The second Hampshire Chess Championship after the 2nd World War was held in 1948. Unfortunately there is no mention in the British Newspaper Archive on the tournament. The normal newspapers where details are found are a bit hit and miss in this period, which is a shame.
If additional information is located I will add to the article, but this post will rely on the Hampshire Chess Archives (mainly the minutes from the AGM and Council meetings) and the Wilf Pratten games which were supplied by Arthur Brameld / Roger Paige which have a couple from the tournament.
Picture above from Russell – Pratten game.
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.
Hampshire Chess Championship
The Hampshire Chess Council minutes for the meeting on the 22nd November 1947 detailed the entries and sections for the 1948 competition. The format was that each player would play two games with each opponent in his group and that the winners go forward into a double round final.
It does not say, but as the sections were split into regions, Ursell and Caplan would have been to the west of the county (Bournemouth) which is why there were only two players in Section I.
A drop in participants this year, with ten players rather than the fourteen in 1947, although there is no record if this was due to less being selected or less wiling to play? A Caplan was the only player from the ten who did not play in the 1947 Championship.
Section I
- PA Ursell
- A Caplan
Section II
- WJ Fry
- HH Northover
- AS Dance
- LE Vine
Section III
- AC Barton
- JA Barrett
- SL Russell
- WH Pratten
I presume WF Fry is actually WJ Fry and Barrett is JA Barrett who played for the County team from 1945 to 1947?
Final Positions
As noted, there is very little information on the tournament, but the Council Meeting of 2nd October 1948 stated that Mr Pratten was presented with a replica of the Individual Championship Trophy. If I locate any additional information I will update this article. Maybe we need to bring back the winner receiving a replica trophy?
Below is a picture of the Silver Rook plinth which details the winners of the tournament, apologies for the biscuits and my finger! This was taken at the 2022 Hampshire Congress. Although there is no entry for 1949 I think it may have actually taken place and was won by WJ Fry.
Games
I have two games from the Wilf Pratten database from the Championship which I have lightly annotated below.
Summary
This was Wilf Pratten’s 2nd Championship win and this was no walk in the park, as there were a number of previous and future champions in the competition. The two supplied games are indicative of the aggressive play of the winner.
Acknowledgements and sources:
- Britbase – Wilf Pratten information
- Roger Paige / Arthur Brameld for Wilf Pratten games