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Monarch Assurance Plc Claret Jug Trophy

    Last revised: 18 January, 2004.    

Isle of Man Chess Association

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Holt Trophy tournament report season 2000/2001

Monarch Trophy - season 2002 / 2003

Round 4 - 28th November 2002.

Round 3 - 14th November 2002.

Round 2 - 7th November 2002.

Round 1 - 31st October 2002.

Monarch Trophy - season 2001 / 2002

IoMCA (Cherry Orchard) the new Monarch Assurance Plc Claret Jug - 2 hours per player per game.  The competition arbiter is Neville Gill.  The new 2 minute rule to apply, in which the result can be decided by the arbiter!

MONARCH ASSURANCE Plc CLARET JUG

Isle of Man Chess Association - Season 2001 / 2002

Neville Gill has added further to his list of chess successes by winning the initial competition for the Monarch Assurance Claret Jug which has superseded the Holt Trophy. 

To be sure of victory Neville needed a draw in the final round against Jonathan Waugh and this he secured.  Post game analysis showed that he might have missed a win in a tricky ending which eventually came down to a knight against a lone pawn.  This left Jonathan in second place half a point behind after seven rounds.

Third place was decided between Alan Robertson and Frank Maher where Frank needed a win to overhaul a half point advantage enjoyed by Alan.  A tactical finesse which allowed Frank to break through on the queen side, after repulsing Alan’s attack on the other wing, gave Frank the victory.

Richard Sargent filled the fifth berth without any worries as he had the bye.  The final game of the evening to decide the remaining places was fought out between Mike Ware and John Griffin.  Playing white, Mike had much the better of the game all through but blundered at the end into a simple mate.       TROMPOWSKI

Final Crosstable

Pos

Player

Grd

Rd1

2

3

4

5

6

7

A

B

C

D

1

Gill, Neville

192

B5+

Bye+

W3+

B7+

W6+

B4+

W2=

6½

6

1162

194

2

Waugh, Jonathan

143

W3+

B7=

W6+

B4+

Bye+

W5+

B1=

6

6

947

158

3

Maher, Frank

127

B2-

W5+

B1-

Bye+

W7+

B6=

W4+

4½

6

797

133

4

Robertson, Alan

108

W7+

B6+

Bye+

W2-

B5+

W1-

B3-

4

6

747

125

5

Sargent, Richard

110

W1-

B3-

W7+

B6+

W4-

B2-

Bye+

3

6

647

108

6

Griffin, John

105

Bye+

W4-

B2-

W5-

B1-

W3=

B7+

2½

6

597

100

7

Ware, Michael

114

B4-

W2=

B5-

W1-

B3-

Bye+

W6-

1½

6

497

83

Venue: Cherry Orchard Hotel, Port Erin Oct-Dec 2001.   Format: All-play-all              

 Arbiter: Neville Gill.   Time limit: All moves in 2 hours.

  ____________________________________________________________________

Final Round (7) Fixtures  -  Wednesday 12th December 2001.

The final round fixtures are all crucial to the final results.  Neville Gill and Jonathan Waugh play for 1st and 2nd places.  Frank Maher and Alan Robertson for 3rd and 4th places.  Richard Sargent with the Bye will finish 5th on 3 points and Mike Ware and John Griffin play for the "wooden spoon".                         ZUGZWANG

Round 7 results

Round 6

Stage set for nail-biting chess final

The penultimate round of the Monarch Assurance Trophy saw the two players who head the leader board maintain their positions as both Neville Gill and Jonathan Waugh won their games to leave the former still half a point in front.

Neville gained a strong advantage in his game with Alan Robertson while his opponent was encumbered with an isolated pawn and later doubled pawns as well.  That was two weaknesses too many and Alan paid the inevitable price.

Jonathan Waugh's Ruy Lopez left himself and Richard Sargent with a balanced position, though Jonathan had a superior outpost for a knight on f5 which allowed him to mount a successful king side attack, winning a rook.

A most unbalanced position arose from John Griffin's early sacrifice of a bishop for which he gained three of Frank Maher's pawns.  Eventually John had a rook and pawn opposing a rook and knight and a draw was agreed as neither player could force a win.

The bye went to Mike Ware and the final round has ideal pairings as Neville Gill and Jonathan Waugh play each other for first place, as do Alan Robertson and Frank Maher for third.  Richard Sargent has the bye and comes fifth, while Mike Ware and John Griffin battle it out to finish off the bottom.  Everybody has a lot to play for, so expect some nail-biting action.

TROMPOWSKI

Crosstable after round 6

Round 6 results

Round 5 - 21st November 2001.

Alan recovers to pounce on Queen and record victory

Having come off the worse against Jonathan Waugh in a roller-coaster game the previous week Alan Robertson had another similar try with Richard Sargent in the fifth round of the Monarch chess trophy, this time with more success. Richard engineered a good aggressive game from his Colle opening but missed two opportunities to convert the advantage into material gain. The third opportunity fell Alan's way and he made no mistake in pouncing on Richard's queen.

Neville Gill had a relatively easy win over John Griffin in a queen's gambit declined when John, playing black, neglected development for the excitement of repeatedly moving his queen and knight. The result was that his king got caught in the centre and Neville won decisive material as early as move 17.

