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Manx Championships 2002

    Last revised: 26 January, 2003.    

Isle of Man Chess Association

Southern Chess Club

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 MANX  CHAMPIONSHIPS 2000/2001 ARCHIVES

MANX  CHAMPIONSHIPS 2001/2002

(Analysis by Alan Ormsby using Fritz 7.0, Newspaper reports by TROMPOWSKI)

Round 1    Round 2    Round 3    Round 4    Round 5    Round 6    Round 7

Neville Gill receives the Manx Championship Patrick Taylor Cup from Patrick Taylor, Managing Director of Monarch Assurance Plc.

Neville retains title after John runs out of time in the Monarch Assurance Manx Chess Championship final round

Round 7

Wednesday 6th March 2002 - Neville Gill retained the Isle of Man chess championship when he drew his final round game with John Costello.  Alan Ormsby was the only other person who could have caught Neville and he was surprisingly beaten by back marker John Griffin.  The latter had the remarkable total score of three wins all against players who finished higher than him.  So Neville Gill's name will now be inscribed on the Patrick Taylor cup for the second time in its two years' existence.  How many more in the years ahead?

Final scores: N Gill 5½; A Ormsby & J Costello 4½ each; J Waugh 4; M Ware 3½; J Griffin 3; F Maher 2; A Robertson 1.

The crunch game was that between Alan Ormsby and John Griffin.  For the first time in serious competition play Alan deserted e4 as his opening move and found himself in a queen's gambit, Tarrasch defence.  He had a slight advantage from the opening but failed to capitalise on John's isolated queen's pawn.  Following this, Alan seemed to become lethargic, gradually losing the initiative to John who outplayed him to win in 29 moves.

In the meantime, John Costello and Neville Gill were still fairly level on the board, but John had only 2 minutes left for 22 moves - an impossible situation for him.  When Neville heard that Alan Ormsby had lost, he immediately offered John a draw, as he now needed only half a point to win the championship.  His offer was accepted even quicker than immediately.

After that, the results of the remaining games were somewhat academic, but for the record Jonathan Waugh put paid to Alan Robertson's Colle system,

and Mike Ware was successful in an irregular queen's gambit against Frank Maher.

____________________________________________________________________

Round 6  

(Analysis by Alan Ormsby using Fritz 7.0, Newspaper reports by TROMPOWSKI)

All to play for in the Monarch Assurance Manx Chess Championship final round.

Thursday 28th February - The sixth round of  the Manx Chess championship saw Mike Ware holding the current champion Neville Gill to a draw.  John Costello who was just a half point in arrears failed to capitalise on his opportunity when he lost to John Griffin and his second place was taken by Alan Ormsby who beat Jonathan Waugh in 14 moves. 

Neville Gill is leading by half a point going into this week's final round where he plays John Costello while Alan Ormsby meets John Griffin.  Minor place pairings are Mike Ware against Frank Maher and Jonathan Waugh faces Alan Robertson.  Anything can happen.

Scores are:- N Gill 5; A Ormsby 4½; J Costello 4; J Waugh 3; M Ware 2½; J Griffin & F Maher 2 each; A Robertson 1.

Jonathan steered Alan's Caro Kann defence into a sharp variation, which was really leading with his chin, as Alan is the chief exponent of this defence on the island.  True to form Alan sprung an attack on Jonathan's king which was stuck in the middle of the board.  When the dust had settled Alan was two pawns to the good entering the endgame and his opponent threw in the towel.

Mike Ware's Nimzo Indian defence kept Neville Gill at bay though initially Neville appeared to have the edge.  He then seemed to drift into a queen and pawns ending without having made any middle game headway.  These endings are notoriously difficult for either side to win and so it proved.

More drifting occurred in John Costello's centre counter game against John Griffin.  Both castled long and Griffin seized a poisoned pawn without any riposte from Costello who is usually quite an aggressive player.  Griffin added another pawn to his hoard which he later gave back to force the exchange of queens.  This left him with a distant passed pawn against Costello's two half passed pawns in the centre of the board and Griffin ran out an easy winner.

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune did their worst for Alan Robertson in his tussle with Frank Maher.  Alan had so strong an attack going that Frank, who was in bad time trouble, was one move away from resigning when Alan slipped while trying to keep the pressure up by moving fast and lost a rook and the game.

Round 5 

(Analysis by Alan Ormsby using Fritz 7.0, Newspaper reports by TROMPOWSKI)

Thursday 21st February - Neville Gill won his postponed third round game against Jonathan Waugh in the Monarch Assurance Manx Chess championship and followed it up with a further win this week over Alan Robertson in the fifth round.  His co-leader, John Costello, lost half a point to Mike Ware so Neville leads by this same narrowest of margins.

Scores after five rounds out of seven:- N Gill 4½; J Costello 4; A Ormsby 3½; J Waugh 3; M Ware 2; J Griffin, F Maher, A Robertson 1 each.

Round 3 postponed game

Round 5 games

Being a piece up against Mike Ware, John Costello looked all set to win the game when, after three and a half hours play he lost the piece back and was fortunate to be offered a draw by Mike who was two pawns to the good.  However, both players had less than three minutes to make ten moves and Mike decided to take the cautious route of settling for a draw though he had what must have been a winning position.

TROMPOWSKI

Round 4 

(Analysis by Alan Ormsby using Fritz 7.0, Newspaper reports by TROMPOWSKI)

Thursday 7th February 2002 - John Costello continued to forge ahead in the  Monarch Assurance Manx Chess championship with a sound win against Alan Robertson while Neville Gill, the reigning champion, was held to a draw by Alan Ormsby.  Neville is now a full point behind John though he has a postponed game in hand.

With Neville Gill and Jonathan Waugh both having a game in hand the scores after four rounds are:- J Costello 3½; N Gill, A Ormsby 2½ each; J Waugh 2; M Ware 1½; J Griffin, F Maher, A Robertson 1 each.

From John Costello's queen's gambit Alan Robertson, playing black, launched into an early exuberant though premature attack which weakened his own position.  He was repulsed by solid play by John who next mounted his attack which demolished Alan's game.