Hampshire Chess Championship 2017 – Major

Alongside the 2017 Hampshire Individual Championship, the Major and Minor Congresses were held. The Major had 23 players participating, but one player dominated winning all six of his games.

This was Geoffrey Brown whose picture is above. Geoffrey had an ECF grade of 153 at this time, although he would normally be found playing in opens as his grade has been in the 180’s before. That said, winning a Major is very difficult, let alone with a maximum score and Geoffrey played some very good games to win the competition.


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.


Round 1

On a personal view my tournament started off very well, defeating the top seed Joe Coburn with the Black pieces. After this it all went downhill, not winning another game. But I was persuaded by John Wheeler to enter my game for the John Dunleavy Memorial Best Game Prize, and it may be that not many others entered, or the committee were impressed with the game as it won.

A lot of the other games were tough battles with eight of them going over 40 moves. Unlike a lot of tournaments where the 1st round can be a bit of a bloodbath the difference between the players grades was on average only about 18 ECF, which meant you would not expect the higher graded players to win each game.

There are not many of my games which I would add to these articles, but I will make an exception in this case. Click on any move to open a chess board.

PlayerGradeResultPlayerGradeResult
Joseph A Coburn1570Graham Stuart1371
Geoffrey M Brown1531David R Agostinelli1360
Ian G Matthew134½Brendan O'Gorman151½
Lukasz Marek Piecha1501Jeremy Hudson1320
Thomas Evans130½Simon Venables149½
Tristan Dray-Pearce146½Kevin Sawers128½
John R Sellen1261Christopher G Webb1440
Phil T Foley1421Richard J Wright1230
Mark R Stone121½Gillian A Moore141½
Alex Dore0John P Carter1
Christopher Smith1370John B Symons1191
Peter Manning137½Bye

Round 2

Three players moved onto two points. Geoffrey Brown beat John Sellen, Lukasz Piecha accepted the pawn in my Morra Gambit and beat me in a complicated game. Finally, Phil Foley came out top against John Symons.

A nice tactical move by Geoffrey Brown to win a pawn. Although it took another 40 moves to win the game.

PlayerGradeResultPlayerGradeResult
Geoffrey M Brown1531John R Sellen1260
Graham Stuart1370Lukasz Marek Piecha1501
John B Symons1190Phil T Foley1421
John P Carter135½Tristan Dray-Pearce146½
Simon Venables1491Ian G Matthew1340
Gillian A Moore1411Thomas Evans1300
Brendan O'Gorman1511Mark R Stone1210
Christopher G Webb1440Christopher Smith1371
Richard J Wright1231Alex Dore0
Jeremy Hudson132½Joseph A Coburn157½
Kevin Sawers1281Peter Manning1370
David R Agostinelli1361Controller Bye

Round 3

Of the players on maximum points Geoffrey Brown beat Lukasz Piecha, whilst Phil Foley drew against Brendan O’Gorman. He was joined on two and a half points by Gillian Moore who won the all Southampton Chess Club clash beating Kevin Sawers.

This was an interesting game when a not obvious move was missed after White had already correctly sacrificed a piece for an even game. Although the combination left Black with a Rook and two minor pieces for the Queen, White had four pawns and Black’s pieces were not well placed. A difficult move to spot, let alone play. After exchanging Queens Black soon converted the better position into a win.

PlayerGradeResultPlayerGradeResult
Lukasz Marek Piecha1500Geoffrey M Brown1531
Phil T Foley142½Brendan O'Gorman151½
John P Carter135½Simon Venables149½
Kevin Sawers1280Gillian A Moore1411
Tristan Dray-Pearce1461John B Symons1190
John R Sellen1261Graham Stuart1370
Ian G Matthew1340Richard J Wright1231
Christopher Smith1370David R Agostinelli1361
Thomas Evans1300Jeremy Hudson1321
Alex Dore0Christopher G Webb1441
Joseph A Coburn157½Bye
Mark R Stone121½Bye


Round 4

Ten players took a bye in the Saturday evening game, but 10 players played their third game of the day along with two who had taken an afternoon bye. Geoffrey Brown continued his winning way defeating Phil Foley. Thomas Evans also won, and the other four games were drawn.

At the end of the round this meant Geoffrey Brown was on maximum points on four points. Gillian Moore was a full point behind on her own, with a further nine players a half point behind Gillian. Unless Gillian could get a win against Geoffrey in the fifth round the tournament would be decided before the last round.

PlayerGradeResultPlayerGradeResult
Geoffrey M Brown1531Phil T Foley1420
Simon Venables149½Lukasz Marek Piecha150½
Jeremy Hudson132½Kevin Sawers128½
Alex Dore0Thomas Evans1301
Christopher G Webb144½Mark R Stone121½
Joseph A Coburn157½Christopher Smith137½
David R Agostinelli136½Bye
Brendan O'Gorman151½Bye
Gillian A Moore141½Bye
John P Carter135½Bye
Tristan Dray-Pearce146½Bye
John R Sellen126½Bye
Ian G Matthew134½Bye
Richard J Wright123½Bye
Graham Stuart137½Bye
John B Symons119½Bye


Round 5

Geoffrey Brown playing Black quickly exchanged Queens against Gillian and then won her a pawn as after BxN, BxB, Nb4 there was a nasty fork on d3 so Gillian wisely castled and gave up the pawn. After this it was a long grind, but Gilian finally threw in the towel on move 66.

