The Winter Congress was notable for its
domination by juniors who made up a large proportion of all three
sections. However this time the more experienced adults managed to hold
their own for the top places despite the daunting opposition.
98 players competed in the three
sections, our second highest entry. There were 23 juniors taking part
and standout performances by Max French, Vorobyev Svyatoslav, Max Walker
and Kandara Acharya.
The Minor section was particularly well
supported and we will have some rearrangement of the grade boundaries
next time to rebalance the Major, which was the smallest section.
FIDE rated Open
Keith Arkell had a particularly tough
game against Lewis Martin and though a pawn down in the rook ending he
had the better winning chances, but in the end decided to steer it into
a draw and try to win the final round. He then proved too tough for the
Russian junior Vorobyev Svyatoslav and ended up clear winner with Lewis
beating another junior, Chirag Hosdurga, for second. Max French drew his
final game to end up in the third place group along with Svyatoslav and
Horia Bogdan from Bath and Chris Smith of North Bristol.
Chirag Hosdurga - finished with an
impressive score of 3/5
Major under 155
Somerset junior Max Walker was on fire
with four straight wins but Stephen Williams proved too canny in the
final round and managed to dominate the game despite a tough fightback.
Chris Strong proved his competitive ability with an unbeaten 4/5 to join
Max in second place.
Stephen M Williams 1st
4.5/5
Max Walker 2nd =
4/5
Minor under 125
This was a large section and a
particularly fine performance by nine year old Kandara Acharya who was
only able to play three of the rounds but won them all. Alistair
Drummond managed to stay ahead with a final round draw to win the
tournament, and after a long final game Caspian Fowler from Millfield
joined Alistair Marston and Matthew Goatcher in second place.
