I was sorting through the Hampshire Chess Archives and came across the first issue of this magazine (I am not sure if there were any more) from September 1983. The author of this was a player well known in the Portsmouth League, Pat McEvoy.
Pat played in the Portsmouth League for many years and was active as an organiser as well as a player. He seems to have stopped playing in 2004, but it is great to see he started again in 2017 for Cosham Chess Club and even played at the recent 2022 Fareham Congress
The magazine’s aim was stated in the editorial as:
“The prime function of this magazine is to act as a communications medium amongst the junior chess community in Hampshire. Since the majority of junior chess activity in Hampshire is organised by Chilworth Chess Club, it is in the nature of things that most of the communication should be from us to you. However, there is no reason why local organisers shouldn’t use the magazine to publicise their own activities lo a wider audience. I would like to emphasise, however, that it is devoted to serious chess only, and events such as lightning tournaments, quickplays, etc will not normally be considered to be appropriate for inclusion”
Pat McEvoy
Contents
The magazine is broken down into a number of sections and I have included details on some of them:
- National Championship
- Five Pound Winner
- The British Championship
- International
- Attack Attack
- EPSCA Under 11
- Hampshire Junior League
- Goodbye
- Grading List
- Diary
National Championship
The culmination of the long term plan of the Hampshire Junior Chess Organisation in winning a National Counties Championship came true in 1983. I have detailed the Hampshire players results below, adding the grades which shows the strength of the team at this time. This was evident with a player of Dominic Tunks strength being the reserve who had to step in at the last moment.
Interestedly the Hampshire team were fielding a future GM (Wells) and IM (Rossiter), but it does seem that a number of the Hampshire players are currently no longer playing actively.
U18 National Championship
| Board | Hampshire | Colour | Grade | Hants Res | Opponents | Opp County | Opp Res |
| 1 | Peter K Wells | W | 215 | 1 | P.O’Neill | E Glam | 0 |
| 2 | Ian A Welch | B | 189 | 1 | R Canning | Yorks | 0 |
| 3 | KR Fuller | B | 182 | 0.5 | D Watts | Middlesex | 0.5 |
| 4 | P Rossiter | W | 165 | 0 | S Hood | Staffs | 1 |
| 5 | J Baillie | W | 167 | 0 | S Mitchell | Yorks | 1 |
| 6 | Dominic R Tunks | B | 150 | 1 | T Wegener | E Glam | 0.5 |
| 7 | J Goddard | B | 163 | 1 | A Deighton | Staffs | 1 |
| 8 | Graham Strouts | W | 0 | AN Stone | Middlesex | 1 | |
| 9 | Nigel Sibbert | W | 1 | N Ralphs | E Glam | 0 | |
| 10 | J Atwood | B | 159 | 1 | M Mitchell | Yorks | 1 |
| 11 | A Daley | B | 150 | 1 | G Wall | Middlesex | 0 |
| 12 | KR Walker | W | 149 | 0.5 | A McCumiskey | Staffs | 0.5 |
| 8 |
Five Pound Winner
This section had a game from a local junior and in this instance this was a win by Dominic Tunks playing for Emsworth against D Hamman representing the fantastically named Malins Road Manglers!
The British Championship
A breakdown of the Hampshire players at the 1983 British Chess Championship. Philip Rossiter and Caroline Hallet both won British Chess Championship titles. Philip finishing ahead of Michael Adams to win the Under 14 title and Caroline winning the girls title from the same tournament.
The magazine has a paragraph (or more) on each of the juniors, as well as details on the older players that also participated, which included Tony Kosten, Arthur Brameld, Martin Buckmaster, Steven Bell and Commander AJ Peters as well as others.
International
Moving away from Hampshire, information on the International Junior scene, as well as non junior international activities such as the European Championship and the Lloyds Bank Masters.
Hampshire Junior League
Details on the thriving Hampshire Junior League an extract of which can be seen below. 14 teams across Hampshire of which the main activity was in the Portsmouth area participated in the first season of this league. To encourage less powerful clubs it seems there was an upper limit of ECF 140.
A very closely fought season, so Waterlooville A finish ahead of Basingstoke A on match points only. The Co-operative and Crofton teams were not far behind. Hopefully I will be able to find out more details on subsequent seasons.
Goodbye
A goodbye to a number of the Juniors who were turning 18 and would therefor not be eligible for the junior ranks in the future. It was pleasing to see that Chess was not all consuming for these players and they all had done fantastically well at School with great A grades. It mentions Peter Wells interest in politics, but pleasing to say Peter chose the more honourable route of Chess Player rather than the pitfall of the Political life!
Summary
I think I only have the one issue of this magazine in the archives, but if you are in the possession of any subsequent ones I would be interested in seeing these and maybe adding to the archives. I think the magazine was well structured, with a lot of thought and passion poured into it. This reflects the commitment of certain people (Pat McEvoy and Terry Hollington) in their work on the Hampshire Junior scene in the 1970’s and 1980’s and obviously helped a number of players reach their potential. This can also be seen from the other tournaments in the Portsmouth / Southsea area which I have documented previously (to be updated on new site in future).
Please leave any comments and if you have any other information on the magazine I would love to hear them.
Chilworth Review Issue 1 Sept 1983
PDF Version of Chilworth Review Magazine.