Round 1 29th July 2002

The Smith & Williamson British Chess Championships started on Monday July 29th in the Riviera Centre in Torquay. The Mayor of Torbay, Councillor Heather Buckpitt played the ceremonial first move in the event which has a ten thousand pound first prize.

The first round saw Joe Gallagher comfortably beat Maxim Devereux. Devereux had been the surprise winner of the pre-tournament Rapidplay on Sunday.

The top seed is the Indian GM Krishnan Sasikiran and he looked very impressive as he beat GM Alex Wohl of Australia. Wohl tried to play quietly against the Caro Kann Defence but was greeted with an onslaught on the kingside and once Sasikiran's king reached safety on the opposite wing the game was effectively over.

Fellow Indian GM Pentyla Harekrishna seemed to blow a very strong position against his compatriot Woman GM Subbar Vijayalaskshmi. After forcing her to sacrifice her queen she set up a position that was very hard to break down.

The shock of the day was the victory of England junior international Josiah Lutton, 14, of Basildon over the Russian GM Evgeny Prokoptchouk in the Major Open. The Russian is rated more than 250 points higher than all the other players and could reasonably be expected to have won all his games. To see him defeated in the first round by an England junior is as pleasing as it is surprising.

The Lutton family are educated at home by their father, a retired teacher and Josiah's older brother Ezra is also playing in the Major Open and his younger brother Nathanael competes in the under 11 championship.

Josiah revealed that his opening was the choice of his coach Tony Bennett, a correspondence player. His direct play is not often seen in Russia and Black made a few positional errors before having to give up material, mistakenly believing he could halt White's play. 30.Bh5! removed a key defender and the absence of the dark squared bishop from the defence of the king was soon felt. When Josiah played 37.Re5! he had already seen the winning queen sacrifice. In the final position 42. ..hxg6 43.Rxe6 Bb4 44.Re8+ wins

Lutton,J (2113) - Prokopchuk,E (2520) [B07]
ch-GBR Major Open Torquay ENG (1), 29.07.2002

1.Nc3 Nf6 2.e4 d6 3.f4 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Be2 c5 6.0-0 Nc6 7.Qe1 0-0 8.d3 Nd4 9.Bd1 Bg4 10.Nxd4 cxd4 11.Ne2 Qb6 12.h3 Bxe2 13.Qxe2 Rac8 14.g4 Rc5 15.Qg2 Nd7 16.g5 e6 17.h4 f6 18.Bg4! f5?! 19.exf5 gxf5?! 20.Bf3 Rfc8 21.Rf2 d5 22.h5 Qc6 23.Bd1 a5? 24.Qg3 Kh8 25.Kh1 Rg8 26.Qh3 Bf8 27.h6 Bd6 28.b3 Rc3 29.Bb2 Nf8 30.Bh5! Removes a key defender. The absence of the dark squared bishop from the defence of the king will soon be felt. 30...Ng6 31.Bxg6 Rxg6 32.Bxc3 Qxc3 33.Raf1 Qc7 34.Qf3 b5 35.Re2 Bb4 36.Qf2 Bc3 37.Re5! White had already seen the finish. 37...Qd6 38.Qe2 Kg8 39.Qh5 Kf7 40.Rf2 Kf8 41.Rfe2 Qd7 42.Qxg6!

[ 42.Qxg6 hxg6 43.Rxe6 White will exchange the Queen for his rooks and force his h-pawn home.] 1-0

