Final Round-Up – Pam Thomas

The Congress ended yesterday with a 6-way tie for first place and a share of the £2000 prize

1= GM Oleg KORNEEV (ESP); GM Sarunas SULSKIS (LTU); GM Daniel GORMALLY (ENG); IM Martin PETROV (BUL); GM Alexander CHERNIAEV (RUS); FM Conor MURPHY (IRL) 7/9

7= GM Jonathan HAWKINS (ENG); IM Gudmundur (KJARTANSSON (ISL); IM Vladimir PETROV (BUL); FM Adam TAYLOR (ENG) 6.5

The highest placed female player prize went to WFM Rasa Norinkeviciute (LTU) with 5/9

Prize for highest placed non-GM or IM went to Conor Murphy with 7 points

Rating performance prizes went to —

Over 65 Raymond Kearsley 0.440; Under 18 Jacob Boswell 3.08; Best Performance PU Midhun 3.26

Conor Murphy achieved an IM Norm and won £100

The Best Game Prize, presented by Trustees of Horntye Park Sports Complex, went to Jonah Willow for his Round 1 game against Simon Williams. The Prize for Best Performance by a local player, presented by Maureen Charlesworth, Hastings Committee member, was won by Mason Woodhams of Hastings Chess Club.

The prizegiving was preceded by an informal reception hosted by Horntye Park Trustees, and attended by Cllr. Nigel Sinden, Mayor of Hastings, and Mr.Wayne Bradshaw, Marketing Manager of Tradewise Insurance Company.

Our thanks go to the sponsors – Tradewise Insurance Company and Hastings Borough Council – and the John Robinson Youth Chess Trust and the Friends of Chess, as well as support from White Rock and Lansdowne Hotels and KC Computers.

Numbers overall were the same as last year and the numbers of juniors in the Masters was up on last year.