English Chess Federation

English Chess Federation Grand Prix 2005/6

Final Leader Boards | 25 Aug | 15 Aug | 8 Aug | 4 Aug | 21 July | 6 July | 28 June | 8 June | 1 June | 26 May | 19 May | 12 May | 5 May | 28 April | 12 April | 30 March | 16 March | 9 March | 24 February | 17 February | 10 February | 3 February | 27 January | 20 January

2005/06 Prize Fund

Grand Prix: First Prize: £2000, Second Prize £800, Third Prize £400
All other Prix: First Prize £200, Second Prize: £50 discount on entry to the British Championships in Great Yarmouth 2007.

To date the total of players who have scored Grand Prix points (at 25th August 2006):

The total of qualifying scorers in 2006 reached 1675 – a 10% increase over last year. In addition the number of players reaching maximum increased from 24 to 38 with the Senior Prix showing the highest rate of increase. 569 tournaments have been assessed and they are given on the attached spreadsheet. In order to try and explain the rating I have referred to tournaments as “Major, Intermediate, Minor and Enthusiasts”. These reflect the Graded Prix sections of Under 175, 150, 125 and 100 respectively and may not be the titles given at the event. The events rated since last time are shown in colour. All events are now in for the 2005/6 Grand Prix.

Neil Graham

Neil Graham reports:

25th August (updated 4th September)

The winners of the 2005/6 Grand Prix are as follows:-

The following players receive £50 discount in any event in the 2006 British Championship

Sheila Dines, Akash Jain, Helge Hjort, Dean Hartley, Malcolm Armstrong, Robert Clegg, David Curtis and Ian Strickland.

The final tables incorporates results from the Smith and Williamson British Championships, the South Wales International, the National Junior Squad Young Masters plus weekend events in Wales and Chester.

Despite strong late showings from both Mark Hebden and Danny Gormally, Andrew Greet could not be overhauled in the Grand Prix. In the Female Prix both Selina Khoo and Dinah Norman reached maximum points but it was Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant whose outstanding performance in the Smith and Williamson British Championships enabled her to finish a clear first. In the Junior Prix, a host of players reached the maximum score mark following the Junior events in the Smith and Williamson British Championships – however Ankush Khandelwal increased his total with an outstanding first place in the Young Masters Tournament and thus maintained his lead over his rivals. In the Disabled Prix, Jack Rudd overhauled Dean Hartley at the top by increasing his %score at the South Wales International. As suggested previously although the minor places changed there were no late challenges to the winners of any of the Graded Prix sections. Finally to the Senior Prix where both Harry Lamb and Ray Gamble reached the maximum courtesy of fine results at Chester but they were still well behind runaway winner Richard Desmedt.

15th August

All 13 from the first week and weekend events of the Smith & Williamson British Championships have now been included. Three further players Craig Whitfield, Akash Jain and Jude Lenier have reached the maximum point mark in the Junior Prix. Radha Jain appears for the first time on the Female Prix leader board Whilst the Graded Sections and Senior Prix appear to have definite winners, the other sections are still very much up for grabs.

8th August

The late Frodsham Rapidplay result at last sees Michael Barker clear at the top of the Under 100 Prix. Alan Grant moves onto the Grand Prix Leader Board following his second place in the Scottish Championships. As the Smith & Williamson British Championships begin in Swansea, the opening Rapidplay sees Andrew Greet, Ankush Khandelwal, Peter Poobalasingam and Jovanka Houska all improve their positions. There will be regular updates as the Championships continue and the Grand Prix for 2006 draws to a close.

4th August

There has only really been movement in the lower reaches of the leader boards with Peter Ackley gaining ground in the Under 175, Chris Clegg in the Under 150 and Dipak Shah in the Under 125. The appearance of Dr John Nunn at both the Richmond and Golders Green Rapidplays (a winner at both) was an unusual addition to the Grand Prix tables but a late rush from his 115th= place is unlikely to bother the leaders at this stage!

21st July

Mike Lally became the 8th player to reach the 125 maximum point in the Senior Prix. Sheila Dines at last found the necessary points to overhaul Amisha Parmar in the Female Prix – the question now is can she overhaul Ankush Khandelwal in the Junior Prix?

6th July

The qualifying scores for this year overhauled the 2005 total. The top of the leader boards have remained remarkably unchanged now for some time. Richard Desmedt, whose lead in the Senior Prix, looks unassailable added more points by winning the Spectrum Cardiff tournament with a 100% performance.

28th June

Grand Prix results have been almost as easy to come by as an England win in a one-day Test match. Consequently it hasn’t been worthwhile updated the Leader Boards for three weeks and even now some are unchanged. In the Female Prix, Sheila Dines has now drawn level with Amisha Parmar whilst in the Junior Prix, Samuel Franklin reaches the maximum score. In the Under 100 Prix, James Galloway is a new name on the leader board and a competition that is still exceptionally open.

