National County Chess Matches 2023 / 24

Hampshire do not currently play in the WECU, but will pay our fees which ensures Hampshire players are eligible for any British Championship qualifier held by the WECU. This also allows us to play in the County National stages. Playing in the Chiltern League does not allow entry to the County National stages.

National U1850 Competition

Hampshire U1850 7½ – 8½ Yorkshire U1850 11 May 2024
Gallery

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.

Hampshire U1850 7½ – 8½- Hampshire U1850 11 May 2024

Match Captain Ashraf Syed was keen for Hampshire to play in the National stages, he has previously led the Hampshire U140 team to win three National championships in 2009/10, 2010/11 and 2013/14. Full details of the County Champions are detailed on the ECF site.

Ashraf was keen to enter Hampshire into the U1650 championship, until we realised he would not be eligible to play in the team. It was therefore decided that the U1850 competition would be the best fit for Hampshire. As no WECU team entered this section, Hampshire entered as the sole WECU entry, and therefore had a bye to the quarter finals. This position also meant Hampshire were slotted in as a home team.

We were paired against the winner of Staffordshire / Yorkshire match, and when we saw Yorkshire win this match 12½ – 3½ with a team averaging 1782 on current ratings (1732 as at Sept 2023), we knew we were in for a tough match.

It was agreed that we would play in a neutral venue, which as per the rules Yorkshire would book. Ashraf tried to get as strong as team as possible to play, but a number of players (myself included) were not available, but luckily a number of Hampshire County stalwarts made themselves available for the trip to Lutterworth in the Midlands.

As expected we were heavily outrated, with an average rating difference of 150 points per board, but we certainly gave Yorkshire a huge fright, only losing by the narrowest of margins. If we had scored half a point more we would have won on match points, due to Kevin Steele winning on board 2. Other Hampshire winners were Scott Leadbetter, Gillian Moore and Henri Blin (whose opponent was rated almost 250 points higher!).

There were a number of players who also held stronger players to draws, and the team can feel proud of their efforts in the match.

If any players would like to supply games, or snippets of games from this match I will add to the report. Hampshirechesshistory@gmail.com

Board	Hants U1850	Colour	Grade	Result	Yorks U1850	Colour	Grade	Result
1	Harry Smith	Black	1833	½	Peter F Mason	White	1840	½
2	Kevin G Steele	White	1773	1	David W Stephenson	Black	1839	0
3	Tom Philidor	Black	1731	0	Robert Dean	White	1806	1
4	Philip Tarrant-Edwards	White	1723	0	David A Patrick	Black	1798	1
5	Timothy J Chapman	Black	1703	0	Granville Boot	White	1791	1
6	Scott Leadbetter	White	1689	1	Climate Mupfiga	Black	1788	0
7	Chris J McSheehy	Black	1689	½	Robin F Browne	White	1780	½
8	Gillian A Moore	White	1689	1	David Booth	Black	1775	0
9	Ashraf Syed	Black	1633	½	William Boothman	White	1765	½
10	Jonathan G Young	White	1607	½	Steve Gibss	Black	1728	½
11	David Culliford	Black	1579	½	Dave Colledge	White	1709	½
12	Sam J Murphy	White	1544	½	Gary Corcoran	Black	1695	½
13	David Long	Black	1436	½	Robert Mitchell	White	1694	½
14	Henri Blin	White	1429	1	Isaac Fossey	Black	1693	0
15	Dean Rawlins	Black	1331	0	John Grasham	White	1691	1
16	Dominic Campion	White	1211	0	Vivien Webster	Black	1623	1
			1600	7½			1751	8½