The 1969 Hampshire Individual Chess Championship (for the 1968 / 69 season) was held at Southampton University the two middle weekends of October 1968. There were five rounds each weekend, and the tournament was dominated by the young Seth Saverymuttu, who only dropped two draws from his ten games.
Contents
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.
Tournament
The Hampshire Individual Chess Championship has used numerous formats in the last 90 odd years, from the Knockout format in 1930, qualifying sections e.g. 1932 to the current Swiss tournament held over three days. The format used for the 1968 Championship was a ten round Swiss, played over two weekends at Southampton University.
These Tournament articles have been produced based on the material from the Hampshire Bulletins, and I am extremely grateful for the work which went into producing these, and also the fact that copies still exist in the Hampshire Chess Archives. When you look at the Silver Rook Trophy and just see a name of the winner, you have no idea on what actually happened in the tournament.
To be able to actually piece together an article based on this original document, and the games hopefully brings the tournament to life. If nothing else it gives details on who participated, and the quality of the games. Writing this 56 years after the tournament was completed means reflection on the players chess career is also available. This brings an opportunity for others to flesh out the material based on their knowledge as well, so please do take this opportunity to do so.
Looking at the entrants to the 1969 Championship, you have the senior players at this time including Squadron Leader Vine who was born in 1900 (although he was only 9 years older than me when he played in the tournament) and AC Barton. The mid 20 to 30 years olds such as Iain Stenhouse, Bob Cullinane and Maurice Johnson, who a number of Hampshire players still active today would have played against, and the teenagers / early 20 years old. These would have included Seth Saverymuttu and Gerald Bennett. Other players would have fallen into one of these categories and I will try and add details on them if known. A number it will be along the lines I don’t know much about this player, so please do help me expand on this position.
In total 18 players entered the 1969 Championship, there were four players graded over 180, and despite two players graded under 130, the tournament players had an average grade of 161 making it an open field.
Players
- AC Barton 181
- AR Cullinane 167
- DE Bower 152
- F Grumbley 127
- G St J Gray 142
- Gerald H Bennett 184
Players
- GL Pritchard 150
- HD Varadarajan
- Iain A Stenhouse 154
- JA Hunt 100
- MA Bramer 173
- Marshall WJ Thompson 188
Players
- MW Johnson 150
- PM Collins 177
- S Saverymuttu 185
- Sq-Ldr L Vine 165
- TI Cowling 179
- VG Tulevski
There were three previous champions in the Championship, Squadron-Leader Leslie Vine (1952), Marshall WJ Thompson (5 times champion at this time and 9 times in total) and the current holder from 1968, and organiser AC Barton.
The Hampshire Bulletin for Nov 1968 included the Final Table and a number of games which I have used for the basis of this article. In addition the next edition in Jan 1969 had game corrections. As the editor George Kilmister stated trying to decipher the game scores was not easy and this is something I can sympathise with after keying in various games from recent editions of the tournament.
The tournament was dominated by the 17 (or 18) year old Seth Saverymuttu with eight wins and two draws from his ten games. Gerald Bennett who was only two years older finished second, with PM Collins and Marshall Thompson half a point behind.
Final Table
Games
We are fortunate that a number of games were included in the Hampshire Bulletin, and I give these below with light commentary. I say fortunate, but my ability to copy the mainly descriptive notation to algebraic is poor, not helped by the errors in the documents. A number of these were identified and corrected in the next edition, but even so this took me longer than it should.
Rather than split the game by players I have decided to add these for the relevant rounds. The games can also be downloaded here.
It was not just me who found the games a challenge, the Editor stated the below in the Hampshire Bulletin on the request to publish all of the games. His response is below and I think he did a fantastic job in producing the games. These days we do use duplicate scoresheets and with two copies this makes the process easier to enter. In addition the software makes this better as well. But it is still not easy and a great thank you to Arthur Brameld who has done a wonderful job on this in the past. I think I will be asking him to do this again next year as I am still working my way through the 2023 Major Games. The Open ones are available though.
Rounds 1 to 3
The eventual champion gets off to a great start beating Hampshire Championship regular participant Bob Cullinane on the white side of a King’s Indian.
The player who has won the 2nd most Hampshire Individual Championships Marshall Thompson (behind Tony Corkett) takes on his fellow club member Iain Stenhouse (Southampton Chess Club) and shows how to play the against the Sicilian Richter Rauzer.
To check the quality of this game I let Lichess complete an analysis. White came out with 95% accuracy and just the one inaccuracy. This is not always the best indication of quality, but I think this highlights the winners type of play with direct and sensible moves and not allowing Black too much counterplay.
The third game from round one saw the current champion AC Barton against Terry Cowling. Terry played an excellent game which included a Knight sacrifice on f7, and although Mr Barton lost on time his position was completely lost. Terry is not a player I know much about but he finished with plus 2 and only really struggled against the top 3 players, losing to Saverymuttu, Bennett and Thompson.
There were four games included from round 2, with the first being the important clash between Seth Saverymuttu and Marshall Thompson. A strange pairing for round 2 as both players were due Black, and it was Saverymuttu who had the benefit of the White pieces for the 2nd game running.
The 2nd game from round two saw PM Collins take on one of the lower rated players F Grumbley. I don’t know anything about Mr Grumbley, he only played the two games for the County team. He scored two points in this Championship and the same in the 1970 Championship, and was overmatched against some of the strongest players in the County. If anyone knows any more details on him, please let me know.
In this game against Peter Collins he put up a good defence, but was eventually overwhelmed. Peter Collins was the player I was quite harsh on with regards to his comments on the 1970 Hampshire Championship. He was not a player I knew about but after exchanging messages with Paul Habershon he mentioned that Peter Collins is still playing chess, for Lichfield Chess Club in the Midlands. He has also seen him at recent British Seniors Championships.
HD Varadarajan took on GL Pritchard in the next game. Mr Varadarajan did not seem to have a grade in 1968 but he did in the next two years and these were 172 and then 184. I think he was only temporarily in Hampshire at this time, but scored 50% in the championship with four wins, four losses and two draws. He also played in the 1968 Churchill Memorial in Bognor Regis scoring 4 points from 9 games. This tournament saw a number of other Hampshire players participating including Saverymuttu, Bennett, Stenhouse PM Collins and and Cullinane. It also had a certain Ulf Andersson playing.
GL Pritchard was more active for Hampshire, playing approx. 60 County games from 1949 to 1981 and often played in the Hampshire Championship. Worthy of note is that in one of his last county games in November 1980 he drew with a young Mickey Adams (9 years old ) in the County match against Cornwall. Pritchard fell into the older players group as he had been playing for the county for almost 20 years by this time. He also played is the Major Open in the 1986 British Championship which was held in Southampton, although he only scored the one point, and was obviously past his best. On a more positive note he was Southampton Chess Club Champion in 1957.
An exciting King’s Gambit ensued, although both sides made mistakes in this more open type of game.
I know very little about Squadron Leader Leslie Vine apart from it always is enjoyable to mention his title and that he played for Hampshire from 1936 to 1972. I think he played against Hampshire in the mid 1920’s representing Somerset and according to Chessbase was born in 1900 and may have moved here before the 2nd world war?
He was Hampshire Champion in 1952, and often entered the championship, with his first entry being in 1939 and probably his last in 1970/71. He held various roles for Hampshire including President, Honorary Examiner and Adjudicator. In this game he took on Terry Cowling in an Advance French, an opening I know a bit more on than the previous King’s Gambit.
Terry Cowling got a very nice position playing Black and this was a game which had to be adjudicated, but this looks to have been an easy decision for the adjudicator.
Update: Many thanks to Andy Mills for noticing the end of the game was incorrect, due to me mixing up descriptive notation, as move R-B1 should have been Rc8, rather than my Rf1, which would have been from R-B8.
Seth Saverymuttu takes on DE Bower in a King’s Indian Sämisch with a great counterattacking performance. David Bower is another player I don’t know much about. He played over 50 games for Hampshire between 1968 and 1981 scoring 56% and his grade reached 181 in 1975. He played in number of the Hampshire Individual Championships in this period, normally finishing in the middle of the table.
This win meant Seth Saverymuttu had won his first three games.
The next game saw Marshall Thompson bounce back from his loss against Saverymuttu in round two by beating MA Bramer in 23 moves. Black was hanging on in a worse position but blunders first a piece and then gets his Queen trapped. MA Bramer is a new name to me, he only played for Hampshire four times, but was a strong player, scoring over 50% in the Championship.
The final game from round three saw an excellent attack by Gerald Bennett take down Terry Cowling.
Rounds 4 to 6
Round 4 was on the Sunday morning and saw two of the strongest players meet. Seth Saverymuttu played the King’s Indian Attack when faced with Gerald Bennett’s preferred French Defence. He was not making too much progress, until Bennett castled Queenside with gave the opportunity to push his Queen side pawns. But it was not until Black made an incorrect King move that the position crumbled.
MA Bramer now took on Dr Vasil Tulevski who is another new player to me. He only played two games for Hampshire but in this Colle System was holding his own, until he blundered by taking an ill advised pawn.
