Hampshire Individual Chess Championship 2006

After speaking to Tom Anderson briefly at the Fareham Congress in October 2022 I decided to complete the article on the Individual Championship from 2006, where Tom had his most successful competition.

I had lost the original article from the old HCA website, but luckily John Davis had backups which he supplied, and I have used as the basis of this article. The 2006 article was one which did not have photographs or that much information on the tournament and I have therefore expanded it with some additional information. But it did have the games of the Open and Tom had also annotated two of his.

The 2006 Hampshire Congress was held Friday 10th November to Sunday 12th November 2006 over six rounds. There were two competitions at this time, an Open and an Under 125, which I will cover in a separate article.

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.

Tom Anderson is reunited with the silver rook 16 years after he won it

Update: At the 2022 Hampshire Congress Tom Anderson had a picture taken with the Silver Rook, which is the one at the top of the article. Nov 2022

Round 1

Gavin Lock was graded twenty points higher than anyone else and was therefore a big favourite in the tournament. In the first round Richard Edney held on for 56 moves and was unlucky to not draw the game. No such luck for me on board two against Harry Lamb when I decided to sacrifice a piece for no reason and lost soon after.

Player	Grade	Result	Player	Grade	Result
Gavin R Lock	194	1	Richard H Edney	147	0
Graham Stuart	140	0	Harry Lamb	174	1
Martin J Cutmore	170	1	Joseph A Coburn	139	0
Gillian A Moore	133	½	David A Cutmore	167	½
P John Patience	166	½	Ian G Matthew	129	½
Peter L Dallas	122	0	Khaled Esmat	165	1
Thomas R Anderson	149	½	Peter IR Byre	120	½
Nick Burton	137	1	Controller Bye
Mark V Abbott	161	½	Bye
Leslie C Allen	148	½	Bye

Round 2

Gavin Lock continued his winning ways beating Winchester Chess Club player Khaled Esmat. Tom Anderson beat David Cutmore, who along with his brother (Martin) was playing in the tournament. Tom annotated this game back in 2006 for the original article (hopefully re-created correctly!).

Click any move to open chess board.

Player	Grade	Result	Player	Grade	Result
Khaled Esmat	165	0	Gavin R Lock	194	1
Leslie C Allen	148	½	Martin J Cutmore	170	½
David A Cutmore	167	0	Thomas R Anderson	149	1
Mark V Abbott	161	0	P John Patience	166	1
Peter L Dallas	122	0	Gillian A Moore	133	1
Joseph A Coburn	139	½	Graham Stuart	140	½
Richard H Edney	147	1	Peter L Dallas	122	0
Harry Lamb	174	½	Bye
Nick Burton	137	½	Bye
Peter IR Byre	120	0	Withdrew

Round 3

Players with the White pieces did very well in round three, with seven wins and one draw from the eight games. It was my game where I had White, which was the draw. In a game where each player had an advantage at some stage. The final position was better for Black, but I think Ian was short of time and agreed to my draw offer.

Although a computer will give this as winning, managing this in practice in a game with no added time is another matter!

Gavin Lock kept his 100% record by beating John Patience although three players were just behind him on two and a half points from three games. These were Martin Cutmore, Harry Lamb and Tom Anderson, who all won against their lower graded opponents.

Back with Gavin’s opponent, John Patience was an interesting character, he first played for Hampshire as a junior in 1960 and played in the British Chess Championship in 1966. Unfortunately, John finished in joint last position on three and half points, but as John played in the Under 18 championship the year before he would have only been 18 or under in the championship. His fellow Southampton Chess Club player Gillian Moore who was also playing in the 2006 Hampshire Championship was more successful at the British Championship as she jointly won the British Ladies Championship. Actually, John and Gillian’s first match for Hampshire was the same, playing against Surrey in the Amboyna Shield in October 1960 (Gillian won, John lost, and Surrey beat Hampshire 33½ – 16½, (thanks to Fraser McLeod for spotting my typo where I stated this was against Berkshire)). Details can be seen in the scanned SCCU Bulletin from October 1960 (page 2).

The SCCU Bulletins make fascinating reading (as do the Westward Ho! ones). Links to relevant ones here:

SCCU 1958 to 1978
SCCU 1978 to 1999
Westward Ho! (I only have a selection of these though)

I remember seeing John at a Poker tournament in Southampton a few years prior to this (my first ever one) and asked him at this Championship about this. He told me he had played professionally in Las Vegas previously and really enjoyed being there. I think he had to move back due to his visa running out? This was all before the Poker boom, although 2006 would have been in this period. I think John died a few years after this tournament as his last chess game was in December 2008.

Player	Grade	Result	Player	Grade	Result
Gavin R Lock	194	1	P John Patience	166	0
Harry Lamb	174	1	Leslie C Allen	148	0
Thomas R Anderson	149	1	Gillian A Moore	133	0
Martin J Cutmore	170	1	Nick Burton	137	0
Khaled Esmat	165	1	Richard H Edney	147	0
David A Cutmore	167	1	Mark V Abbott	161	0
Peter L Dallas	122	1	Joseph A Coburn	139	0
Graham Stuart	140	½	Ian G Matthew	129	0.5

Round 4

Seven players took advantage of taking a bye in the Saturday evening round, and due to the odd number, Les Allen also had to have a bye (although as a controller bye this was a full point bye).

The four games which took place gave Harry Lamb or Martin Cutmore the opportunity to catch Gavin on three and a half points. But their game was drawn. Going into the fifth round Gavin remained half a point ahead of Harry Lamb, Martin Cutmore and Tom Anderson.