8th June

Ankush Khandelwal cemented his position at the top of the Junior Prix by winning Ilford with 5½/6 , a point ahead of the 2nd placed players. Alan Fraser became the 7th player to reach maximum in the ever popular Senior Prix with a qualifying score at Richmond. Peter Lord moves to 3rd in the Under 150 prix and Michael Mutale improves to 4th in the Under 125 prix. However the leaders in all the graded sections remain unchallenged.

1st June

Following last week’s report I have removed Michael Kobylka’s record from the Under 175 Graded Prix.
There has been no movement at all at the top of the tables and only in the lower reaches of the leader boards have new players emerged to mount late challenges. In the Senior Prix Ray Gamble emerges from the pack after his score at Rhyl whilst in the Under 150 Jamie Adcock moves to fifth after finishing in second place at Oxford University.

26th May

I have heard from Bardi Einarsson, Secretary of the Albany Chess Club, that Michael Kobylka died unexpectedly in mid February. After Mike failed to turn up for work, police broke into his house and found him dead. He suffered from fatty liver disease and this was the cause of his death. Mike was the current Under 175 Graded Prix Champion and was leading this year’s event until recently. He was a regular at many chess events on the circuit as well as supporting London tournaments. Bardi comments that he will be missed by all his friends. In view of this sad news there will be no update of the Grand Prix today. I will resume reports after the Bank Holiday.

19th May

Mark Hebden’s lead of three weeks ago has now vanished with Andrew Greet first at both Frome and South Hertfordshire taking a Grand Prix pole position. Ankush Khandelwal takes over at the top of the Junior Prix as well as reaching the 125 maximum score level. David Dunne makes a significant move on the Under 100 leader board after scoring 4/5 at Huddersfield. Pride of place though to Richard Desmedt who was equal first with a 90% score of 4½/5 at both Frome and Huddersfield. Although five other players in the Senior Prix have reached the 125 maximum mark, Richard is scoring consistently to cement his position as event leader.

12th May

Russell Goodfellow becomes the 19th player to reach a maximum after finishing 2nd at Letchworth. Russell maintains a substantial lead over the 2nd placed player in the Under 150 Graded Prix. Sheila Dines has narrowed the gap in the Female Prix to just half a point whilst in the Junior Prix Ankush Khandelwal continues his progress and is now in 2nd place.

5th May

The Southend results have seen Mark Hebden’s healthy lead reduced to a mere three points after Andrew Greet finished joint first with Simon Knott. Very much “no change” elsewhere except that Russell Goodfellow strengthened his position in the Under 150 Graded Prix after winning the Intermediate section at the Brighton Rapidplay whilst Warren Derbyshire was the main mover following the Bolton Easter Congress as he makes a challenge for the lead in the Under 100 Graded Prix.

28th April

Andrew Greet has now joined Mark Hebden at maximum in the Grand Prix. However Mark is scoring at 90% and maintains a healthy lead. Similarly Dean Hartley has now moved into joint top spot in the Disabled Prix whilst Donny Muter has now reached the 125 mark in the Under 175 Graded Prix and maintains a significant lead. Nottingham was the major contributor to scores this time with Ankush Khandelwal (3rd= behind Hebden and Greet) making a strong move in the Junior Prix table.

12th April

Edinburgh is the big scoring event in the latest update and has meant that Danny Gormally, Stephen Mannion and Colin McNab have moved forward in the Grand Prix. Keteven Arakhamia-Grant was also a joint winner at Edinburgh and has made a strong move up the leader board in the Female Prix. However in this event Sheila Dines and Amisha Parmar continue to dominate; both increasing their totals since last time with wins at Central London and Nottingham respectively. Jamie Adcock enters the leader boards for the first time in the Under 125 thanks to scores at both Leicester and Central London.

30th March

Blackpool is the “largest weekend congress in Britain” according to the entry form and this hugely popular event submitted Grand Prix qualifying scores for over 75 players. We can’t feature everyone but the key performances came in the Grand Prix, the Senior Prix and the Under 175 Prix. Mark Hebden was joint winner of the Premier Section and he now becomes the first player to reach the 250 Grand Prix maximum. Donny Muter was the outright winner of the second section and he now moves to the top of the Under 175 Prix ahead of long time leader Michael Koblyka. Richard Desmedt’s victory in the Intermediate Section with 5/5 means he now leads by a clear margin in the Senior Prix.

Simon Williams and Danny Gormally were first and second at the British Blitz and this has enabled both players to close the gap at the top of the Grand Prix whilst James Sherwin has now reached maximum points in the Senior Prix and joins the log jam at the top of the leader boards. In the Disabled Prix. Ian Blencowe is now within striking distance of the leaders following his score at the Spectrum Guernsey event.

