The Main Event: THE CHILLINGHAM MASTERS
NINETEEN-YEAR-OLD German GM (grandmaster) Alexander Donchenko won the Northumbria Masters with 7/9, ahead of another young gun, 22-year-old Jakhongir Vakhidov of Uzbekistan, with 6.5/9.
In the chasing pack on 6/9 were Northumberland GM Danny Gormally, who lives just 30 miles from Newcastle in the town of Alnwick, Ravi Haria (England), Martin Percivaldi (Denmark), and Alexander Raetsky (Russia) – at 58 years old the top veteran player in what was a punishing schedule of two rounds a day.
With seven GMs and 11 IMs (International Masters) in a field of 50 players (and an average rating of 2217) the tournament was by far the strongest tournament in the North of England for some years.
Organiser Tim Wall said: “This tournament was really an experiment to test the appetite for strong title norm tournaments in the north of England, and even though we only had a couple of near misses, the format seems to work very well. The tournament was oversubscribed; we had a bevy of GMs and IMs lining up to play, and we managed to put on a high-class tournament with only a small budget. Next year, we plan to make the event bigger and better, but hopefully with the same friendly but competitive atmosphere.”
The tournament benefited from sponsorship from the English Chess Federation and Capital Finance Bridging Solutions, a Liverpool-based company keen to support chess around the UK, as well as various donations from chess charities. The John Robinson Youth Chess Trust helped five local juniors.