New tournament will build pyramid

HAVING been born and brought up in Yorkshire I am familiar with many of their local sayings, most of which relate to everyday work and life.

However, one phrase often used in my family, which has stuck in my mind, doesn’t seem to fit: The wider the base, the taller the pyramid.

I cannot remember seeing even one!

But it does have a strong ring of truth, and it applies to chess teams too. The more players you have, the more likely it is that you will get a very good team.

For North East chess this is very pertinent.

With many clubs reporting the arrival of new members it is clear that the base is expanding.

But how do we get the peak higher? To play better chess, we need our stronger players to get the opportunity to play against even stronger players.

And this usually involves a lot of travelling and expense. Last weekend there was a good congress in Harrogate which had a strong Open field including three Grandmasters and two International Masters.

It was well supported by North East players in all three sections. Not too far to travel, limiting costs, but then add on accomodation and the total will deter some people who would have loved to have played in it and would have benefited from the experience.

Our entries included Tim Wall and Yichen Han (both Forest Hall Chess Club) in the Open. They finished joint-ninth out of 38.

Tim will have been very pleased with his draw against GM Peter Wells, and Yichen – who is only nine and was by far the youngest player in the event – outperfomed expectations by 25 places.

I do think it is unfortunate when club members are drawn against each other, as happened here. Tim and Yichen played each other in the first round.

It seems a pity to travel 100 miles and pay overnight costs to discover you are playing one of your own club members. For the record, Tim won to even the score. Yichen won their Zollner game.

In the Major event, Paul Bielby and Eddie Czesterkowski (both South Shields Chess Club) perfomed to expectations and at the time of writing the final results of the Minor are not available, but Martin Beardsley and Noel Boustred (both Gosforth Chess Club) were doing well. There are not many of these sort of events in the North, and when there is one it is difficult to get any of the numerous strong players in the south to travel north. They have little incentive to do so.

There is a top-notch competition almost every weekend in Greater London. It’s little wonder, therefore, that the majority of the strong juniors are also in that area.

So it is with great pleasure I can report on a brilliant event which will take place in February. This has been designed to bring strong players north to create an event which will enable our local players to gain points towards obtaining chess titles. We are pleased to announce a brand new main sponsor for the Northumbria Chess Masters to be held at The Chillingham Pub in Heaton, Newcastle from February 14-18.

Thanks to generous sponsorship from Capital Bridging Finance Solutions Ltd we have been able to add new prizes and increase others for the tournament.

We have confirmed entries from a number of very strong titled players, including seven Grandmasters – Vojtech Plat (Czech Republic), Oleg Korneev (Spain), Jahongir Vakhidov (Uzbekistan), Alexander Raetski (Russia), Danny Gormally, Mark Hebden and Keith Arkell (all England).

We also have entries from 12 International Masters – Justin Tan (Australia), Martin Percivaldi (Denmark), Gzregozr Nastuta (Poland), Gerard Welling (The Netherlands), Andrew Greet, Andrew Muir and Craig Pritchard (all Scotland), Andrew Merry, Adam Hunt, Ravi Haria, David Eggleston and Gary Quillan (all England).

The field will also feature some top local players, and will include this area’s strongest juniors – James Moreby and Joseph Dalton (both Gosforth Chess Club), Yichen Han and Zheming Zhang (both Forest Hall Chess Club) and Max Turner from Berwick.

Tim Wall deserves a lot of credit for organising this event, raising the sponsorship and encouraging so many top players to travel north. A mammoth challenge, and he has acheived it almost single-handedly.

Thanks also to The English Chess Federation and The John Robinson Trust for their support.

IF ANY reader would like to make a donation towards the substantial costs, no matter how small, it will be gratefully received.

Please make cheques payable to Forest Hall Chess Club and send them to Tim Wall, c/o Forest Hall Chess Club, Forest Hall Ex-Servicemen’s Club, Forest Hall NE12 9AR.