre-arranged pairing, giving Elwell an opportunity to play one of the strongest English players.

The results for the round were not available, but I have calculated these from the draw in round two. In a competition of this size it is likely some games were forfeited, and as the four players I have stated as defaulted were not in round 2, the assumption was that these matches were not played. In addition, it was stated that 68 players entered and therefore in total there were another 4 players who did play (of which I can only locate 2).

Board	Player	Town/Club	Result	Player	Town/Club	Result
1	JW Webster	Bournemouth	1	ACE Hughes	Bournemouth	0
2	EA Silverthorne	Bournemouth	0	HR Pope	Christchurch	1
3	KL Smith	Christchurch	0	Y Carter	Christchurch	1
4	CT Bennett	Bournemouth	0	H Grover	Lymington	1
5	RG Duce	Southampton	1	JK McHardy	Southampton	0
6	AB Coe	Southampton	1	JG Ingram	Nursling	0
7	I Harvey	Chandler’s Ford	1	AR Budge	Southampton	0
8	HL Parsons	Southampton	1	W Varker	Southampton	O
9	GT Lloyd	Andover	0	WB Withers	Andover	1
10	EG Parsons	Andover	0	SL Russell	Broughton	1
11	W Turner	Broughton	1	T Clark	Andover	0
12	L Amphlett	Andover	0	AS Dance	Andover	1
13	H Shorney	Basingstoke	0	AH Yerbury	Basingstoke	1
14	FL Taylor	Basingstoke	1	JM Harris	Hartley Wintney	0
15	FT Sutton	Basingstoke	1	R Dudman	Basingstoke	0
16	FC Clegg	Basingstoke	1	FA Rose	Basingstoke	0
17	FJH Elwell	Southampton	1	CHOD Alexander	Winchester	0
18	Revd AR Witt	Winchester	1	WF Dickinson	Winchester	0
19	WJ Fry	Southampton	1	JH Burn	Southampton	0
20	JW Walsh	Winchester	1	A Tremain	Woolston	0
21	Sq-Ldr L Vine	Southampton	1	EG Parsons	Southampton	0
22	A White	Woolston	0	AE Gale	Southampton	1
23	GP Britton	Southampton	1	E Craig	Southampton	0
24	RG Stansfield	Southampton	def	EF Usborne	Bursledon	def
25	S Emaley	Southampton	def	HM Southon	Southampton	def
26	H Benest	Southampton	0	SW Davis	Southampton	1
27	FJ Tinkler	Southampton	1	M Clifford	Southampton	0
28	E Underhill	Southampton	0	H O’Neill	Southampton	1
29	HA Way	Southsea	1	WJ Hayes	Portsmouth	0
30	HD Lloyd	Portsmouth	0	JS West	Portsmouth	1
31	WJ Futcher	Portsmouth	1	TJ Bell	Portsmouth	0
32	WA Way	Southsea	1	W Jenkins	Portsmouth	0

Round Two

Two players who did not play in round one were added for round two. This looks to replace the two games which I had no result for, ensuring there would be no byes going forward. These were S Emsley and P McKeefry, both under Southampton.

Looking at the results SL Russell, who played in the mid boards for Hampshire, and who won the Hampshire Individual Championship in 1935 losing to WB Withers was a surprise. FL Taylor and AH Yerbury both played in the mid boards for Hampshire and was a key matching, which Mr Taylor came out on top.

Apart from these a number of the known players progressed to the third round and it looked like there would be some interesting match ups in the next round. The results just mentioned the winners, and I therefore colours of the pairings are unknown.

Board	Player	Result	Player
1	JW Webster	1	HR Pope
2	H Grover	1	Y Carter
3	AB Coe	1	RG Duce
4	HL Parsons	1	I Harvey
5	WB Withers	1	SL Russell
6	AS Dance	1	W Turner
7	FL Taylor	1	AH Yerbury
8	FC Clegg	1	FT Sutton
9	HA Way	1	JS West
10	FJ Tinkler	1	H O’Neill
11	FJH Elwell	1	Revd AR Witt
12	Sq-Ldr L Vine	1	AE Gale
13	WA Way	1	WJ Futcher
14	S Emsley	1	SW Davis
15	WJ Fry	1	JW Walsh
16	GP Britton	1	P McKeefry

Round Three

As expected there were some key pairings in round three, with previous and current Hampshire Individual Champions facing each other. GP Britton the 1931 champion beat the 1952 (and 1953) champion Leslie Vine, and four time champion WJ Fry beat five time champion FJH Elwell. These two were also the top two boards of the 1933 Hampshire County team (or 2 and 3 if CHOD Alexander was in the team).

There was also the current and previous Portsmouth Chess Club champions paired, and the Hampshire Advertiser published their game in December 1933. This was a sharp Rubinstein variation of the French defence, where Black’s position was ok for the majority of the game, but one misstep allowed White to sacrifice his Bishop and break through.

As well as their championship status Hubert Way was the uncle of WA Way, and was probably the stronger player for the majority of this career, although by this time maybe this was not the case? I covered the Way family in the article on the 1921/22 county season.

Board	Player	Result	Player	Result
1	AS Dance	1	0	WB Withers
2	GP Britton	0	1	Sq-Ldr L Vine
3	S Emsley	1	0	FJ Tinkler
4	WA Way	1	0	HA Way
5	AB Coe	1	0	HL Parsons
6	FL Taylor	1	0	FC Clegg
7	WJ Fry	1	0	FJH Elwell
8	H Grover	1	0	JW Webster

Quarter Final

The eight players in the quarter final were all Hampshire county players as despite the original draw having a lot of non county players, the stronger ones had manoeuvred their way to this stage.

In the four games Hampshire Secretary AB Coe playing white came out on top against H Grover, in the other games it was Black who progressed.

Board	Player	Result	Player	Result
1	AB Coe	1	0	H Grover
2	FJ Tinkler	0	1	WA Way
3	Sq-Ldr L Vine	0	1	WJ Fry
4	AS Dance	0	1	FL Taylor

Semi Final

The current Hampshire Secretary AB Coe was paired against his successor in FL Taylor. AB Coe who had beaten HL Parsons in the third round came out on top. HL Parsons wrote about the change in the Secretarial role in the Southampton Chess Club centenary booklet 50 years later.

Southampton Chess Club Centenary Booklet – 1983

Mr AB Coe,1912-1935, almost as strong a player as WJ Fry, won the Cup in 1913 and the Championship in 1922; was match Secretary 1913-15 and on the committee 1919-1929. He was Secretary and Treasurer of the Hampshire Chess Association 1923-34 where his best work was done. Unfortunately he made himself very unpopular in his later years especially in the club and with players of other clubs in Southampton.

As a consequence Mr FL Taylor, a younger member of the Southampton club and Secretary Of Old Tauntonians was elected Secretary at the Hampshire Chess Association Annual General Meeting in 1934
HL Parsons – 1983

The other match ended Portsmouth’s challenge, as Southampton’s WJ Fry beat WA Way, This meant an all Southampton final with WJ Fry facing AB Coe.

Board	Player	Result	Player	Result
1	AB Coe	1	0	FL Taylor
2	WJ Fry	1	0	WA Way

Final

The final was won by WJ Fry, who also won the Hampshire Individual Championship this year. His strength can be seen as he was playing third board for Hampshire behind CHOD Alexander and FJH Elwell. He would continue to play on the top boards for Hampshire until the early 1950’s.

**1933 Hampshire Presidents Competition**

WJ Fry died on 29 October 1954 at the age of 58 as noted in Edward Winter Chess Notes Article. This also has the dust cover from Reinfeld’s How to Play Chess and it seems that this picture is of WJ Fry which is at the top of the article.