National County Chess Matches 2013 / 14

Hampshire had a very busy chess season, playing in the West of England, Chiltern League and National stages. Adding all these matches (26!) would make this post too long, and therefore it will be split into separate articles. This post is to cover just the National stages where Hampshire played 3 matches.

The previous Chiltern League article for the same season is here and the WECU one here. Photo above has Hampshire’s Captains Ashraf Syed receiving the National U140 Championship trophy, with Sam Murphy and John Wiseman on the left.

If anyone has any additional information on the season, please do let me know, either in the comments or by email Hampshirechesshistory@gmail.com

National County Matches
Hampshire Player Performance
Summary
Acknowledgements and sources

For the record of Hampshire County matches and links to any articles I have written the table on the Hampshire County Chess Matches page will detail these. The Hampshire County Chess History page summaries the leagues Hampshire have played in and the successes Hampshire have achieved. Both of these are available from the menu at the top of the site as well.

National County Matches

Hampshire are eligible to enter the National Stages of the County Championships as they are part of the WECU. This year they entered the Minor and the Under 140 competitions. If you saw the results from the WECU you would have seen that Hampshire finished 4th of 5th in the A team, and 3rd of 4th in the B team championships.

For the national stages not all counties enter and specifically from the WECU they don’t. Therefore even though our low places may not have deemed qualification, this was not an obstacle.

Hampshire vs Greater Manchester – 26 April 2014
Hampshire U140 vs Lancashire U140 – 14 June 2014
Hampshire U140 vs Nottinghamshire A – 30 June 2014

Hants A v Gt Manchester A – 26 April 2014

Hampshire were paired against Greater Manchester in the preliminary of the Minor County Championship. The other counties which had entered this were Somerset, Surrey, Suffolk, Nottinghamshire, Sussex, Leicestershire, Cambridgeshire and Essex.

Spoiler alert, Hampshire did not win, as Suffolk beat Nottinghamshire in the final.

Hampshire met Greater Manchester and safe to safe it was not their best result, losing 3½ – 11½ (I have added board 16 as a double default as I don’t have the details) and there were no Hampshire winners!

This was the end of the A team’s National season, but we still had the Under 140 team!

Board	Hants A	Colour	Grade	Result	Gt Manch A	Colour	Grade	Result
1	Ian D Thompson	White	217	0	Ali Reza Jaunooby	Black	202	1
2	Dominic R Tunks	Black	188	½	Andy K Reeve	White	200	½
3	Paul F Cooper	White	182	½	Ioannis Lentzos	Black	193	½
4	David W Fowler	Black	181	0	Harry Lamb	White	181	1
5	Stuart W Knox	White	167	½	Adam Tyton	Black	175	½
6	Martin GS Buckley	Black	165	0	Graham P Burton	White	174	1
7	David F Thompson	White	160	0	Dave Toole	Black	174	1
8	Timothy J Davis	Black	159	½	Steve Tranter	White	169	½
9	Gillian A Moore	White	147	0	Philip J Olbison	Black	162	1
10	Barry A Kocan	Black	146	0	Yaroslav Kolodiy	White	158	1
11	Michael Roberts	White	145	½	Jon I Lonsdale	Black	150	½
12	James I Chilton	Black	140	0	Alan Beresford	White	155	1
13	Stephen D LeFevre	White	139	½	David Kierman	Black	154	½
14	Ashraf Syed	Black	136	0	David Pardoe	White	144	1
15	Kevin G Steele	White	134	½	Ian D Lamb	Black	137	½
16	Default			0	Default			0
			160	3½			169	11½

Hants U140 v Lancs U140 – 14 June 2014

Hampshire also entered the U140 Championship, along with Lancashire, Middlesex, Nottinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Kent and Staffordshire. With seven teams one County had to have a bye to the semi-final and this was Hampshire. Lancashire beat Middlesex in the quarter final and were Hampshire’s opponents in the semi-final.

Digressing slightly, I captained the Hampshire Under 150 County Team in 2003, and after winning the quarter final against Dorset (9-7) we met Lancashire in the semi-final and lost 6½ – 9½. I was slightly annoyed that their captain, who was graded 134 slotted himself in on bottom board, below a player graded 104. Whilst I battled and lost on board 7, he comfortably beat a player 22 points lower than himself. I had managed to put together a strong team, with future IM Peter Roberson on board 1 (149 graded junior at the time) and not dropping under 140 until board 9; and I was hoping that Hampshire would go all the way (Lancashire did go on to win the title, beating Yorkshire in the final)

Anyway, although nothing to do with this this match, it is pleasing to see Hampshire coming out on top, against a similar strength team. The grades for the match were probably based on the start of the season, as Lancashire board 1 was graded 149 (and is currently 2248, so the sort of player you want in your graded limit team).

But Ashraf had collected a number of strong Hampshire players, and we came out on top 8½ – 6½. Roy Ashmore, Ashraf Syed, John Symons and John Wiseman were the Hampshire winners. Again this was played over 15 boards, and I do not know if anyone won board 16 by default?

