Shropshire Chess Congress - 7-8 January 2012

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE 2012 SHROPSHIRE CONGRESS
OPEN section results

The Shropshire Chess Congress took place on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 January 2012. 115 players took part in three sections. For a full crosstable of each section see the links above.

PRIZE WINNERS
OPEN

The section was won by Tristan Cox, currently based in Hanoi, Vietnam, but formerly of Sutton Coldfield, with favourite IM John Cox being held to a draw by two Shropshire players (Trevor Brotherton and Nigel Ferrington). The round 4 clash between Tristan Cox and Tomasz Sygnowski proved to be the decisive game. Tomasz sacrificed his queen for a piece and had a forced draw if he wanted, but pressed for a win and eventually let Tristan back into the game who then proceeded to take the full point leaving him one point clear of the field going into the final round. In second place were John Cox and Simon Fowler, the latter making a welcome return to tournament chess and he obviously hasn’t forgotten much during his absence!

1st Tristan Cox 4.5
2nd= John Cox 4
Simon Fowler 4
Grading prize (U175) Trevor Brotherton
Slow Starter prize (0.5 or lower in first two rounds) Robert Taylor

MAJOR

Stratford-upon-Avon’s Wiatt Ropp was one of the first to sign up for the congress when it was launched in early December and stayed ahead all the way, winning the Major section ahead of Philip Bull and Simon Smith in joint second. Shropshire’s hopes lay with Nazif Nazif who went into the final round with 3.5 points but was pipped at the post losing to the tournament leader.

1st Wiatt Ropp 4.5
2nd= Philip Bull 4
Simon Smith 4
Grading prize (U145) Neville Belinfante and Richard Gillespie
Slow Starter prize Peter Crean

MINOR

The Minor was won by Bushbury’s David Buckley who edged out Shropshire’s Chris Paul in the last round with Andrew Collins coming second. Third place didn’t turn out to be very lucrative with a huge pack of nine players on 3.5 sharing the spoils.

1st David Buckley 4.5
2nd Andrew Collins 4
3rd= Matthew Best 3.5
Allan Brown 3.5
James Kuczynski 3.5
Simon Maywdew 3.5
Christopher Paul 3.5
Francis Rooney 3.5
Ivor Salter 3.5
Matt Trigg 3.5
John Westhead 3.5
Grading prize (U110) James Kuczynski
Slow Starter prize Richard Szwajkun and Tim Skidmore

JUNIOR PRIZE
Matthew Best
Francis Rooney
Henrik Stepanyan

CLUB PRIZE (best four-player aggregate)
Sutton Coldfield

The venue was the splendid facilities at Wrekin Housing Trust in Telford. The modern premises offered an excellent atmosphere for serious chess with fantastic catering facilities, courtesy of chef Jacob who kept everyone well fed throughout.

The congress was put together by a new organising team within five weeks and we are very grateful to all those who helped us to make it happen and especially those who were able to take part and make it the biggest congress in Shropshire for more than six years. The event was overseen by controller Dave Thomas who has been a regular at Shropshire’s congress since 1986 and always manages to keep everything and everyone in order whilst smiling throughout.

It was great to see a number of players with local connections returning to Shropshire for the congress including John Cox, Andrew Footner and Simon Fowler; as well as local players who have not been active for a while getting back into the swing again including Ieuan Fenton and Keith Grice. And former Shropshire star player Gerard O'Reilly was amongst those who came to visit and meet up with old chess friends.

The congress had an online payment system for the first time this year thanks to some sterling work by Vinnie Crean and its success was evident in that more than half of our bookings were made online. Technology was also evident at the congress with the use of Tournament Director software for the pairings and draws displayed on several overhead projectors.

A number of people made very generous donations including Eugene Raby who was unable to make the event because of work commitments but donated his entry fee towards a junior prize. Other donors included Arthur Banks, Stephen Chadaway, David Everington, Nic Fallowfield, Andrew Footner, Fred Harris, Dave Lovegrove, Brendan O’Gorman, Graham Shepherd and Tony Purser.

We are committed to building on the success of the Shropshire Congress and a feedback form will be emailed to entrants shortly to get their views and opinions on how we can improve further for next year. If you weren’t able to make it this year, your opinions are also valuable so don’t hesitate to get in touch with comments and suggestions.

See you in January 2013!

Francis Best and Steve Rooney
Shropshire Chess Congress organisers

Shropshire Chess Congress, Stoneygate, Madeira Walk, Church Stretton SY6 6JQ. Tel: 07530 649195.

E: steve.rooney@busandcoach.com