13th Frodsham Congress 5th-7th February

[Pat Ridley]

Frodsham Congress 2016

This year’s congress took place at Frodsham Community Centre on 5th -7th February, with 99 players. Mike Surtees (Great Lever) was again in first place in the Under 210 section, as he had been in 2011, 2013 and 2015, but this time had to share it with Oliver Jackson (no club) and Nugith Jayawarna (Heywood).

First place in the Under 160 section went to Robert Furness (Culcheth & Lymm), with
Tom Carroll (Hoylake), John Cawston (Yorkshire Copper Works), Mark Cromwell (Frodsham) and Robert Dean (Undercliffe) all sharing second place. There was an unusually large entry in this section and an extra grading prize was awarded.

Tony Jinks (Heywood) won the Under 120 section with 4.5 points. Second place was a tie between two Formby players, John Grady, and Edward Patten. The Formby team of
Michael Barooah, John Grady and Edward Patten also ran off with the team prize of a DGT 3000 clock.

The Congress was ably controlled by Alex Holowczak, flying in from arbiting in Gibraltar, and Jim McPhillips.

Under 210 (13 players)

1st = Oliver Jackson (no club), Nugith Jayawarna (Heywood), Mike Surtees (Great Lever) 3.5.
Grading Prize (Under 170): Andy Barber (Buckley/Mold) 3.
Others on 3: Chris Doran (Chester), Paul Evans (Lytham Ex-Servicemen).

Under 160 (51 players)

1st Robert Furness (Culcheth & Lymm) 4.5.
2nd = Tom Carroll (Hoylake), John Cawston (Yorkshire Copper Works),
Mark Cromwell (Frodsham), Robert Dean (Undercliffe) 4.
Grading Prizes (Under 150): Richard Clissold (Winwick),
Anita Somton (West Nottingham) 3.5.
Grading Prizes (Under 135): Michael Barooah (Formby), Seth Collinson (Chester),
Sam Davies (Tiger Chess), Joe Nemcek (Chester), George Scattergood (Holmes Chapel), Colin White (Chester) 2.5.
On 3: David Ashton (Pensby), Reg Clucas (Altrincham & Hale),
Richard Desmedt (Wombwell), Barry Hymer (Lancaster),
Colin Procter (Yorkshire Copper Works), Ian Stephens (Liverpool), Chris Vassiliou (Chorlton), Mike Whale (Colwyn Bay).

Under 120 (35 players)

1st Tony Jinks (Heywood) 4.5.
2nd= John Grady (Formby), Edward Patten (Formby) 4.
Grading Prizes (Under 105): James Babington (Rhyl & Prestatyn),
Dominic Taylor (Cheddleton & Leek) 3.5.
Others on 3.5: Andrew De Santos (Preston/Crusaders), Steve Rush (no club),
David Scorer (Clitheroe), Steve Szwajkun (Telford).
On 3: Brian Clarke (Hoylake), Keith Hodgson (East Cheshire), Paul Jackson (Morecambe), Ifan Rathbone-Jones (Buckley/Mold).
.
The Team Prize (a digital clock) was won by Formby (10.5/15), two and a half a point ahead of Chester A.

The full cross-tables are at http://www.kisekigo.com/frodsham.html.

[Mike Truran]

Robert Furness (1st U160) - any relation to the late great Richard? I imagine so as he comes from the same town......

[David Sedgwick]

Robert Furness (1st U160) - any relation to the late great Richard? I imagine so as he comes from the same town......

His son, I imagine.

[Pat Ridley]

Yes indeed, son of the fondly-remembered Richard Furness. Robert drew with Kaspararov as a junior in the simul at Chester to celebrate the Cheshire & North Wales Centenary in 1988. He has started to play again in the Warrington and District League after a long lay-off.

[Bob Clark]

I may be wrong Pat, but didn't Robert win his game against Kasparov.

[Pat Ridley]

Bob - I think you are right, and I wrote somewhere else that Robert won. My bad memory. Were you there? The simul was actually played sometime in 1989. Unfortunately the Cheshire & North Wales records covering that era have been lost. I had mis-remembered that Kasparov lost only to Dave Tebb, but according to this link http://www.mark-weeks.com/aboutcom/mw00j15.htm, Kasparov's result in the simul was 26-2=2. More googling found a piece by Richard Furness, who wrote "Robert has a FIDE rating and a 100% record against Garry Kasparov - in simultaneous play."

My apologies to Robert. Who would like such a win to be forgotten?

[David Sedgwick]

The simul was actually played sometime in 1989. Unfortunately the Cheshire & North Wales records covering that era have been lost.

I remember that Richard Furness once showed me a lot of material about the event, including photographs. You could try asking Robert Furness if he has Richard's records, or knows their location.

[Bob Clark]

Bob - I think you are right, and I wrote somewhere else that Robert won. My bad memory. Were you there? The simul was actually played sometime in 1989. Unfortunately the Cheshire & North Wales records covering that era have been lost. I had mis-remembered that Kasparov lost only to Dave Tebb, but according to this link http://www.mark-weeks.com/aboutcom/mw00j15.htm, Kasparov's result in the simul was 26-2=2. More googling found a piece by Richard Furness, who wrote "Robert has a FIDE rating and a 100% record against Garry Kasparov - in simultaneous play."

My apologies to Robert. Who would like such a win to be forgotten?

I was there Pat only as a spectator unfortunately!
The event was held at the MANWEB building in Chester scene of some great congresses in the eighties, but which sadly no longer exists.
Before play started Gary made a presentation to Bill Turner to honour his services to Cheshire chess.
Cathy Forbes also played a simul and wrote a report of the event in Chess.
I remember that Tom Wiley was one of the two people who drew.
Charles Higgie was one of the players and may have more details regarding the event.

[Pat Ridley]

Bob - I was also there as a spectator. One of our club members, Chris Plaisted, then a promising junior, played Kasparov, and another member, David Curtis, played Cathy Forbes. My recollection is that each club affiliated to C&NWCA was invited to nominate a player - presumably one for each simul.

[Pat Ridley]

David - thanks, that's a very good idea.

[Robert Furness]

Pat - if you make any changes for next years tournament I really hope you stick with the fisher time control. I don't know how common it is nowadays for weekend events but it made a big difference to the outcome of my games compared with the 90s and early 00s

[Gareth T Ellis]

It'll be very common soon.

ECF Competition Rules
This document will come into force from 1st September, 2016.
These Competition Rules will be used in conjunction with the FIDE Laws of Chess.

5a) The ECF encourages organisers to use incremental time-controls wherever possible.