The longest game of the night lasting 58 moves arose from Frank Maher's English opening defended by Mike Ware. Mike had a cramped game from the beginning which later saddled him with a backward pawn on an open queen's file. This is invariably the precursor to a slow death and so it proved. When mate was delivered by Frank he had only one minute 14 seconds left in which to finish the game with Mike's clock showing three seconds less. Exciting stuff but somewhat inevitable.

Jonathan Waugh collected the bye and with two rounds to be completed the leading scores are:- N Gill 5 pts; J Waugh 4½; A Robertson 4; F Maher 3; R Sargent 2.      TROMPOWSKI

Crosstable after round 5

Round 5 results

Round 4 - 14th November 2001.

Roller coaster rides in Monarch chess

The fourth round of the Monarch trophy resulted in Neville Gill taking a clear lead when he won his game while Alan Robertson, who had been sharing top berth with him, lost out to Jonathan Waugh.

Alan Robertson had a real roller coaster of a game against Jonathan Waugh when he exchanged a knight for three pawns leaving him with four against one on the queen's side. He then launched a king side attack and when he and Jonathan both had about ten minutes left to finish the game they started playing very quickly as if they were in extreme time trouble. So much so that Alan made an illegal move which was not spotted by Jonathan who, however, delivered checkmate a few moves later.

Another game of lost opportunities was that between John Griffin and Richard Sargent. John's favourite Sokolsky opening gave him the strong advantage of two pawns up. Then, in a relatively simple position, he walked into a mate much to Richard's relief.

Neville Gill does not play like that. Instead he made steady progress as black against Mike Ware, first winning one pawn and then another and continued steadily, delivering mate on move 57.  No fireworks, no mistakes, another point!

Frank Maher had the bye making the leading scores after four rounds:- N Gill 4; J Waugh 3½; A Robertson 3; F Maher and R Sargent 2.                                   TROMPOWSKI

Crosstable after round 4

Round 4 results

   Round 4 games - score sheets

Round 3 - 7th November 2001.

Sacrifice of knight to gods of no avail

Neville Gill and Alan Robertson remain as joint leaders after the third round of the Monarch trophy chess tournament.

Alan had a bye and Neville defeated Frank Maher in a game where Frank gifted him a pawn on move six. Undeterred, he continued with an attack against Neville's king. This turned out to be of no avail even after sacrificing a knight to propitiate the gods. After that it was only a short time before Neville chalked up his third successive win.

A Tarrasch variation French defence resulted in a blocked position on the queen side in Jonathan Waugh's game against John Griffin, black.  On the other side of the board however the situation was very different with Jonathan building up a steady attack, which tore John's defences to shreds and allowed mate on move 25.  This leaves Jonathan half a point behind the joint leaders.

Having lost to Neville Gill with the Colle system in round one Richard Sargent persevered with it, this time to greater effect against Mike Ware. Richard gained a pawn early on and after the exchange of minor pieces Mike had to face the endgame with an inferior pawn structure. Richard gradually rounded up the stray pawns and won in a workmanlike fashion.

Scores of all games in the competition follow this report.  Visitors comments on the positions featured and on any other aspects of the games are welcome.            TROMPOWSKI

Crosstable after round 3

Round 3 results

Round 3 games - score sheets

Round 2 - 24th October 2001.

The second round of the Monarch Assurance trophy competition saw an intriguing game between Mike Ware, playing white, and Jonathan Waugh.  Mike responded to Jonathan's Sicilian defence with the Grand Prix attack and developed a superior position.  He was then faced with the choice of continuing with a sacrifice or consolidating with a long term win.  Mike chose the sacrificial path and should have won but Jonathan was able to wriggle his way out of his difficulties and the game was agreed drawn when Mike was very short of time though still having the better of it.     See game of the week

Richard Sargent's French defence, advance variation, allowed Frank Maher a very good game which he pressed home with an attack against Richard's king which had castled on the queen side.  Post game analysis suggested that Richard might have salvaged the game at one particular point.  This is featured on the website, see game of the week, which is well worth a look as the other two games are also subjected to some scrutiny.  The website is excellent for players wishing to improve as it asks questions and looks for responses from its visitors rather than give easy solutions for the positions considered.

John Griffin continued from last season to open with the Sokolsky, previously known as the Orang-Utan, and worked up a strong king side attack against Alan Robertson.  However, he pressed too energetically and lost momentum when he allowed Alan's king to hide in front of his advanced pawn on h7. (see game of the week)   Had John brought his second rook into the fray before making his final pawn foray he might have won overwhelmingly.  Alan was quick on the counter and John's game collapsed rapidly.

Neville Gill had the bye and is now co-leader with Alan Robertson on full points with Jonathan Waugh half a point in arrears.                                                        TROMPOWSKI

Crosstable after round 2

Round 2 results

Round 2 games - score sheets

Round 1 - 17th October 2001.

Round 1 games - score sheets

17th October 2001 - Round 1 results

Holt tournament 2000 / 2001

Starting the final round of the Holt chess tournament Francis Thoday and Jonathan Waugh were tied on four and a half points each from six games with Brent Floyd still in the running one point behind.

TROMPOWSKI