The 1984 Hampshire Individual Chess Championship was held at Southampton University over two weekends (19th – 20th and 26th – 27th November 1983). The tournament also included the Southampton University Championship, which was only eligible to the University students. Although it was played in 1983 this was for the season 1983/84, hence recorded as 1984.
The picture at the top is of Keith Gregory from the Hampshire Championship 33 years later (2016) than his tournament win this year. Happy to add one of the younger Keith if supplied.
Update 3rd April: Tony Williams has supplied his games with a brief summary of each one. Keith Gregory has also supplied details on the crucial last round.
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.
Schedule
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 1984 tournament was controlled by Hampshire veteran AC Barton who first played in the championship in 1947 and won the tournament in 1968. To ensure the tournament did not have an odd number of players, he also played this year.
The entry form is included in the gallery, but highlights from this is interesting reading:
- Two games per day on Saturday and Sunday
- 48 moves in 2 hours after which the Conductor has the right to require players to play on or adjudicate at his discretion after 48 moves have been played
- The conductor has the right to reject players who have defaulted in previous tourneys without due cause
- The winner holds the County Championship Trophy for one Year. A small replica to be given also for his retention
- Please bring a clock if you have one
My assumptions from this are that there had been issues with defaults in previous years, hence the point on this. Clocks were not always available and therefore encouraging players to bring one would be of assistance. With adjudications still being a regular occurrence at this time this was included in the rules, but it is interesting that there was an option to insist players continue playing after 48 moves. This is not something that I was aware of ever being used in tournaments. I am curious as to how many games were adjudicated and how many were played on?
In addition I wondered how this affected AC Barton’s game with him being the controller. According to Peter Przybycin it seems Iain Stenhouse took on the running of the tournament and this was therefore not something in AC Barton’s control. When pressed about any other recollections of the tournament Peter did state it was 40 years ago and he had initially forgotten he even played in the tournament!
Finally, I like the option of the small replica trophy (do any past winners still have these and if so can they send a picture?)
Tournament
I do not have round by round information, as the cross table in the archives just indicates the player pairings from which you can see their results. It does have additional notes such as AD Crossin loss be default due to car breakdown and others (some of which are hard to read). The U would appear to refer to University Tournament eligibility.
As you can see from the cross table the winner of the tournament was Keith Gregory. This was his third Hampshire Individual Chess title, but he would go on to win another two in the 1980’s. Keith finished ahead of two time winner Gerald Bennett, who was the reigning champion and the University’s Simon Roe who was graded 197. Simon won the University Championship going through the tournament unbeaten. In third place was AK Reeve who played for Hampshire in the early 1980’s but more recently seems to have been playing for Stockport.
This was an impressive result by Keith who won seven games, losing just the once to Simon Roe. I have detailed the top three players results below, although I do not know which round they were played in.
Update 3/4/2023 – After speaking to Keith at a County Match he mentioned that his final round was against Gerald Bennett, Keith had six points from his seven games whilst Gerald was on five points. Therefore if Keith lost this would have meant three players would be tied on six points. This crucial game was very tight with Keith defending a difficult position, but he turned the tables and won the game and the tournament.
Keith Gregory 7/8
- CB Baker – 1
- David Bell – 1
- GH Bennett – 1
- A Cullinane – 1
- W Purkiss – 1
- AK Reeve – 1
- SJ Roe – 0
- B Wilson – 1
Simon Roe 6/8
- David Bell – 0.5
- GH Bennett – 0.5
- A Cullinane – 1
- K Gregory – 1
- W.Purkiss – 1
- AK Reeve – 0.5
- A Striling – 0.5
- R Walmsley – 1
AK Reeve 5½/8
- Gerald Bennett – 0
- MG Buckley – 1
- A Cullinane – 1
- K Gregory – 0
- D Hannam – 1
- JW Quantrel – 1
- SJ Roe – 0.5
- A Stirling – 1
As mentioned due to an odd number of players the organiser AC Barton played, to ensure every round had a pairing (no byes were allowed). In his letter to the HCA Secretary John Grant it seems he was not that impressed with his own performance. Playing whilst having some organising duties for the tournament is probably not recommended and with a score of two points from eight games his performance was below his expected score, with a grading of 165.
I made 3 downright blunders in my games when I had drawn positions – must be old age.
AC Barton Dec 1983
Games
Update 3/4/2023 – Tony Williams has supplied a summary of his tournament and his games. Many thanks to Tony for this.
Round Opponent Result Comments
- Austin (Gus) Crossin – Draw – I played several interesting games against Gus in the 70’s & 80’s, in this one Black was slightly better out of the opening, after the following a brief tactical flurry (13 Bxh7) the resulting endgame is drawn.
- A Goffin – Win – White emerges with a small advantage in the opening but misses the tactics after 22 Nb5.
- D Bell – Draw – White has an advantage out of the opening, but the game is equal again after 24 Qd6.
- W Purkiss – Loss – White finds an interesting continuation 12 gxf3 but Black emerges from the opening with an advantage and is winning after 25 Nc3 only to blunder later with 32…Kg7 (I probably missed Qg6).
- C Baker – Loss – Black emerges from the opening with an advantage and builds up a lot of pressure on the kingside. However 33 …Kxf6 is a mistake according to Stockfish and white is winning only to later blunder on move 47.
- A Barton – Win – My opponent blundered in dead level position, so I cant take any credit for winning this game.
- Martin Buckley – Win – This is probably my best game from the tournament. Blacks adopts a Dutch setup against the English and White’s plan of f3 and e4 looks good but unfortunately 13 Ne4 blunders a pawn. Black is winning and has an unstoppable kingside attack following the plausible looking 14 Qf1.
- A Stirling – Draw – Last round, short draw and cant say anything else about this one.
All games can be played through here, but below is his win against Martin Buckley, which Tony mentions as his best game.
Gallery
The following documents were in the Hampshire Chess Archives. The original entry forms, the cross table with additional hand written comments such as AD Crossin’s car trouble and a letter from Tournament Controller AC Barton to HCA Secretary JEC Grant. This letter detailed the prize winners, surplus and that Iain Stenhouse had agreed to take over the running of the competition the following year.
Summary
It is interesting to see the tournament run in a different format to the ones I have written about previously and I think in the 1970’s and 80’s playing the tournament over two weekends was a common occurrence. However, there is very little to go on from the Archives as so far this is the only cross table I have. The winners are detailed in the AGM Minutes and from the trophies, but if anyone has additional information please do let me know so this can be added to the archives.
I enjoyed seeing the players from the various era’s playing, with the old school mixing with newer players coming through. Giving up two weekends to play chess is not easy (or even one weekend) and you tend to see these tournaments with a mix of younger and older players. For players with young families this is much more difficult, as they have other commitments. I cannot see this format returning, as players are starting to prefer the faster time controls and newer players are sometimes surprised if they get two hours for all moves, let along for 48 moves.
Please do leave a comment if you have additional information or questions on the tournament.
Acknowledgements and Sources
- Tony Williams
- Peter Pyzybycin
- Hampshire Chess Archives
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