UK Tournament Report

The Cheshire tournament was rather small this year, thanks to a clash with the Manchester football derby and other factors, but much enjoyed by those who attended. In the top group Alex Rix (3 dan London) was the winner, beating Tony Atkins (2 dan Reading) in the final. In the Handicap Section, the winner on 4/5 was Matt Marsh (7 kyu Sheffield). On 3/5 were Brian and Kathleen Timmins (9 kyu/14 kyu Shrewsbury) and Reg Sayer (13 kyu Stafford). 14 players took part.

Results

The postponed Edinburgh Christmas Open saw a slightly reduced turnout at 33 players.

Having earlier been presented with the 2010 Scottish Championship trophy, David Lee (2 dan Dundee) also triumphed on the day. Runners up on 3/4 were Andrew Kay (4 dan Durham) and Matthew Scott (2 dan Newcastle). Also receiving prizes for 3 wins were Jenny Radcliffe (4 kyu Durham), Eevi Korhonen (7 kyu Tampere), Rob Payne (9 kyu Edinburgh), Andrew Bate (10 kyu Durham) and William Grayson (12 kyu Edinburgh), who was 3/3 as a ghost.

The Scottish championship 2011 semi-finals were decided to be David Lee v Martha McGill and Piotr Wisthal v Glynn Forsythe.

Results

Andrew Simons (3 dan) from Cambridge won the tie-break that separated the top players at the 56-player Maidenhead-Hitachi Tournament. Second was Tom Brand (3 dan) from Reading and third was Nick Krempel (3 dan) from London. Winning 3/3 were David Ward (2 dan), Baron Allday (1 kyu), David Hall (8 kyu), Pat Ridley (11 kyu) and Jan Poslusny (9 kyu) from Prague.

The London Open was again sponsored by the Nippon Club, Pandanet and Winton Capital Management, but attendance was a little down this year, no doubt due to the extremely cold weather and snow-related travel difficulties that immediately preceded Christmas. Luckily this had disappeared by the time the London Open started and 99 players turned up to play in this, by now traditional 4 day event, finishing on New Year's Eve.

Wang Wei (6 dan), who had just moved from Cork to London (but is originally from China) was thought to be the favourite for the Open being the previous year's runner up. Indeed after four rounds only Wang Wei and Antti Tormanen (6 dan) from Oulu in Finland were unbeaten at the top - they played in round 5; Antti won after an epic battle. Annti then won his last two games to be unbeaten and take first place.

Sue Paterson (3 kyu Arundel) was the unbeaten winner of the West Surrey Handicap. She was one of 13 people who battled through the end of the snowy cold snap to take part. Runner up was Jonathan Reece (2 kyu Oxford) and also winning 3 were Frenchmen Philip Bourrez (2 kyu) and Max Bourget (8 kyu). Dawn Street (18 kyu) won 2/3. As usual Xinyi Lu won the 13x13, Tony Atkins won the quiz and this year Sue Paterson also won the Pits card game.

Results

Despite over night snow, 61 players managed to take part in the East Midlands Tournament at the National Space Centre in Leicester. Top of the list of prize winners was Jon Diamond. The list also contained Helen Harvey, Andre Cockburn, Matei Mandache, Matt Marsh, Ben Haines, Mark Wrangham, Mark Eddy and Andrew Russell. Winners in the 13x13 side competition were Aston's Hamzah Reta and Ibraheem Mustafa.

Results

Andrew Simons took the national Small Board Champion's title and £50 prize at the 17-player tournament in Cambridge, winning 6 out of 8. Prizes for 5 out of 8 went to Anna Griffiths, Pauline Bailey, Steve Bailey, Langdon Truscott and Peran Truscott. There were special prizes for juniors. Top junior was Adan Mordcovich (5kyu Wanstead) winning the £20 prize amd second was Roella Smith (Cambridge) winning the £10 prize.

Results

The Three Peaks Tournament stayed for a second time down by the sea in Grange-over-Sands. 48 players took part and Matthew Cocke topped the results list for a third time in a row. Brian Timmins was the only other player to win all 5 games. Alex Kent and Ben Riddell from Durham, and Adrian Abrahams from Lancaster won 4 games each.

Results

34 players took part in the 41st Wessex. It was won by Andrew Kay (4 dan Durham). Division 2 was won by Christian Scarff (1 dan Swindon), Division 3 by Helen Harvey (2 kyu Manchester) and Division 4 by Dick Norton (7 kyu Manchester).

Results

Matthew Macfadyen held on to his local title by winning the Coventry Tournament. Andrew Kay was second and Nick Krempel was third. Winning 3/3 were Mike Charles (1 kyu St Albans), Jack Ley (4 kyu Warwick), Ben Falconer (5 kyu Warwick), Jonathan Green (6 kyu Leamington) and James Brownrigg (9 kyu Chester). 44 took part.

Results