President’s Prize Tournament 1935 - Hampshire Chess History

As per 1933 another President’s Prize Tournament was held in 1935, which as the name suggests was sponsored by the Hampshire Chess President Mr CF Chapman.

Mr Chapman had been involved in Sussex chess, and was later the President of the Dorset Chess Association. He held this post from 1929, when they resumed activities (this had ceased in 1927). In 1932 he was appointed HCA President, replacing JH Blake. He only held the Hampshire role until 1936, when John Spedan Lewis replaced him. Lewis would also be a very generous benefactor to Hampshire.

In the tournament there were 61 entries, and the initial draw was detailed in the Hampshire Advertiser, whilst the pairings and results from the 2nd round were included in FL Taylor’s 1944 Hampshire Chess History booklet (section 11). The Hampshire Advertiser article detailed 48 of the players, and therefore some initial pairings were missing. and/or some players looked to have had a bye. The total prize money was £10, with a nominal 1 shilling entry fee. With 20 shillings to the pound the prize money was mainly a donated amount¹ as much larger than the money received.

Hampshire Advertiser - Saturday 27 April 1935 — **Hampshire Advertiser – Saturday 27 April 1935**

Looking at the Finances it shows a contribution from the President of £10 10 shillings, which is why I presume Mr Chapman was a generous President to Hampshire. The income also has entry fees of £3 2 shillings (64 entries?), whilst the expenditure has prize money as £10 10 shillings.

Round One

Looking at the tournament from the two sources, the Hampshire Advertiser in May 1935 had the draw for the first round. To avoid travelling, this was completed on a regional basis. Below are the 24 pairings, but there were other matches, as in total there were 61 entries. As per the 1933 tournament the Portsmouth area were very much light on entries, with just two entries. In the end there were more than this though, as Round Two had at least one additional Portsmouth player.

The Hampshire Advertiser’s chess column took a break from June to October, and therefore there were no results until the semi-final, which was reported after the event. However, as FL Taylor detailed the results from round 2 I have been able to calculate who won each game in Round 1.

1935 President's Prize Draw - Hampshire Advertiser — **1935 President’s Prize Draw – Hampshire Advertiser**

The majority of these players in the competition were not county players, although those that were such as Elwell, Varker, Grover, Taylor, Russell, Dance, Briscoe, Spedan Lewis, Witt, Way all progressed to the 2nd round.

LC Whetham who played on the bottom boards for Hampshire was the one county player who did not progress, losing to H Carey. I have added the region for each player, rather than the club in the table below.

Player	Area	Result	Result	Player	Area
FT Sutton	Basingstoke	0	1	H Sims	Basingstoke
FP Carter	Basingstoke	0	1	A Clegg	Basingstoke
GS Tew	Basingstoke	0	1	JW Southwell	Basingstoke
FA Rose	Basingstoke	0	1	P Home	Basingstoke
W Munday	Basingstoke	1	0	AN Soutwell	Basingstoke
LC Whetham	Basingstoke	0	1	H Carey	Basingstoke
JM Harris	Basingstoke	0	1	FL Taylor	Basingstoke
AE Mack	Basingstoke	1	0	AH Yebury	Basingstoke
Revd AJ Alexander	Andover	0	1	SL Russell	Andover
AS Dance	Andover	1	0	I Harvey	Andover
Mrc HC Long	Andover	0	1	WB Withers	Andover
G Tunrer	Andover	0	1	EF Briscoe	Andover
Dr H Long	Andover	0	1	J Spedan Lewis	Andover
S de C Hamilton	Andover	0	1	Revd AR Witt	Andover
AC Hayes	Portsmouth	0	1	HA Way	Portsmouth
JC Ingram	Southampton	0	1	TJ Wilde	Southampton
LG O’Neill	Southampton	0	1	FJH Elwell	Southampton
E Underhill	Southampton	1	0	AR Budge	Southampton
AF MacKenzie	Southampton	0	1	HW Benest	Southampton
HW Varker	Southampton	1	0	AG Taylor	Southampton
ACE Hughes	Bournemouth	0	1	EA Silverthorne	Bournemouth
TY Carter	Bournemouth	0	1	H Grover	Bournemouth
L Ward	Bournemouth	1	0	W Hoppen	Bournemouth
HW Webster	Bournemouth	0	1	GH Gower Wise	Bournemouth

Round Two

With 16 players the competition now reaches a true Knockout. The stronger players seemed to progress, with JS West, HA Way, FJH Elwell, AB Coe and SL Russell all regular county players, as well as entrants to the Hampshire Individual Championship.

