From April 4th-8th I played in the English Seniors Championship at Harrow High School. Any 60+ English player is eligible. It wasn’t too onerous commuting by car every day (1h 20 mins. each way from Bedford). I was rated 9th of 22 players, so my final =6th position may seem a good result, but the vagaries of the Swiss pairings meant that I played only one higher-rated player and I lost some Fide rating points.
My sequence was WLDDW (3/5) and all the results can be found here: http://chess-results.com/tnr213837.aspx?lan=1
The tournament has been running since 2008 with a couple of gaps. The first winner was the late IM Andrew Whiteley, but since then no IMs or GMS have participated, which I think is a pity.
It’s a pleasant event, which this year ran alongside the strong Open at the Colin Crouch Celebration Chess Congress. The top 8 games in the Seniors went out from ‘live boards’ to the internet. Perhaps the entry would be bigger if school holiday dates were avoided; I suspect some Seniors will have been on grandparent duty. The English Seniors has also suffered from perennially late notice due to the difficulty of getting someone to run it. I doubt if the date of next season’s event will be known by September.
Anyway, I would like to see it better supported.
The co-winners with 4.5/5 were Cliff Chandler and Oliver Jackson, who crucially beat the favourite Steve Berry (2292) in the second round. This was when I lost in the following game. It’s worth a look just for the aesthetic formation of the four bishops on two occasions. It also ends in mate!
Paul Habershon, 9th April 2016