Board	Hants U140	Colour	Grade	Result	Lancs U140	Colour	Grade	Result
1	James I Chilton	White	140	0	Nugith Jayawarna	Black	149	1
2	Roy E Ashmore	Black	137	1	Luboslav Socha (Max)	White	131	0
3	Ashraf Syed	White	136	1	David snr Stanfield	Black	142	0
4	Timothy J Chapman	Black	135	½	James Carrington	White	128	½
5	Bob A Cleave	White	134	½	David Malcolm Innes	Black	128	½
6	John B Symons	Black	134	1	J David Kelly	White	135	0
7	Kevin G Steele	White	134	½	Peter Edhouse	Black	124	½
8	Jonathan G Young	Black	133	½	Dave S Almond	White	123	½
9	Frank A Bonsey	White	129	½	Steven M Flaherty	Black	119	½
10	Christopher Smith	Black	128	0	Chris Lysons	White	123	1
11	Philip Gething	White	119	½	Colin Friar	Black	122	½
12	Barry Diaper	Black	117	0	Lawrence Harold	White	117	1
13	John M Wiseman	White	117	1	Josh Pendlebury	Black	120	0
14	Brian V Cochran	Black	105	½	Derek Marsden	White	114	½
15	Paul Eyles	White	99	1	Anthony Jinks	Black	115	0
16	Default	Black			Default	White
			126	8½			126	6½

Hants A vs Notts U140 – 30 June 2014

In the final Hampshire’s opponents were Nottinghamshire, and again both teams were evenly matched on grades. Another close match saw Hampshire come out on top by two points, with our winning players being Jamie Chilton, Robert Davenport, Jon Symons, Kevin Steele, Chris Smith and John Wiseman.

With an up and down season for the County teams, the Under 150 / 140 team led by Ashraf were the highlight for Hampshire. Defaults in the WECU affected their record, but in the Chiltern League and National Championship Hampshire played 7 matches and won them all.

All the County Final matches were played together in Warwick and the ECF have a report on this which includes one of the Hampshire games and a couple of photos.

Board	Hants U140	Colour	Grade	Result	Notts U140	Colour	Grade	Result
1	James I Chilton	Black	140	1	William Atiomo (snr)	White	140	0
2	Robert Davenport	White	140	1	Darran Ince	Black	139	0
3	Roy E Ashmore	Black	137	½	Alan J Kenyon	White	137	½
4	Ashraf Syed	White	136	½	James L Thomson	Black	135	½
5	Timothy J Chapman	Black	135	0	Robert H Willoughby	White	135	1
6	Bob A Cleave	White	134	½	Stephen J Foster	Black	134	½
7	John B Symons	Black	134	1	Graham J Gibson	White	135	0
8	Kevin G Steele	White	134	1	George J Murfet	Black	134	0
9	Chris R Smithers	Black	133	0	Peter W Gorecka-Marshall	White	127	1
10	Frank A Bonsey	White	129	½	Alan S Robinson	Black	127	½
11	Christopher Smith	Black	128	1	Hambel M Willow	White	126	0
12	John H Watts	White	122	0	Michael J Nailard	Black	126	1
13	Philip Gething	Black	119	½	Graham Neil	White	124	½
14	John M Wiseman	White	117	1	Terry WT Lavelle	Black	121	0
15	Sam J Murphy	Black	113	0	Chris Budd	White	122	1
16	James A Barnett	White	111	½	Michael J Harper	Black	120	½
			129	9			130	7

**Hampshire-Under-140-Champions – Source ECF**

The winning Hampshire U140 team moving left to right, Alex Holowczak (ECF arbiter and official), Unknown, Bob Cleave, John Wiseman, John Symons, Ashraf Syed, Jim Barnett, Rob Davenport, Sam Murphy, Unknown, Unknown and Kevin Steele. Please let me know of the unknown ones.

Update April 2024: Many thanks to David Culliford for supplying a number of the unknowns.

**Ashraf-Syed-winning-Hampshire-captain**

Hampshire Player Performance – National

You will not normally play many matches in the National stages, but we did play three, and some players were in each fixture. John Wiseman and John Symons had a 100% record from their two games, whilst Roy Ashmore won one and drew one game.

Hants Player	Win Percentage	Points Scored	Games Played
John M Wiseman	100.0%	2	2
John B Symons	100.0%	2	2
Kevin G Steele	66.7%	2	3
Roy E Ashmore	75.0%	1.5	2
Ashraf Syed	50.0%	1.5	3
Paul Eyles	100.0%	1	1
Robert Davenport	100.0%	1	1
Christopher Smith	50.0%	1	2
Frank A Bonsey	50.0%	1	2
Philip Gething	50.0%	1	2
Bob A Cleave	50.0%	1	2
James I Chilton	33.3%	1	3
Dominic R Tunks	50.0%	0.5	1
Brian V Cochran	50.0%	0.5	1
James A Barnett	50.0%	0.5	1
Stephen D LeFevre	50.0%	0.5	1
Paul F Cooper	50.0%	0.5	1
Jonathan G Young	50.0%	0.5	1
Stuart W Knox	50.0%	0.5	1
Timothy J Davis	50.0%	0.5	1
Michael Roberts	50.0%	0.5	1
Timothy J Chapman	25.0%	0.5	2
Ian D Thompson	0.0%	0	1
Barry A Kocan	0.0%	0	1
Chris R Smithers	0.0%	0	1
Gillian A Moore	0.0%	0	1
Barry Diaper	0.0%	0	1
John H Watts	0.0%	0	1
David F Thompson	0.0%	0	1
Sam J Murphy	0.0%	0	1
David W Fowler	0.0%	0	1
Martin GS Buckley	0.0%	0	1

Summary

This was the third time Hampshire won the U140 championship (2009/10 & 2010/11) and this was actually their largest win, with the others being 8 – 8 (bd count win) and 8½ – 7½. This was a great achievement for Hampshire and to their Captain Ashraf.

As some background on Hampshire Chess this season the winners of the top divisions in the Southampton Chess and Portsmouth Chess Leagues were Southampton University A and Portsmouth A respectively. The 2013 Hampshire Congress has 75 entrants (a record at this time) was won by Alex Ruiz of Southampton Chess Club.

The full list of Hampshire officers during the 2013 / 14 season were: