The 1971 Hampshire Individual Chess Championship (for the 1970 / 71 season) was held at Southampton University the weekends of 27th November and 4th December 1970. There were five rounds each weekend, which ensured there was plenty of chess played and that the correct champion was crowned. That said it was very close at the top with just half a point separating the top four players.
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 1971 Championship was a ten round swiss, played over two weekends at Southampton University.
In total 24 players entered. There were three players graded over 190 and four over 180, and no-one was graded under 150 which meant this was a tough tournament. These gradings translate to 2125, 2050 and 1825 ratings for those not used to the older grades. The organiser was AC Barton who won the championship in 1968, and also played in this tournament. I am not sure if he also ran the tournament, but it was likely to have been the case.
The only information I have on the tournament are the details from the Hampshire Bulletin which was a final table summary, therefore no round by round details. There were also two games included which were critical for the title between Cubitt and Bennett and Bennett vs Stebbings, which are included later in the article.
Four players dominated, with Clive Cubbitt winning on tie-break from AJ Stebbings on 8 out of 10, whilst Gerald Bennett finished third (again on tie-break) half a point behind these two, from Sunil Weeramantry (Hikaru Nakamura’s Stepfather) who was studying Law at Southampton University. All other players were at least two points behind these four.
Corresponding with Sunil Weeramantry a couple of years ago put a bit more light on three of the players at the top who all were at Southampton University.
We had a very active chess club at the University and we competed regularly in the Southampton, Bournemouth and Hampshire Leagues. Our top player was Clive Cubitt, followed by myself and Tony (AJ) Stebbings. I also travelled up to London on a regular basis to play for Waltham Forest in the London League.
Sunil Weeramantry – February 2022 Email
You can see that the young generation were having an impact in Hampshire Chess. The top four in the championship would have been in their very early twenties at this time.
Southampton University teams are reliant on their current intake of students as to how strong their teams are. Looking at the Southampton Chess League Winners table you can identify periods when they were very strong, as they won Division One.
SCL Division One Champions – Southampton University
- Five times between 1967/1968 to 1974/75
- 1978/1979
- 1980/1981
- 1982/1983 to 1983/1984 (University B!)
- 1986/1987 to 1989/1990
- 1991/1992
- 1998/1999
- 2012/2013 to 2013/2014
- 2017/2018
One of their golden periods was from 1967 to 1975, which coincides with the period when these three players were at the University at at some stage.
Back to the tournament, the individual results of the top four players from their 10 games were:
(1) – C Cubitt 8/10
- AC Barton – 1
- GH Bennett – 0
- MA Cartwright – 0.5
- TI Cowling – 1
- AR Cullinane – 0.5
- AM Edmonds – 1
- RM Ellison – 1
- MW Johnson – 1
- AJ Stebbings – 1
- S Weeramantry – 1
(2) – AJ Stebbings 8/10
- GH Bennett – 1
- DE Bower – 1
- MA Cartwright – 1
- TI Cowling – 1
- C Cubitt – 0
- AM Edmonds – 0.5
- MW Johnson – 0.5
- R Lockyear – 1
- LC Walters – 1
- S Weeramantry – 1
(3) – GH Bennett 7½/10
- C Cubitt – 1
- AR Cullinane -1
- AM Edmonds – 1
- MW Johnson – 1
- R Lockyear – 0.5
- M Roberts – 1
- S Southcoote-Want – 0.5
- AJ Stebbings – 0
- LC Walters – 1
- S Weeramantry – 0.5
(4) – S Weeramantry 7½/10
- AC Barton – 1
- JA Bassett – 1
- DE Bower – 0.5
- TI Cowling – 1
- C Cubitt – 0
- AM Edmonds – 1
- MW Johnson – 1
- A Samuels – 1
- AJ Stebbings – 0
- LC Walters – 1
A bit of research seemed to be in order for the top four players. If anyone has anything additional to add please do let me know.
Clive Cubitt – 1st Place
Clive Cubitt was the U18 British Chess Champion in 1969 ahead of future GM’s Tony Miles and John Nunn. In the 1977 British Chess Championship he finished joint 4th. He seemed to have stopped playing Chess in 1999, but has recently returned, playing in the Great Yarmouth Chess Congress in 2022 and 2023. Although he has not played any FIDE rated games for more than 20 years he has a FIDE Rating of 2340 and I presume he could have claimed his FIDE title in the past?
Tony Stebbings – 2nd Place
Tony Stebbings obtained his FM title in 2013 and is still playing chess, mainly in Kent and the SCCU. Picture below of him drawing against GM Anatoly Vaisser at the World Seniors Championship in 2016. His highest FIDE rating since 2000 was 2330.
Gerald Bennett – 3rd Place
Gerald Bennett was a two time Hampshire Champion in 1973 and 1983, and the article I completed on the 1973 provides additional background on his Hampshire and non Hampshire Chess career. Gerald was a couple of years older than the others, but would still have only been 21 or 22 at this time. He also obtained the FIDE title at a later date, with his highest rating of 2320.
Sunil Weeramantry- 4th Place
Sunil Weeramantry still comes under the Sri Lanka Federation on FIDE, and like the others is a FIDE master with his highest rating being 2344 in 1987. More famously known as the trainer and Stepfather of Hikaru Nakamura he was (and still is) a very strong player.
A final table was included in the Hampshire Bulletin no 17. From this you can see the gap in score between the top four and the others. In addition, a number of the older Hampshire players took place including previous and future champions SL Russell (1935), AM Edmonds (1962), Squadron Leader LE Vine (1952), AC Barton (1968) and MW Johnson (shared 1972). A side note on MW Johnson who moved into Correspondence Chess, and won the British Correspondence Chess Association (BCCA) championship title in three consecutive years (1989, 1990, and 1991). He became a ICCF IM in 1994 and ICCF GM in 1995.
Final Table
Games
There were two games included in the Hampshire Bulletin which were important to the final placings. The first one saw Gerald Bennett defeat the tournament winner Clive Cubitt.
The second game from the Hampshire Bulletin was Bennett vs Stebbings, and was much more fun. Not sure why no winning games from Clive Cubitt were included, but two games by Gerald Bennett. This game actually has Bennett winning, but this is not the same as the crosstable, I presume the names are the wrong way round (and I have switched them accordingly).
Summary
As stated this was a four horse race between these strong young players. There was certainly not much to separate them, and in the end it came down to tie-break and therefore I would disagree with the comments on the final table which stated Clive Cubitt was an easy winner. This is never the case if it is decided on tie-break! All four players would go on to be even stronger in the next few years with three of them obtaining the FM title and the winner reaching the same level without claiming the title (this is my assumption, based on his rating).
I am sure local players were pleased when they moved on from Hampshire, giving others a chance at the Individual Championship. One notable player missing from the tournament was Marshall Thomson who did win four of his titles in the 1970’s.
Acknowledgements and Sources
- Hampshire Chess Archives
- English Chess Federation
- Roger Scowan for photograph of Tony Stebbings
- Sunil Weeramantry for details on Southampton University players
- Britbase for Gerald Bennett photograph and information on British Chess Championships
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