Hampshire have joined with Dorset and Wiltshire to play in the 3rd Western Counties Online Championships. We managed to narrowly beat Gloucestershire in the semi-final, but Devon proved a step too far and although we lost heavily there were a number of good results by our combined counties.
For the record of Hampshire County matches and links to any articles I have written the table on the Hampshire County Chess Matches page will detail these. The Hampshire County Chess History page summaries the leagues Hampshire have played in and the successes Hampshire have achieved. Both of these are available from the menu at the top of the site as well.
WECU Online
The format of the competition is below. Full details can be located on the WECU website and the LMS site.
- Teams: Cornwall, Devon, Hampshire/Dorset/Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Somerset.
- Knock-out
- Teams of 16
- Rate play: 60 minutes plus 15 seconds per move increment from move 1.
- Matches to start at 7.30 p.m.
- Default time: 7.45 p.m
- Board elimination will be used to break ties
- The results will be submitted for rating in the ECF Online List for Standard Play.
Hants/Dorset/Wilts – Gloucestershire 19 Feb 2023 WECU Online – Semi Final
The combined Hampshire / Dorset and Wiltshire team (14 Hampshire, 3 Dorset and 1 Wiltshire narrowly beat Gloucestershire 9 – 7 in the semi-final of the 2023 WECU Online championship. With regards to the Wiltshire player this was Roger Marsh and we should really count him as a Hampshire player. Due to the fact that he now lives in Scotland he was eligible as he was born in Wiltshire. Going forward it may be an idea to change the eligibility to the same as the ECF where Roger would count under the Five year’ domicile in the county.
- Birth in that county.
- Five years’ domicile in that county at any time.
- Two months’ immediate previous and present membership of a club either in or affiliated to that County.
- One month’s immediately previous and present domicile in that County.
- Present attendance as a student at a school, college or university in that County
Hampshire took an early lead and at one stage stood 6 – 2 ahead. But Gloucestershire valiantly clawed back until Hampshire led by just one point with two games remaining.
The two remaining games were the Jamie Chilton and Rajasekhar Pentakota ones and although Jamie was winning, he was very short of time. Watching was a bit nerve-wracking but Jamie soon checkmated his opponent which meant Hampshire had won the match. This was shortly followed by Rajasekhar Pentakota drawing his game, bringing the final result to the forementioned 9 – 7.
If any players wish to annotate their game I am happy to publish. In the meantime all the games can be played through here. A crucial save for Hampshire was on board two, where half a point was saved.
We pick up the board two game on move 56 where Iwan has a lost endgame, but his opponent makes one bad move and allows Iwan to force a draw.
The ratings are a mixture of Lichess and ECF so should probably just be ignored!
| Board | Hants/Dorset/Wilts | Grade | Result | Glos A | Grade | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Allan Pleasants | 2120 | 0 | Duncan Dicks | 2281 | 1 |
| 2 | Iwan Cave | 2116 | ½ | Joey Stewart | 2218 | ½ |
| 3 | Rajasekhar Pentakota | 2021 | ½ | Ian Robson | 2145 | ½ |
| 4 | Martin Buckmaster | 2018 | 0 | John Jenkins | 1955 | 1 |
| 5 | Mike Krawczuk | 1962 | 0 | Alex Carey | 1825 | 1 |
| 6 | Roger Marsh | 1939 | 1 | Matthew Hammond | 1807 | 0 |
| 7 | Simon Redmill | 1897 | 0 | Rich MacLannan | 1822 | 1 |
| 8 | Jamie Chilton | 1838 | 1 | Harry Davison | 1777 | 0 |
| 9 | Jamie Doyle | 1811 | 1 | Rob Wilden | 1763 | 0 |
| 10 | Tim Jones | 1795 | 1 | Tom Weavin | 1735 | 0 |
| 11 | Melissa Hamilton | 1738 | 0 | Chris Haynes | 1727 | 1 |
| 12 | Phil Pinto | 1674 | 1 | Adrian Walker | 1638 | 0 |
| 13 | Chris McSheehy | 1701 | 1 | Matt Reekie-Black | 1589 | 0 |
| 14 | Gillian Moore | 1682 | 1 | Kevin Markey | 1426 | 0 |
| 15 | Amanda Jones | 1667 | 1 | Zandi Gillespie | 1290 | 0 |
| 16 | Jonathan Young | 1632 | 0 | Greta Bullman | 1327 | 1 |
| 1851 | 9 | 1770 | 7 |
Hants/Dorset/Wilts – Devon 12th Mar 2023 WECU Online – Final
The combined Hampshire (11 players) / Dorset (3) / Wiltshire (2) lost 4 – 12 to Devon in the WECU Online Final. We were always a big underdog facing a very strong team, and with two local tournaments at the weekend this made it an even harder challenge.
Dorset can be particularly happy as they scored 2 points from their 3 games with Allan and Tim both winning. Chris McSheehy hade a very nice checkmate and both Rajasekhar and Mike Krawczuk held stronger players to draws.
Many thanks to all the players, as there is a lot of chess being played presently and I appreciate the effort from everyone to play. We obviously did very well to win our semi-final against Gloucestershire and maybe next season we can challenge!
The games from Lichess are now available. I will add some annotated games soon, but in the meantime please enjoy the excellent finish to Chris McSheehy’s game and Phil Pinto has also commented on his game, where he was unfortunate to lose.
