Hastings Premier 1995-1996

[Stephen Saunders]

Won by Stuart Conquest who shared first place with Khalifman and Lalic.

My source for this tournament (Chessbase and John Saunders' page) suggest that all the games were played in 1996. This seems unlikely to me and I wonder if anybody on here was involved and can remember at this late date whether the games started in 1995 and (even better!) which rounds were played in 1996.

Pedantic I know, but I do like to get these things right.

My only other source is Jon Speelman's NiC report, which doesn't really help although he does imply that the first six rounds at least were played in 1995.

[Roger de Coverly]

This seems unlikely to me and I wonder if anybody on here was involved and can remember at this late date whether the games started in 1995 and (even better!) which rounds were played in 1996.

From memory, this followed the usual Hastings timetable of starting on the 28th December. So the first four rounds are played in the "old" year. The only exception in recent years was in 1999-2000 where the subsidiary tournaments were played on the usual timetable, but the Premier didn't start until around Jan 5th.

[Kevin Thurlow]

Chessbase probably put them down as 1996, so that anyone searching for the tournament by year would find all the games in one go.

[Stephen Saunders]

From memory, this followed the usual Hastings timetable of starting on the 28th December. So the first four rounds are played in the "old" year. The only exception in recent years was in 1999-2000 where the subsidiary tournaments were played on the usual timetable, but the Premier didn't start until around Jan 5th.

Many thanks Roger, that is very useful information!

It's a surprise to me that there is a usual timetable at Hastings; I'd just assumed that the various changes in sponsor/venue meant that it was all over the place, so to speak.

[Roger de Coverly]

It's a surprise to me that there is a usual timetable at Hastings

They almost always start on the 28th and the big Swiss runs for 9, 10 or 11 rounds, so the finishing date is the 5th,6th or 7th. The finishing date is influenced by the timing of the weekend and for that matter the budget available for hire of premises. When they ran a ten player APA, there was scope for a rest day, depending on when the other events were scheduled to finish.

The 28th is the first practical date after Christmas to start as the lack of public transport on the 26th precludes starting on the 27th and gives the organisers a day to prepare.

[David Sedgwick]

It's a surprise to me that there is a usual timetable at Hastings.

I'm commenting on this as a member of the Congress Committee.

We used to have seven possible schedules, depending on which day of the week Christmas Day fell. The Challengers Tournament (now the Masters) would last nine, ten or eleven rounds.

In recent years financial constraints have made it difficult for us to have a Masters event longer than nine rounds, so we've been considering the timetable afresh each year.