e2e4 Uxbridge Autumn Women's International Aug 11-15 Report
Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 10:06 am
e2e4 Uxbridge Women’s International 11-15th August 2010
This was a ten player all-play-all with WIM norms available hosted alongside Sean Hewitt’s e2e4 tournament which comprised of 8 other international all-play-all events. My thanks to Sean for providing a free venue and arbiter and also to the John Robinson Trust for their financial support.
The event included 5 English players including England’s first female IM Susan Lalic and 4 aged 21 and under; Sarah Hegarty 21, Lateefah Messam-Sparks 18, Sheila Dines 17 and Amy Hoare 13. The rest of the line up comprised 2 players from Sweden, and 1 from Luxembourg, Scotland and Wales. The WIM norm score was 7/9 which was always going to be tough but my aims for the event were as much about giving experience and opportunities to our younger English female players which have been sadly lacking in the past.
The top seed and pre-tournament favourite was Susan Lalic. Despite a surprise second round loss to Emilia Horn she raced to 6/7 and then halved out against the second and third seeds to comfortably win the tournament and therefore qualify for the 2010 London Chess Classic Women’s International.
The real star of the tournament though was 13 year old Amy Hoare. Despite being the joint lowest rated player and coming off the back of a below par Major Open she played very solidly in the early rounds and then as her confidence grew she started to play more aggressively and this resulted in three wins and five draws and just one defeat against Susan with black who is almost 400 points above her. She gained around 40 rating points and performed at 2130, over 200 points above her own rating of 1904.
Sarah Hegarty also performed well as she continues her preparation for her England debut at this year’s Olympiad. Both her and Amy qualified for the 2010 Chess Classic Women’s International by finishing as the joint highest norm seekers. Although Sheila and Lateefah finished slightly down on rating they both showed some encouraging results although playing in their first all-play-all at this level can inevitably prove tough. I was especially pleased with Lateefah’s fighting spirit after such a tough start and any player who can finish with a win and a draw against higher rated players when on 1/7 deserves praise. Sheila also won 2 games in a row when on 1/5 so they are clearly not out of place in this level of competition.
My thanks to all those who played and again to Sean Hewitt and to the John Robinson Trust and for the photos kindly provided by Brendan O’Gorman. The next women’s event will be alongside the London Chess Classic from 8-15 December at Olympia in Kensington, London and hopefully there will be annual events alongside Sean’s e2e4 tournaments.
The website can be found here:
http://www.e2e4.org.uk/international/20 ... groupC.htm
Brendan’s photos can also be viewed here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/bogorman2 ... dgeAug2010#
Lawrence Cooper
Director of International Chess
English Chess Federation
This was a ten player all-play-all with WIM norms available hosted alongside Sean Hewitt’s e2e4 tournament which comprised of 8 other international all-play-all events. My thanks to Sean for providing a free venue and arbiter and also to the John Robinson Trust for their financial support.
The event included 5 English players including England’s first female IM Susan Lalic and 4 aged 21 and under; Sarah Hegarty 21, Lateefah Messam-Sparks 18, Sheila Dines 17 and Amy Hoare 13. The rest of the line up comprised 2 players from Sweden, and 1 from Luxembourg, Scotland and Wales. The WIM norm score was 7/9 which was always going to be tough but my aims for the event were as much about giving experience and opportunities to our younger English female players which have been sadly lacking in the past.
The top seed and pre-tournament favourite was Susan Lalic. Despite a surprise second round loss to Emilia Horn she raced to 6/7 and then halved out against the second and third seeds to comfortably win the tournament and therefore qualify for the 2010 London Chess Classic Women’s International.
The real star of the tournament though was 13 year old Amy Hoare. Despite being the joint lowest rated player and coming off the back of a below par Major Open she played very solidly in the early rounds and then as her confidence grew she started to play more aggressively and this resulted in three wins and five draws and just one defeat against Susan with black who is almost 400 points above her. She gained around 40 rating points and performed at 2130, over 200 points above her own rating of 1904.
Sarah Hegarty also performed well as she continues her preparation for her England debut at this year’s Olympiad. Both her and Amy qualified for the 2010 Chess Classic Women’s International by finishing as the joint highest norm seekers. Although Sheila and Lateefah finished slightly down on rating they both showed some encouraging results although playing in their first all-play-all at this level can inevitably prove tough. I was especially pleased with Lateefah’s fighting spirit after such a tough start and any player who can finish with a win and a draw against higher rated players when on 1/7 deserves praise. Sheila also won 2 games in a row when on 1/5 so they are clearly not out of place in this level of competition.
My thanks to all those who played and again to Sean Hewitt and to the John Robinson Trust and for the photos kindly provided by Brendan O’Gorman. The next women’s event will be alongside the London Chess Classic from 8-15 December at Olympia in Kensington, London and hopefully there will be annual events alongside Sean’s e2e4 tournaments.
The website can be found here:
http://www.e2e4.org.uk/international/20 ... groupC.htm
Brendan’s photos can also be viewed here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/bogorman2 ... dgeAug2010#
Lawrence Cooper
Director of International Chess
English Chess Federation