The last game from round 4 see Hampshire Veteran Squadron Leader Leslie Vine against one of the lower graded players G St J Gray. A very well played Sicilian Taimanov where Black was never really in the game. It is nice to show a win by Vine, as I normally seem to be showing his losses against the top players. Leslie Vine finished the tournament on plus 1, whilst G St J Gray scored minus 1.
Saverymuttu moves onto five points with a win against Terry Cowling. George Kilmister mentions that this game is well worth a play through and I am not one to disagree with a man with an MBE. This is more like the games from the early Hampshire Championships, with aggressive play in King pawn openings.
After showing the loss against Leslie Vine it is good to have a win by G St J Gray against Iain Stenhouse. Iain’s King’s Indian defence quickly comes unstuck against the aggressive Four Pawn’s attack and a quick loss is the result.
There was a game included in the Bulletin where Pritchard beat the lowest graded player (JA Hunt), but I could not easily compile, so have left out. If you are interested check out the bulletin on page 6.
All three games included from round 6 were draws.
Finally someone stopped Saverymuttu’s wining streak. Peter Collins was the player who held him to a draw In a very complicated game where both players missed chances. The game finishing in a repeated position as a draw was probably a fair result.
Gerald Bennett was held to a draw by Bob Cullinane.
The current champion AC Barton was paired with future 3 times British Correspondence Champion Maurice Johnson. Johnson pushed his e pawn too early and a drawn position was soon reached. With a 31 grading difference this was a good result for Maurice Johnson.
Rounds 7 to 10
Seth Saverymuttu returned to his winning ways in round 7, crushing MA Bramer in 23 moves. Mr Bramer could have resigned even earlier as his position was hopeless in under 10 moves. Mr Bramer would play better chess in other games as he did finish on plus one score in the championship, but this was a game he would not have been keen to show.
Peter Collins beat Gerald Bennett in a well played King’s Indian. It seems that Black miscalculated the position when he initiated a Queen swap and had to sacrifice the exchange rather than allow the loss of two pawns in a passive position. But he could not generate any chances and White soon gave the exchange back as he would then win Black’s
The first game from round one sees Saverymutta play an exchange sacrifice leaving Leslie Vine’s King in the middle. The Queen and Knight work very well in this position and a pretty mate was on the cards.
In the next game there was mate on the board, as black’s attack breaks through first.
The last day’s first game was between Terry Cowling and Peter Collins and started as as London System. Black soon had an advantage but decided on an exchange sacrifice which probably should not have been played. That said Black was not worse after this. It maybe that I have not entered the game correctly but I think Black was probably winning when a draw was agreed. It also could be that the game was close to having to be adjudicated, which would have been difficult to award as a win.
AC Barton held Saverymuttu to his 2nd draw in the Championship. This could have been another win but one mis-step allowed White to sac his last Rook and ensure a repeated position. A very nice combination by AC Barton.
The last two games from round 2 have the lowest graded playing matched against the future British Correspondence Champion. JA Hunt was doing ok but then allowed his Queen to be trapped. A nice miniature by Maurice Johnson.
The last game was by future twice Hampshire Individual Champion Gerald Bennett and Iain Stenhouse. Gerald Bennett played the Benoni and Stockfish thinks White has a very nice position. Personally I think Black’s position was fine (unless you are playing against a computer). Anyway the tables are soon turned and he crashed through offering an exchange sacrifice and I am guessing that White was in time trouble, as he allowed a checkmate.
An excellent game, especially for the last round of the tournament.
Summary
This was Seth Severymuttu’s first Hampshire Individual Chess Championship Title and he would go on to win another one the following year, although that would be a closer competition, where he still scored eight and a half points, but this was only half a point ahead of Marshall Thompson.
The previous year has not been written yet, but in what I presume was his first attempt he scored a very respectable six and a half points from ten games. Although from the comments this seems to have been a disappointing result as he was 2nd until a last round loss.
Seth Saverymuttu was a great talent but it seems he went into medicine after University and did not resume playing into 2013 and is currently inactive again. He represented England in the Glorney Cup and who knows how strong he could have become if he continued to play.
There were other very strong players in the competition, with Gerald Bennett and Marshall Thompson being the ones which stand out the most. But for me it is seeing the other players who never win, but still play year on year as they obviously enjoy the competition, and it gave them the opportunity to play some of the best local players.
Acknowledgements and Sources
- Hampshire Chess Archives
- Britbase
- Mickey Blake for helping me with exporting of pgn files
- Paul Habershon for information on Peter Collins
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