English Chess Forum

Luke Boumphrey , with an ECF grade of 167, was the joint winner of the Manchester 2014 Open. Is this the lowest graded person to win an Open?

Back in April 1998 at Bolton Easter I finished equal first with Vic Knox and was graded 168.

From memory there were something like 10+ players graded over 200

My results were :

Rd1 : Win Dave Knox
Rd2 : Draw Roelof Westra
Rd3 : Win Graham Lilley
Rd4 : Draw Don Mason
Rd5 : Win Martyn Goodger
Rd6 : Win Brett Lund

Previously to this I actually had never won a long-play Major

stevencarr wrote:Luke Boumphrey , with an ECF grade of 167, was the joint winner of the Manchester 2014 Open. Is this the lowest graded person to win an Open?

Dunno. But if it is then Arul Gupta (13) - 173 ECF - is not far off. He won the Coulsdon Open outright this weekend.


http://www.ccfworld.com/Chess/Results/2014-09-07_LP.htm

The biggest upset ever was surely when Glenn Flear, the lowest rated player and the only non-GM, won the 14 player GLC London tournament in 1986. He also got married to Christine on a rest day during the tournament. They are coming to Hastings 29 Decenber to 6 January.

Stewart Reuben wrote:... when Glenn Flear, the lowest rated player....

James Plaskett was the lowest FIDE rated player.

Leonard Barden did a brief piece on outsiders winning major tournaments in the mid 1970s. Amongst his examples was Kevin Wicker winning Manchester with 6 from 6 from a starting grade of 176. The top grades were lower then. When as now, in 1976, I had a grade of 190, it was only Tony Miles at 241 who was more than fifty points higher and only a handful of players greater than 230 where the 40 point rule would have applied.

My favourite tournament has long been the Torbay Open in 1990, where the usual match between the "bottom half" and the "top half" in the first round, resulted in a victory for the underdogs. I was top board, with Black, for the underdogs. and won. I've also played tournaments where the top half whitewashed the bottom half in the first round.

Entirely another question, but if you are in the middle of the field, is it better to be at the back of the hall playing one of the supposedly weaker players in the first round, or at the front of the hall playing the rating favourite?

This year's East Devon was an example.
http://www.chessdevon.co.uk/HTML/congre ... n/base.htm

I drew the first round from the back of the hall and submarined to victory, whilst Graham Bolt lost the first round on top board and submarined to shared second.

EMW >James Plaskett was the lowest FIDE rated player.<

Well done. That shows one of the benefits of forums.