Bd  WHITE                      Result  BLACK                    
  1 GALLAGHER,Joseph G    (0)   1 - 0  DEVEREAUX,Maxim L     (0)
  2 WOHL,Aleksander H     (0)   0 - 1  SASIKIRAN,Krishnan    (0)
  3 SPEELMAN,Jon          (0)   1 - 0  LITTLEWOOD,Paul E.    (0)
  4 VIJAYALASKSHMI,Subbar (0)   ½ - ½  HARIKRISHNA,Pentala   (0)
  5 ROWSON,Jonathan       (0)   ½ - ½  MCDONALD,Neil         (0)
  6 SARAVANAN,Venkatachal (0)   1 - 0  EMMS,John M           (0)
  7 MCSHANE,Luke J        (0)   1 - 0  RAMSAWAMY,Aarthie     (0)
  8 KNOTT,Simon JB        (0)   ½ - ½  BARUA,Dibyendu        (0)
  9 LALIC,Bogdan          (0)   ½ - ½  WALL,Gavin            (0)
 10 LEE,Graham            (0)   ½ - ½  FLEAR,Glenn C.        (0)
 11 HEBDEN,Mark           (0)   1 - 0  PERT,Richard          (0)
 12 SHERWIN,James         (0)   0 - 1  GORMALLY,Daniel       (0)
 13 GANGULY,Sura Sekhar   (0)   1 - 0  HANLEY,Craig          (0)
 14 SOWRAY,Peter          (0)   ½ - ½  TURNER,Matthew J      (0)
 15 COLLINS,Sam           (0)   0 - 1  Bye                      
 16 SANDIPAN,Chandra      (0)   1 - 0  COX,John              (0)
 17 EAMES,Robert          (0)   0 - 1  WARD,Chris G          (0)
 18 WELLS,Peter           (0)   ½ - ½  HASLINGER,Stewart G   (0)
 19 HOUSKA,Miroslav       (0)   0 - 1  Bye                      
 20 KONERU,Humpy          (0)   ½ - ½  MUIR,Andrew J.        (0)
 21 TAN,Desmond           (0)   1 - 0  LANE,Gary             (0)
 22 RICHARDS,Heather      (0)   ½ - ½  PERT,Nicholas         (0)
 23 RAMESH,R.B            (0)   1 - 0  LEDGER,Dave J         (0)
 24 EVANS-QUEK,Suan Shiau (0)   ½ - ½  JONES,Richard S.      (0)
 25 WILLIAMS,Simon K      (0)   ½ - ½  MEENAKSHI,Subbaraman  (0)
 26 BURNETT,Jim           (0)   1 - 0  MASON,Don             (0)
 27 THIPSAY,Bhagyashree   (0)   1 - 0  WILLMOTH,Robert       (0)
 28 TAYLOR,Robert Mark    (0)   ½ - ½  BERRY,Neil M          (0)
 29 D'COSTA,Lorin         (0)   ½ - ½  SHAW,David A          (0)
 30 NIXON,Thomas CM       (0)   1 - 0  HUTCHINSON,Paul A.    (0)
 31 BIGG,Andrew J         (0)   ½ - ½  BUCKLEY,Melanie       (0)
 32 DOUGLAS,Timothy       (0)   1 - 0  THOMAS,Nicholas       (0)
 33 TRENT,Lawrence        (0)   1 - 0  GREGORY,Stephen J     (0)
 34 MARTYN,Rafe           (0)   0 - 1  SIMPSON,James         (0)
 35 BUCKLEY,Simon         (0)   0 - 1  GHATE,Swati           (0)
 36 ASHTON,,Adam          (0)   ½ - ½  JONES,Gawain C        (0)
 37 WHEELER,John F.       (0)   0 - 1  WU,Li                 (0)
 38 RUDD,Jack             (0)   1 - 0  TAYLOR,Peter P.       (0)
 39 DHAR-BARUA,Saheli     (0)   0 - 1  HUTCHINSON,Norman     (0)
 40 EVANS-QUEK,Debbie     (0)   ½ - ½  ADDISON,Bret C        (0)
 41 LYELL,Mark            (0)   ½ - ½  GOLDBERG,Jeff         (0)
 42 COOTE,Trevor D.       (0)   1 - 0  DORRINGTON,Christophe (0)
 43 HOWELL,David W        (0)   0 - 1  TATLOW,Stephen        (0)
 44 WHITE,Ian R.          (0)   0 - 1  MUTTON,Jonathan B     (0)
 45 WOODWARD,Timothy      (0)   1 - 0  TRUMAN,Richard G.     (0)
 46 MCMASTER,Richard      (0)   ½ - ½  SNAPE,Ian L           (0)
 47 GRANT,Jonathan        (0)   1 - 0  HARBORNE,Matthew J    (0)
 48 REES,Ioan             (0)     -    Bye                      
 49 WEBB,Laurence         (0)   0 - 1  Bye                      
 50 MAMOMBE,Kudzanai      (0)   0 - 1  Bye                      
 51 SUMMERSCALE,Aaron     (0)   1 - 0  Bye                      
 52 KUNTE,Abhijit         (0)   1 - 0  Bye                      

