Hull Chess Congress 2009

 

 

 Summary

The 46th Hull Chess Congress took place on 6-8 November 2009 at the Endsleigh Centre, Hull. The Centre offered great hospitality throughout the weekend, providing good inexpensive accommodation, food, drink, laughter and smiles (the latter two, provided free of charge by Sister Catherine). The venue did an exceptional job in making the players feel welcome, and we are likely to restage next year’s congress at the same venue. Three tournaments were run over the weekend (an Open, an under-166, and an under-126) and 80 players took part. The number of competitors was slightly down on previous years (perhaps due to the loss of the Intermediate tournament and the current difficult economic climate), but each tournament was made financially viable, thus securing the future of the annual event. In terms of the tournaments, it was nice to see many new faces, especially featuring among the prize winners. Fide Master Charlie Storey, trainer of the U16 England team, won the Open with an outstanding score of 5 out 5 in a highly competitive section. Local players Eric Gardiner and Roelof Westra both finished in third place, with Roelof beating Eric to the title of Hull and District Champion 2009 on the sum of progressive scores. Richard Cowan won the Major with 4.5; local players Costin Constantinescu and John Thackray both scored 3/5 to take a share of the grading prizes. Timothy Crouch finished half a point ahead of local player Brian Wilson to win the Minor. Finishing just behind these, William Wright and Matthew Fletcher finished with a group of others in third place, capping off an overall good performance by the local contingent.

 
I would like to finish by thanking all the players for supporting our event; I know many of you have done a fair amount of travelling in order to take part. Many thanks also to those players who gave donations: it really does help us to keep making the event financially viable, especially when, as this year, there is a dip in the number of players taking part. I extend my thanks to Chess Direct, the staff and volunteers at the Endsleigh Centre, and my team- the controllers, the publicity men and the 'general dogsbodies'. :-)

I hope you have enjoyed the weekend and I look forward to seeing you at our next event.

Mark Ieronimo

(Congress Organiser & General Secretary of the HDCA)

9 November 2009

Prize winners

 
Open

Major

Minor

              
 *Grading prizes put into pot with third place prize and split between players on the same score.

** Decided on the sum of progressive scores