16th March

There have been a number of amendments from last week as unfortunately an incorrect set of results was submitted. Consequent amendments have been made to both the Junior and Female Prix. Frodsham results have meant that Michael Barker has moved to the lead in the Under 100 Prix pursued by Trevor Dickerson who was 2nd= at the East Devon event. Colin Eckloff is now in a commanding position in the Under 125 Prix following Frodsham. Results from Braille AGM has ensured that the Disabled Prix has now become the first event to surpass the 2005 total of qualifiers. Richard Desmedt has now emerged as the main challenger in the Senior Prix, he trails Helge Hjort by just 1½ points – both players scored 4/5 at Doncaster.

9th March

The current update is almost 100% Junior only tournaments. Consequently the only significant moves have come in the Junior Prix and the Female Prix. In the former Samuel Franklin becomes the first player to reach a possible maximum whilst Saravanan Sathyanandha reappears on the leader board. Sheila Dines and Akash Jain move into contention for the first time. Jessica Thilaganathan becomes the fifth player in the Female Prix to reach the 125 point mark. However she is some 19 points behind leader Sheila Dines who has retaken the lead after high scores in both the South of England and West of England Junior events.

24th February

The Wellington College tournament has enabled both Simon Williams and Simon Ansell to advance in the Grand Prix. Danny Gormally scored strongly at Portsmouth and Stephen Mannion moves onto the leaderboard following Perth. The Warwickshire Congress enabled second-placed players Donny Muter (Under 175) and Jeremy Fallowfield (Under 150) to move up the table towards the leaders. The two most closely contested sections are the Senior Prix and the Female Prix. Two more players, Richard Desmedt in the former and Sabrina Chevannes in the latter have reached the 125 mark and now must start discarding lower scores to increase their points total. Helge Hjort, long time leader in the Senior Prix, finished on 4½/6 at both Portsmouth and Golders Green, but he now needs to score at 80% or above to increase his score.

17th February

In the Grand Prix holder Andrew Greet wins with 100% score at Kidlington. The hugely competitive and popular Senior Prix now has four players who have reached 125 points and have to start replacing lower scoring events. Colin Eckloff has added to his points total at both The Wrekin and Kidlington and has now opened up a commanding gap in the Under 125 prix whilst Michael Barker’s score at the Stockport Rapidplay has enabled him to mount a challenge in the Under 100 prix where Dean Hartley also progressed in the Disabled Prix.

10th February

There has been plenty of movement in the lower halves of the Leader Boards but no significant changes at the top. Both Sheila Dines in the Female Prix and Michael Koblyka in the Under 175 prix have been able to slightly add to their scores by replacing a lower scoring event. Richard Desmedt has progressed in the Senior Prix with the addition of some missing scores. Ian Blencowe moves into 3rd spot in the Disabled Prix following point scoring at the Spectrum 9th Dudley.

3rd February

Time for a reminder relating to the Senior Prix. Colin Cartlidge, leader of the Under 100 Prix, has been moved to the Senior Prix where he now sits halfway down the leader boards. It isn’t possible for me to recognise Senior (or indeed Junior, Female and Disabled Qualifying scores) and I depend on organisers to identify those players to me. Could you all please endeavour to identity likely qualifiers in these sections (indeed ask for it on your entry forms) so I’m not bombarded with letters asking why scores at “Event X” weren’t included.
Consequent to this there have been some changes this week most notably the removal of Colin from the Under 100 prix and his transfer to the Senior Prix. Ian Strickland now leads the former event, Matthew Holborow appears on the Leader Board for the first time following his 100% score at Cleveland.
Finally a thank you to the event organiser who drew my attention to the dates of birth of those players who have been transferred to the Senior Prix.

27th January

A quiet week but we have rounded up one of the missing events. No changes in most of the leader boards; however Ray Kearsley now reaches a maximum in the Senior Prix with Mike Lally back after a month’s absence. The other changes affect the lower places in the Under 150 and Under 125 graded sections.

20th January

Hebden and Greet increase their lead in the Grand Prix after taking 1st and 2nd places in the Hastings Weekend event. In the Female Prix, Jovanka Houska has taken the lead whilst Thilagini Anandajeyarajah has now also achieved a score of 83½/125 and now must start discarding lower scores if she wishes to increase her score. Jovanka is still short of the 125 point mark whilst her two closest rivals are now discarding events. The Fulprint York Congress adopted a unique prize structure with all players who scored 4/5 or better picking up a major prize. This resulted in the lowest section for players graded under 100 picking up a x6 multiple whilst all the other sections were quadruple points. As a result there were some major changes in the Under 100 Graded Prix with Leeds players Colin Cartlidge and Ian Strickland moving away from the pack.

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English Chess Federation Grand Prix 2005/6
Final Leader Boards

Players' names in blue have already reached the maximum possible score and to increase their score must replace a lower scoring event with a higher scoring event.