It was a round where players with the Black pieces dominated with seven wins and only the one loss. With first place already decided it was the minor places which were still to be fought for, Lukasz Piecha, Simon Venables and Tristan Dray-Pearce all had three and a half points.

Meanwhile three players graded under 140 had three points and were in contention for this prize (John Carter, John Sellen and Kevin Sawers).

PlayerGradeResultPlayerGradeResult
Gillian A Moore1410Geoffrey M Brown1531
David R Agostinelli1360Simon Venables1491
Phil T Foley1420Lukasz Marek Piecha1501
Richard J Wright1230Tristan Dray-Pearce1461
Brendan O'Gorman151½John P Carter135½
Jeremy Hudson132½John R Sellen126½
Thomas Evans1301Joseph A Coburn1570
Graham Stuart1370Christopher Smith1371
John B Symons1190Christopher G Webb1441
Mark R Stone1210Ian G Matthew1341
Kevin Sawers1281Controller Bye0
Alex Dore½Bye

Round 6

Despite winning the tournament, Geoffrey Brown continued to fight for maximum points. Playing the Bird again Black’s King was caught in the middle as Black tried to attack on the kingside. But when a Knight managed to be deployed on d6 Black’s position soon crumbled.

This win put stop to Simon Venables chances of second place, leaving the Lukasz Piecha – Tristan Dray-Pearce game key for this placing. Tristan Dray-Pearce pushed too hard with a sacrifice which did not work, leaving Lukasz Piecha with second place one and half points behind Geoffrey Brown.

Of the three players battling for the Under 140 Grading prize only John Carter won, beating Gillian Moore. He therefore was successful in winning this prize.

PlayerGradeResultPlayerGradeResult
Geoffrey M Brown1531Simon Venables1490
Lukasz Marek Piecha1501Tristan Dray-Pearce1460
John P Carter1351Gillian A Moore1410
Kevin Sawers1280David R Agostinelli1361
Christopher G Webb1440Jeremy Hudson1321
John R Sellen1260Phil T Foley1421
Ian G Matthew1341Thomas Evans1300
Christopher Smith1371Richard J Wright1230
Joseph A Coburn157½John B Symons119½
Mark R Stone1210Alex Dore1
Graham Stuart1371Controller Bye

Other prizes can be seen in the HCA Secretary Report at the bottom of the article, but the Ladies prize was jointly won by Amanda Jones, Maha Chandar, Mansa Chandar and Gillian Moore all had 3 points, and have agreed to share the trophy between them


Final Table

As the basis of this is from the ECF rating site crosstable, which does not take into account byes the rankings do not match the final real positions. But to amend this I would have to recreate the numbers for each player, which I have not done. But the table can be sorted to allow you to do this.

RankNameGradeRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Rd 5Rd 6Score
1Geoffrey M Brown15316+10+2+3+9+4+6
2Lukasz Marek Piecha1506+19+1–4=3+8+
3Phil T Foley14215+17+11=1–2–10+
4Simon Venables14912=14+5=2=16+1–
5John P Carter13522+8=4=bye =11=9+4
6Jeremy Hudson1322–18=12+21=10=13+
7Christopher Smith13717–13+16–18=19+15+
8Tristan Dray-Pearce14621=5=17+bye =15+2–
9Gillian A Moore14120=12+21+bye =1–5–3
10John R Sellen12613+1–19+bye =6=3–3
11Brendan O'Gorman15114=20+3=bye =5=3
12Thomas Evans1304=9–6–22+18+14–
13Christopher G Webb14410–7–22+20=17+6–
14Ian G Matthew13411=4–15–bye =20+12+3
15Richard J Wright1233–22+14+bye =8–7–
16David R Agostinelli1361–bye +7+bye =4–21+
17John B Symons1197+3–8–bye =13–18=2
18Joseph A Coburn15719–6=bye =7=12–17=2
19Graham Stuart13718+2–10–bye =7–bye +
20Mark R Stone1219=11–bye =13=14–22–
21Kevin Sawers1288=23+9–6=bye +16–3
22Alex Dore5–15–13–12–bye +20+2
23Peter Manning137bye =21-½

Games

The games from the Hampshire Major were entered by Arthur Brameld and can be played through and downloaded here.


Photographs

All photographs are in the Hampshire Gallery, but I have included a few from the Major.


HCA Secretary Report

The Hampshire Chess Secretary produced a report on the congress, which is below.


Acknowledgements and sources:
  • Arthur Brameld for the chess games
  • John Wheeler for HCA Secretary Report
  • Keven Lamb for photographs

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