Player	Grade	Result	Player	Grade	Result
Harry Lamb	174	½	Martin J Cutmore	170	½
Ian G Matthew	129	0	David A Cutmore	167	1
Mark V Abbott	161	1	Peter L Dallas	122	0
Nick Burton	137	1	Khaled Esmat	165	0
Leslie C Allen	148	1	Controller Bye
Gavin R Lock	194	½	Bye
Thomas R Anderson	149	½	Bye
P John Patience	166	½	Bye
Gillian A Moore	133	½	Bye
Graham Stuart	140	½	Bye
Leslie C Allen	148	½	Bye
Joseph A Coburn	139	½	Bye
Richard H Edney	147	½	Bye

Round 5

A key round, with the two highest graded players matched. Their game was a fairly quick draw (23 moves), when the moves were repeated. Final position below.

Tom Anderson proved that beating one Cutmore brother was not enough and beat Martin in this round to join Gavin Lock on four points from five games. Tom was having a fantastic tournament although going into round six he was faced with an opponent 45 points higher graded. To put this into FIDE context this is roughly the difference between World Champion Magnus Carlsen and a good British GM Simon Williams – a tough ask for Tom!

Tom had also annotated his win against Martin Cutmore back in 2006.

Player	Grade	Result	Player	Grade	Result
Gavin R Lock	194	½	Harry Lamb	174	½
Thomas R Anderson	149	1	Martin J Cutmore	170	0
David A Cutmore	167	1	Nick Burton	137	0
P John Patience	166	½	Khaled Esmat	165	½
Gillian A Moore	133	½	Leslie C Allen	148	½
Richard H Edney	147	0	Mark V Abbott	161	1
Peter L Dallas	122	1	Graham Stuart	140	0
Joseph A Coburn	139	0	Ian G Matthew	129	1

Round 6

A solid (very well played) game from Tom Anderson gave him the draw against Gavin Lock to ensure he would win the Hampshire Individual Chess Championship and a share of first place. Although Gavin has been a Hampshire player in the past, I presume he was not eligible in 2006? Harry Lamb is not a Hampshire player, but he joined these two on four and a half points by beating David Cutmore.

Tom’s solid draw against Gavin is giving below.

Les Allen won the Under160 prize as well as the Len Walters U160 trophy, whilst Nick Burton won the U140 grading prize. Les was a fantastic person who has also since tragically passed. I remember a number of great conversations with Les, although in our games he normally came out on top.

Ian Matthew won the Peter Marshall trophy (as Nick would be ineligible). I think it is worth mentioning that although I withdrew in round six, I thought there was an odd number of players and therefore someone would have had to have a bye. But this does not seem to be the case and I think this may have affected the winner of this trophy, so a belated apology from me if this was the case.

Player	Grade	Result	Player	Grade	Result
Thomas R Anderson	149	½	Gavin R Lock	194	½
Harry Lamb	174	1	David A Cutmore	167	0
Martin J Cutmore	170	1	Khaled Esmat	165	0
Leslie C Allen	148	½	P John Patience	166	½
Mark V Abbott	161	1	Gillian A Moore	133	0
Joseph A Coburn	139	1	Richard H Edney	147	0
Nick Burton	137	1	Peter L Dallas	122	0
Ian G Matthew	129	1	Controller Bye
Graham Stuart	140	0	Withdrawn

Final Table

As the basis of this is from the ECF grading site, which does not take into account byes the rankings do not match the final real positions. But to amend this I would have to recreate the numbers for each player, which I have not done. But the table can be sorted to allow you to do this.

Rank	Name	Grade	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Rd 6	Score
1	Martin J Cutmore	170	14+	13=	12+	3=	4–	7+	4
2	Gavin R Lock	194	15+	7+	8+	bye =	3=	4=	4½
3	Harry Lamb	174	16+	bye =	13+	1=	2=	5+	4½
4	Thomas R Anderson	149	17=	5+	9+	bye =	1+	2=	4½
5	David A Cutmore	167	9=	4–	6+	10+	12+	3–	3½
6	Mark V Abbott	161	bye =	8–	5–	11+	15+	9+	3½
7	Khaled Esmat	165	11+	2–	15+	12–	8=	1–	2½
8	P John Patience	166	10=	6+	2–	bye =	7=	13=	3
9	Gillian A Moore	133	5=	10+	4–	bye =	13=	6–	2½
10	Ian G Matthew	129	8=	9–	16=	5–	14+	bye +	3
11	Peter L Dallas	122	7–	15–	14+	6–	16+	12–	2
12	Nick Burton	137	bye +	bye =	1–	7+	5–	11+	3½
13	Leslie C Allen	148	bye =	1=	3–	bye +	9=	8=	3
14	Joseph A Coburn	139	1–	16=	11–	bye =	10–	15+	2
15	Richard H Edney	147	2–	11+	7–	bye =	6–	14–	1½
16	Graham Stuart	140	3–	14=	10=	bye =	11–		1½
17	Peter IR Byre	120	4=						½

Final Position Summary

The prize winners of the tournament were as below.

Place	Player	Score
1st=	Thomas R Anderson	4½
1st=	Harry Lamb	4½
1st=	Gavin Lock	4½
County Champion	Thomas R Anderson	4½
U160 Grading Prize & (Len Walters Trophy)	Les Allen	3
U140 Grading Prize	Nick Burton	3½
U140 Peter Marshall Cup	Ian Matthew	3