Dundee Congress

David Lloyd Leisure Centre

Monifieth

October 16-18, 2009

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Winners Gallery

by Keith Rose

The Dundee & Angus Chess Congress was held at David Lloyd Leisure, Monifieth from 17 th to 19 th October and once again attracted high praise from entrants for the quality of the venue.

The event was supported by Open Seas Engineering and attracted 115 players from as far afield as London, Nottingham and Yorkshire as well as from the far reaches of Scotland. Also attending were players originating from Slovakia, Romania, Malaysia, Germany and Nigeria along with 22 local players, and a further 22 players aged between 8 and 18. Gunnar Jacob from Germany, studying at Dundee University, was joined by visiting parents Helmut and Barbara who also took part.

The Open contained 13 players rated 2000+, and no GMs this year made it more than usually competitive. The early pace was set by visiting Slovakian Milan Drtina who was the only player on 3/3. However this was eclipsed by Ed Spencer who had fine weekend ending with a +349 grading performance, including a win over IM Mark Orr. Unfortunately for Ed he could only draw against Alan Grant in the last round and, having taken a first round bye, this let Gunnar Jacob into sole first place.

The Challengers tournament was won with relative ease by Anthony Allor, a newcomer to Scottish chess, who, after a first-round bye won all his games.

In the Major William Harkins and Ray Noble shared their mutual last-round game and first place, whilst the Minor ended in a three-way tie when David Watson and Thomas Stott also drew their mutual game and were joined by Chris Tait who won his final game.

Two exceptional performances were recorded by 8 year old Kai Pannwitz from Inverness and 9 year old Declan Shafi from Dundee who won games against considerably stronger and more experienced adult opponents in the Minor. The grading differences were 401 points and 559 points respectively.

Participants were invited to donate towards the British Heart foundation and this raised approximately £100 for the charity.

*****

Prizewinners:

Open Seas Engineering Open:

1st – FM Gunnar Jacob

2 nd = David Findlay, Ed Spencer

U2000 = Edward Ferry, Jamie Hookham, Ian McLean

Junior - Andrew Green

Challengers:

1st – Anthony Allor

2 nd = David Hall, Andrew McHarg

U1675 - Nigel Chapman

U1600 = Douglas Heatlie, Barbara Jacob, Norman Andrews, Paul Shafi

 

Major:

1st = William Harkins, Ray Noble

3 rd = Derek Coope, David Cubitt, Iain Morris, Duncan Lyall

U1350 (and part share of 3 rd) - Sam Gregory

Minor:

1st = Chris Tait, David Watson, Thomas Stott

U1025 – Jeffrey Robinson

Junior = King Hang Chan, Seamus Heron

Primary – Kai Pannwitz

 

Keith Rose

Congress Director