Hampshire Individual Chess Championship 1999

The 1999 Hampshire Individual Championship was held at Eastleigh Unity Club, which at the time was my club’s home venue. This was a good building to hold a small tournament, but the management never really understood the conditions which chess needs to be played. As a club we had issues with a band practicing on club nights or a keep fit class with accompanying music in close rooms. Subsequent moves to other venues proved beneficial for both the chess club and the Championship.

It was therefore a bold move to hold the Championship there, but needs must, as at the time other venues could not be found and the room rental was inexpensive. This report is based on documents from the Hampshire Archives which I have also included. In general this is a place holder to detail the championship and if additional information comes to hand I will update the report. Experienced Congress Director Pat McEvoy managed the tournament for the Hampshire Committee and did an excellent job, under difficult conditions.

Issues encountered in this tournament were the building not being open Saturday morning, as no-one had told the caretaker and a football match being played on the TV downstairs which was noisy. This was probably the Scotland – England Euro qualifier (which England won 2 – 0). Although the HCA Report states the issue was on Saturday afternoon, so may have been a different match?

The trophies were presented by the MP for Eastleigh David Chidgey.

The photo at the top of the report is of Dominic Tunks winning the 2003 Championship as there were no photos from this years competition.

If you have any additional information on the tournament, including games please do let me know.

The congress was split into three sections:

Open – Including the Hampshire Individual Championship
Under 150 – Including the Len Walter Trophy
Under 110 – Including the Parsons Cup

Games
HCA Report
Crosstable – added May 2023
Sources

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.

Open – Hampshire Individual Championship

Due to the number of entries in the congress it was decided just before the first round (as there were also late entries) that the Open (and the U110) would be played as an all play all. This was agreed with some confusion, but the 1st round of the congress was only delayed 30 minutes.

I do not have any information on the tournament apart from the six players who played and that it was won by Dominic Tunks with David Cordner second. This meant that Dominic retained the trophy he won in 1998 (report to follow) which was also played at the Eastleigh Unity Club.

The other four players were well known Hampshire players and the majority of them had either played in the Championships before or after this one.

Rank	Name	Grade
1st	Dominic Tunks	182
2nd	David Cordner	176
	Stuart Knox	168
	Martin Newbury	169
	Gavin Lock	169
	John Patience	163

Under 150 – Len Walters Trophy

The under 150 tournament was held as a Swiss with 15 players. Daniel Asiimwe was the winner, whilst future Individual Champion Tom Anderson and Emsworth’s Malcolm Body were joint second.

Malcolm Body moved to France in the 2000’s but continued to play chess. He was a strong club player (normally between 150 and 160 ECF) and certainly someone I struggled to beat with just one draw from three games in the local leagues.

Rank	Name	Grade
1st	Daniel Asiimwe	u
=2nd	Malcolm Body	148
=2nd	Thomas Anderson	146
	Graham Stuart	147
	Iain Stenhouse	136
	Adam Norton	131
	David Ward	129
	Neil Packer	130
	Peter Dallas	122
	Rod Langham	123
	John Zastapilo	120
	Lee Gold	124
	Tony Summers	106
	David Murchie	u
	Alan Hayes	u

Under 110 – Parsons Cup

Sherif Gonem won the all play all in the under 110. Sherif was strong enough to score three and a half points in the main championship in 2001 winning the Len Walters Trophy. He would have been a favourite in the under 110 field.

The details do not state the full name for Avery, therefore as there were a couple of Avery’s playing in Hampshire I cannot determine which one it is.