Phil had a very nice position, but blundered, losing his Knight. Unlucky Phil, on another night this could have been the opposite result!
| Board | Hants/Dorset/Wilts | Grade | Hants Result | Devon A | Devon Grade | Devon Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Iwan Cave | 2085 | 0 | IM Gary Lane | 2409 | 1 |
| 2 | Allan Pleasants | 2023 | 1 | Scott Crockart | 2245 | 0 |
| 3 | Rajasekhar Pentakota | 1955 | ½ | John Stephens | 2237 | ½ |
| 4 | Mike Krawczuk | 1919 | ½ | Tim Paulden | 2043 | ½ |
| 5 | Roger Marsh | 1927 | 0 | Chris Lowe | 2007 | 1 |
| 6 | Simon Redmill | 1891 | 0 | Chris Archer-Lock | 2004 | 1 |
| 7 | Jamie Chilton | 1807 | 0 | Alan W Brusey | 1989 | 1 |
| 8 | Jamie Doyle | 1795 | 0 | Caleb Caleshu | 1948 | 1 |
| 9 | Tim Jones | 1762 | 1 | Steven Martin | 1960 | 0 |
| 10 | Phil Pinto | 1687 | 0 | Oliver Wensley | 2010 | 1 |
| 11 | Chris McSheehy | 1718 | 1 | Doug Morton | 1912 | 0 |
| 12 | Roy Ludlow | 1645 | 0 | Martin Goldschmidt | 1881 | 1 |
| 13 | Tom Philidor | 1725 | 0 | Nick J Butland | 1826 | 1 |
| 14 | Jonathan Young | 1498 | 0 | Michael Marshall | 1746 | 1 |
| 15 | Sam Murphy | 1585 | 0 | Alastair Marston | 1714 | 1 |
| 16 | Patrick Pavey | 1375 | 0 | Charlie V Howard | 1708 | 1 |
| 1775 | 4 | 1977 | 12 |
Games
The games from the semi-final and final are now available.
Hampshire Player Performance
With only two games this is more for information than any other reason, as it is difficult to base any performance on this number of games I may merge with the Chiltern League Season for 2022/23 at a later date?
The stand out performances were from Tim Jones and Chris McSheehy who won both their games. It was pleasing to have three female players for the Gloucestershire match and both Gillian and Amanda won their games giving a female performance of 66.6%
Our top two boards also did very well, as both were outrated in their games. Iwan managed a bit of a swindle to hold his first game and Allan played a very complicated game to beat his 2245 rated Devon opponent. Jamie Doyle has been scoring heavily for the Wessex 4NCL teams and did the same in the WECU; after winning his first game he faced another Junior in his second. Devon’s Caleb Caleshu is one of the top under 15’s in the Country and this time got the better of Jamie. Both these players have a bright chess future ahead of them.
Finally Rajasekhar Pentakota managed two tough draws against strong opposition (average rating just under 2200).
| Hants Player | Win Percentage | Points Scored | Games Played |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tim Jones | 100.0% | 2 | 2 |
| Chris J McSheehy | 100.0% | 2 | 2 |
| Allan Pleasants | 50.0% | 1 | 2 |
| Roger Marsh | 50.0% | 1 | 2 |
| Jamie Doyle | 50.0% | 1 | 2 |
| Jamie Chilton | 50.0% | 1 | 2 |
| Rajasekhar Pentakota | 50.0% | 1 | 2 |
| Phil Pinto | 50.0% | 1 | 2 |
| Amanda Jones | 100.0% | 1 | 1 |
| Gillian Moore | 100.0% | 1 | 1 |
| Mike Krawczuk | 25.0% | 0.5 | 2 |
| Iwan Cave | 25.0% | 0.5 | 2 |
| Jonathan Young | 0.0% | 0 | 2 |
| Simon Redmill | 0.0% | 0 | 2 |
| Tom Philidor | 0.0% | 0 | 1 |
| Roy Ludlow | 0.0% | 0 | 1 |
| Patrick Pavey | 0.0% | 0 | 1 |
| Sam Murphy | 0.0% | 0 | 1 |
| Melissa Hamilton | 0.0% | 0 | 1 |
| Martin Buckmaster | 0.0% | 0 | 1 |
Summary
An enjoyable WECU Online season and I was very happy that with a number of reserves for the first match and with no issues for the second, I did not have to stand in and play. There are always teething issues which need resolving, for example in the Devon Match one of their players challenged the wrong person and our player was sitting there wondering why he had not been challenged!
But all the issues were resolved and I was able to enjoy watching the games. For the Gloucestershire match we took an early lead but they started to clawback for a nail-biting finish. It was great to see Jamie Chilton checkmate his opponent to give us the win. If this was played OTB this would be one of the games where everyone would be standing over the board to see the outcome. This time we could do this but in the comfort of our own homes!
The Devon match was not really close, as our team were slightly weakened by the Dorset Rapidplay and the Fareham Congress. Also Devon fielded a very impressive team, including IM Gary Lane on board one. This shows that to challenge in the future we would need to beef up our team as I don’t think we would have come close even with any of our missing players. In addition, although it was great to have Dorset and Wiltshire join Hampshire I would prefer to just have Hampshire and see the other counties enter with their own teams.
With this in mind, please mention to other players to see if they would like to play next season? I think the time control is superior to the online 4NCL, which I find a bit fast, The 60 minutes + 15 seconds gives more time to think at key stages. As far as I am aware there have been no issues with computer assistance (certainly not flagged to me) and goes to show that Classical Online Chess can be played when players embrace the game and treat it and their opponents with respect.
Graham Stuart -14th March 2023
Acknowledgements and Sources
- Ian George and the WECU Website
- LMS
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