48th Torbay Chess Congress Report

14th - 16th November 2014 at the Toorak Hotel, Torquay

The full results and cross tables can be viewed here.

Brendan O'Gorman's photographs taken at the Congress can be viewed here.

Entries

There were 153 in 2012, and 152 in 2011.

Winners

Open

The Open winner was Dominick Mackle (203 Newton Abbot) on 4/5. Dominick wins £200, and qualifies for the 2015 British Championships for which this Congress is the W.E.C.U. nominated open event.

Second place was shared between Jeremy Menadue (189 Truro), Meyrick Shaw (170 Exmouth) and John F Wheeler (181 Cosham) on 3.5/5, winning £64 each.

The Grading Prize for grades 183 to 176 inclusive was shared between Stephen P Dilleigh (182 Horfield) and Graham Bolt (180 Railways London) on 3/5, winning £15 each.

The under 176 Grading Prize was won by Craig Woolcock (163 Barry) on 3/5, winning £30.

Major

The 1st/2nd/3rd prizes were shared between David Gordner (168 Cosham), Michael Stinton-Brownbridge (164 Plymouth) and Christopher Archer-Lock (168 Maidenhead) on 4/5, winning £74 each.

The Grading Prize for grades 147 to 157 inclusive was won by Richard Smith (149 Truro) on 3.5/5, winning £30.

The under 146 Grading Prize was won jointly by Alan Papier (145 Bristol and Clifton)) and Andrew Heard (138 Beckham and Charlton) on 3/5, winning £15 each.

Intermediate

1st Prize was won by Nathan Mills (132 Brixham) on 5/5, winning £110.

Joint 2nd Prize was won by Steven Woolgar (122 Patchway) and George Georgiou (139 Swindon) on 4/5, winning £55 each.

The Grading Prize for grades 126 to 132 inclusive was shared between Michael Plumb (130 -) and E. Barry Sandercock (132 Chichester/Bognor) on 3.5/5, winning £15 each.

The under 125 Grading Prize was won by Leonard Woodridge (120 Devon) on 3/5, winning £30.

Minor

The 1st prize winner was Michael Cuggy (107 Brixham) on 4.5 / 5, winning £110.

The joint 2nd/3rd prize winners were Philip J McConnell (102 South Hams), Peter J D Hughes (95 Mutual Circle), Edmund B Kelly (107 Exeter Juniors) and David B McGeeney (113 Bristol Cabot) on 4 / 5, winning £30 each.

The Grading Prize winners for grades 99 to 107 inclusive was shared between Alan Fraser (105 Beckenham Bromley), Philip May (99 Godolphin), Peter Saunders (103 Patchway) and Philip J Spargo (107 Camborne) on 3.5/5, wWinning £8 each.

The Under 99 Grading Prize was won by Roy Greenhalgh (97 South Hams and Plymouth) on 3.5/5, winning £30.

British Championship Qualifier and Bursary of £100.

Dominic Mackle.

Torbay League Individual Championships

Best Score by a Devon Player in the Graded Sections (Major/Intermediate/Minor)

Winner of the Ralph Newman Cup: Nathan Mills (Brixham) 5/5

Best Score by a Junior

John Whitfield Cup awarded to the best junior score across all 4 sections. The winner was Edmund Kelly (Exeter Juniors) in the Minor Section scoring 4 from 5 at the age of 14 years in 2014, Grade 107.

Team Event

A four-player team event was held for the third time, with the players making up the team having to come from the same club. There were 11 teams: Tiverton, Bude, Exmouth, Wimborne, Plymouth (A), Plymouth (B), Newton Abbot, Teignmouth, South Hams, Exeter and Truro.

Truro won the £40 team prize, collected on behalf of the team by Richard Smith, scoring 11.5 from a possible 20. The team consisted of Jeremy Menadue (Open), Richard Smith (Major), Michael Hill (Intermediate) and Terry Dengler (Minor). In second place were the Newton Abbot team on 11: Jaquie Barber-Lafon (Intermediate), Nandaja Narayanan (Minor), Vignesh Ramesh (Intermediate) and Jim Knott (Minor).

Venue

The Toorak Hotel, Torquay, was a good venue and it was intended to re-book but the Toorak Hotel has been booked by another organisation for same weekend in November 2015 and therefore the alternative venue of the Livermead House Hotel, Torquay, is being booked. The actual date of booking will be announced when the contract has been made with the Hotel. The Devon County Chess Association Congress has been held at the Livermead House Hotel for the past two years and the Livermead House Hotel is a very good venue.

Control Team

Thanks go to the Control team Tony Tatam, John Ariss and Ray Chubb. Tony Tatam did an excellent job in managing the entries, preparing progress charts and pairing cards to a high standard. He processed the pairings of the Congress on the “Tournament Director” (a.k.a. "UTU Swiss") program, and the full results were on the internet at the Tournament Director website before being copied n to this website.

Thanks to the helpers who came early and left late and assisted in dealing with the task of setting up the equipment and, at completion, packing everything away.

Torbay Congress Organiser

Ken Alexander tele: 01404 871443 Email: [email protected] is the new Torbay Chess Congress Organiser for 2015 and will make significant improvements. He is currently progressing a dedicated Torbay Congress Website, where information and entry form down loads will be available.