British Small Board Championship: Results 2004

There were 23 players this year at the Small Board Championships in Cambridge. The tournament, played on 13×13 boards, was again hosted by Cambridge Junior Chess & Go Club and held as part of a Chess and Go event with around 80 competitors in total.

More than a quarter of the players were juniors, and more than a third were double figure kyus. The median grade was 6 kyu.

As usual, the tournament was played in a mixed format. The higher ranked players started off in an even game tournament for the championship; once they were eliminated by losing two games they joined the other players in the handicap section.

The defending champion was Simon Goss 2 dan. The favourite to win was David Ward 4 dan, this year’s challenger for the British Go Championship. However, David lost to Matthew Woodcraft 1 dan in round 4, so another defeat would have eliminated him from the championship.

By the end of round 5, the only player left undefeated was national junior champion William Brooks on 4½ points. David Ward, Tim Hunt and Matthew Woodcraft were just behind on 4. But in round 6 David beat William and Tim beat Matthew to leave David and Tim on 6 points, so that the game between them in round 7 would determine the winner.

David won this game to take the title. William finished in second place after winning his last game and Tim was third.

There were also prizes for two other players winning 5 games—Matthew Woodcraft 1 dan and Alistair Turnbull 13 kyu.

Here are the full results. Results of the games played on even to determine the winner of the championship are shown in red; other results (games played with handicaps) are shown in black.

After the main tournament was over, we had a special tournament (and some cakes!) to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Cambridge Junior Chess & Go Club, and also to raise some money for Children In Need. We played on 13×13 boards in pairs, in each pair a strong Go player (stronger than 15 kyu) teamed up with a junior.

The prizewinners were Simon Goss & Matthew Harris and Matthew Reid & Simon Matcham. Both these pairs scored two wins out of two.

The pairs also had a go at working together to solve some chess problems. Simon Goss & Matthew Harris got the best score, followed by Matthew Woodcraft & Ilya Altschuler.

Together with the entry fees for these special events, there were many generous donations from people taking part in the main Chess and Go tournaments, and the total amount raised for Children In Need was £153.05.

Here are the full results of the Go games:

Throughout the day there was a Go teaching stall and around 30 children (and some parents!) learned to play Go.

There was a self-pairing 9×9 novices tournament for juniors. The clear winner was Daniel Simons from Rackham School near Ely, who scored 7 straight wins (although his game with Fred van Someren was very close). The other prizewinner was Thomas Matcham in second place with 4½.

Many thanks are due to William Brooks and Mathieu Flinders who ran the main tournament, to Chris Stewart who ran the food and drinks stall throughout the day and to chess organisers Nick Jackson and Patrick Ribbands for their help and cooperation.