Round 2 pairings

Bd  WHITE                      Result  BLACK                    
  1 SASIKIRAN,Krishnan    (1)     -    SANDIPAN,Chandra      (1)
  2 SUMMERSCALE,Aaron     (1)     -    SPEELMAN,Jon          (1)
  3 WARD,Chris G          (1)     -    MCSHANE,Luke J        (1)
  4 KUNTE,Abhijit         (1)     -    HEBDEN,Mark           (1)
  5 GORMALLY,Daniel       (1)     -    RAMESH,R.B            (1)
  6 SARAVANAN,Venkatachal (1)     -    GANGULY,Sura Sekhar   (1)
  7 TAN,Desmond           (1)     -    GALLAGHER,Joseph G    (1)
  8 HARIKRISHNA,Pentala   (½)     -    THIPSAY,Bhagyashree   (1)
  9 EMMS,John M           (0)     -    TRENT,Lawrence        (1)
 10 SIMPSON,James         (1)     -    ROWSON,Jonathan       (½)
 11 GHATE,Swati           (1)     -    LALIC,Bogdan          (½)
 12 MUTTON,Jonathan B     (1)     -    WELLS,Peter           (½)
 13 BARUA,Dibyendu        (½)     -    WOODWARD,Timothy      (1)
 14 FLEAR,Glenn C.        (½)     -    GRANT,Jonathan        (1)
 15 TURNER,Matthew J      (½)     -    BURNETT,Jim           (1)
 16 LANE,Gary             (0)     -    NIXON,Thomas CM       (1)
 17 PERT,Nicholas         (½)     -    DOUGLAS,Timothy       (1)
 18 WU,Li                 (1)     -    KONERU,Humpy          (½)
 19 LITTLEWOOD,Paul E.    (0)     -    RUDD,Jack             (1)
 20 HUTCHINSON,Norman     (1)     -    WILLIAMS,Simon K.     (½)
 21 MCDONALD,Neil         (½)     -    COOTE,Trevor D.       (1)
 22 TATLOW,Stephen        (1)     -    WOHL,Aleksander H     (0)
 23 BERRY,Neil M          (½)     -    VIJAYALASKSHMI,Subbar (½)
 24 WALL,Gavin            (½)     -    D'COSTA,Lorin         (½)
 25 PERT,Richard          (0)     -    LYELL,Mark            (½)
 26 HANLEY,Craig          (0)     -    BIGG,Andrew J         (½)
 27 JONES,Gawain C        (½)     -    KNOTT,Simon JB        (½)
 28 ADDISON,Bret C        (½)     -    LEE,Graham            (½)
 29 SNAPE,Ian L           (½)     -    SHERWIN,James         (0)
 30 DEVEREAUX,Maxim L     (0)     -    TAYLOR,Robert Mark    (½)
 31 SHAW,David A          (½)     -    SOWRAY,Peter          (½)
 32 BUCKLEY,Melanie       (½)     -    COLLINS,Sam           (0)
 33 COX,John              (0)     -    ASHTON,,Adam          (½)
 34 HASLINGER,Stewart G   (½)     -    EVANS-QUEK,Debbie     (½)
 35 GOLDBERG,Jeff         (½)     -    EAMES,Robert          (0)
 36 MUIR,Andrew J.        (½)     -    MCMASTER,Richard      (½)
 37 JONES,Richard S.      (½)     -    RICHARDS,Heather      (½)
 38 MEENAKSHI,Subbaraman  (½)     -    EVANS-QUEK,Suan Shiau (½)
 39 TAYLOR,Peter P.       (0)     -    WEBB,Laurence         (0)
 40 RAMSAWAMY,Aarthie     (0)     -    DORRINGTON,Christophe (0)
 41 LEDGER,Dave J         (0)     -    HOWELL,David W        (0)
 42 MASON,Don             (0)     -    MARTYN,Rafe           (0)
 43 HUTCHINSON,Paul A.    (0)     -    WILLMOTH,Robert       (0)
 44 THOMAS,Nicholas       (0)     -    WHITE,Ian R.          (0)
 45 GREGORY,Stephen J     (0)     -    BUCKLEY,Simon         (0)
 46 TRUMAN,Richard G.     (0)     -    WHEELER,John F.       (0)
 47 HARBORNE,Matthew J    (0)     -    DHAR-BARUA,Saheli     (0)
 48 HOUSKA,Miroslav       (0)     -    MAMOMBE,Kudzanai      (0)