Southsea Chess Congress 1976

There were numerous chess tournaments held in Southsea from the 1970’s. These were a great opportunity for local players to gain experience. Using the Hampshire Archives I have scanned the tournaments and also added these to Excel tables as some of the scans are not clear.

If you played in any of these tournaments and wished to provide any additional information or have your games from these I would love to add these to the website.

I have obtained some games from the players who participated in the Southsea Congress. Unfortunately not from the actual tournaments, but a selection are included at the bottom of the article. In addition, downloads of the tournaments crosstables which I have added into Excel are available.

The actual scans of the Hampshire Archives original documents, which I used to create the spreadsheet version are also included.

Update 4thJuly 2021: Tony Williams who played in the Southsea Championship has provided a photo of the winner Glenn Lambert from the 1976 British Championship which was played in Portsmouth (tournament details on the excellent BritBase).

Tony has also provided his scorebook which details his 6 games from the tournament. These are included in the Crosstable scans / Photos below. Using this information I have added the game from Miles vs Lambert from the tournament to the games.

Games
Crosstable scans / Photos
Downloads

In 1976 there were six tournaments and they were all play all ones. As per 1975 there was a championship, challengers and four premier tournaments. I do not have any details of any junior tournaments, although this does not mean that these were not held?

I have to admit the idea of splitting the tournaments into all play all over five to nine rounds rather than the open swiss tournaments is something which is very inviting and would be good to see this being available in the future. I have no idea if these were played over a weekend or longer, but I am hoping that some of the participants will be able to supply additional details and when received I will update accordingly.

Southsea Championship 1976

The winner from 1975 Tony Carter did not play this year and the top two scores were from Keith Gregory and Glenn Lambert. However, Glenn Lambert’s result against D.Smith was not detailed, so the tournament was either a tie or Glenn won? Hopefully I will find this out later and update the archives from 45 years ago!

Southsea Challengers 1976

The challengers had two ladies invited, including the well known locally (and nationally) Gillian Moore. I don’t know much about Jane Seymour, apart from the name being more widely known as one of the wives of Henry VIII.

The tournament was closely contested with no players undefeated. C.D Harris was triumphant, closely followed by D.J Scotney and A.J Griffiths. I have played D.J Scotney in the Portsmouth Minor Championship twice in the 1990’s and once in the league where he played for Victory. Despite two wins and a draw I was lucky to win one of these where he played a nice tactic to win material. I will provide this game, to show his tactical ability.

Southsea Premier “A” 1976

Following the Championship and Challengers, there were four Premier tournaments, of which the A was the top, This was won by I.P Judd with four wins and a draw. He plays for Chichester and in the games section I have his win against me from 2002.

I notice Terry Hollington also played, who I remember being mentioned often when I started playing in the Portsmouth League, as he was an organiser of several of the early tournaments? I think he moved onto scrabble from Chess, but hopefully additional information will be supplied and if so I will update.

I presume S.D Bell is Stephen Bell who played for Southampton, as did his Father. He went on to be a very strong player reaching ECF 220 in 1999, but has been inactive since 2003.

Southsea Premier “B” 1976

The Premier B group was won by R.W Davis, with junior Ian Welch one point behind. A number of regular Portsmouth players participated in this nine all play all tournament, although with one player absent this was a seven round tournament in the end.

R.W Davis had no draws with six wins and one loss. In fact the whole tournament only had one draw, so some really fighting play by the players.

Southsea Premier “C” 1976

The Premier C was won by P.M Spurgeon with junior Carey Groves second, another one of the strong juniors in Portsmouth at this time. Future GM Peter Wells also played finishing in the middle of the pack.

Southsea Premier “D” 1976

The Premier D was a nine round tournament and C.J. Powell scored eight wins and one loss from his nine games. Unfortunately this great score was not enough to win, as P.H Starkey dropped just one drawn from his nine games and won the tournament with the phenomenal eight and half points.

I am presuming these two players were men (boys?) as the ladies seem to have their first name detailed in the archives and there were three in the Premier D tournament. Good to see this high percentage, especially from the 1970’s.