FL Taylor vs JS West and EA Way vs HA Way were the pairings which stand out, one as two county chess players, and the other as two of the Way family. The 1933 semi-finalist FL Taylor lost to JS West, whilst the stronger HA Way came out on top in the family match.

The Varker – Coe game was published in the Hampshire Advertiser and this seems to show the difference in strength of the two players. Difficult to calculate the strength of the players but using Lichess Coe made hardly any errors and I would estimate his strength around 2050 to 2100. He was a player who came close to winning the Hampshire Individual, which also sways me with this estimation.

Varker Coe Lichess Analysis — **Varker – Coe Lichess Analysis**

Player	Area	Result	Result	Player	Area
A Clegg	Basingstoke	1	0	H Sims	Basingstoke
P Home	Basingstoke	1	1	FW Southwell	Basingstoke
WB Withers	Andover	0	1	EF Briscoe	Andover
Revd AR Witt	Andover	1	0	J Spedan Lewis	Andover
R Dudman	Andover	0	1	EG Parsons	Andover
SL Russell	Andover	1	0	AS Dance	Andover
W Munday	Basingstoke	1	0	H Carey	Basingstoke
JM Harris	Basingstoke	1	0	AE Mack	Basingstoke
FL Taylor	Basingstoke	0	1	JS West	Basingstoke
EA Way	Portsmouth	0	1	HA Way	Portsmouth
TJ Wilde	Southampton	0	1	FJH Elwell	Southampton
E Underhill	Southampton	0	1	HC Lewis	Southampton
AB Coe	Southampton	1	0	HW Varker	Southampton
WJ Fry	Southampton	1	0	HL Gardiner	Southampton
EA Silverthorne	Bournemouth	0	1	H Grover	Bournemouth
L Ward	Bournemouth	0	1	GH Gower Wise	Bournemouth

Round Three

With just the 16 players remaining, there were bound to be some interesting pairings.

The pick of these was probably AB Coe and WJ Fry. Fry was playing board two behind Frank Elwell in the county matches and Coe played on board four in his one county match of the season. Coe came out on top in the match and joined the other seven winners in the quarter final.

Player	Result	Result	Player
A Clegg	1	0	P Home
EF Briscoe	1	0	Revd AR Witt
EG Parsons	0	1	SL Russell
W Munday	1	0	JM Harris
JS West	0	1	HA Way
H Lewis	0	1	FJH Elwell
AB Coe	1	0	WJ Fry
H Grover	0	1	GH Gower Wise

Quarter Final

From the remaining players, four stood out with FJH Elwell, AB Coe, HA Way and SL Russell all being regular county players at this time. The HA Way vs FJH Elwell was the pick of the pairings, which Elwell came out on top. He joined EF Briscoe, SL Russell and AB Coe in the semi-final.

Two of the winners were from Southampton chess club and the other two from the Broughton chess club.

Player	Result	Result	Player
P Home	0	1	EF Briscoe
SL Russell	1	0	W Munday
HA Way	0	1	FJH Elwell
AB Coe	1	1	GH Gower Wise

Semi Final

SL Russell beat EF Briscoe, and in a probable upset AB Coe beat Elwell with Black, to set up a final between the ex secretary of the Hampshire Chess Association AB Coe and the winner of the 1935 Hampshire Individual Championship SL Russell.

Player	Club	Result	Result	Player	Club
EF Briscoe	Broughton	0	1	SL Russell	Broughton
FJH Elwell	Southampton	0	1	AB Coe	Southampton

Final

SL Russell was trying to complete the double, winning the President’s Prize Tournament, as well as the Hampshire Individual Championship. But the Southampton player came out on top in their game. The ending of the game was published in the Hampshire Advertiser.

The attractive Ne5 played by Coe was a killer, and Russell soon had to resign.