Christmas Double for Horvath as he lands Williamson

The Belfast Chess Christmas feast continued with the first event of the calendar year , the coveted Williamson Shield. 38 players took part, a great turnout and timely boost for the earlier schedule of this great tournament. We had 4 junior players from down south venturing up to frighten folk in the top section, as well as seasonal returns from Sudan and Colombia respectively, from former Schools chess Starlets of yester year, Richard Morrow and Aaron McCully. It all promised to be a very closely fought ordeal over both sections.

Round 1 saw all 7 matches go to rating in the top section, despite all of them except the Calum Leitch - Stephen Rush game going the distance. Gabor Horvath, the top seed and outstanding favourite was pushed to the wire by Gonzaga's 1680 rated Marc Lincoln.

The junior section was a completely different story results wise, 1500 "stalwarts" and "steady eddies" John McKenna and Peter McGuckin were held by their teenage opposition Chris Roe and Andrew Todd to merely draws, Meanwhile the big upset of the round and possibly the tournament came when John Phillips was beaten with the white pieces by Paddy Magee!

Round 2 saw the big 3 Horvath, Annesley and Leitch all move to 100% in the top section, all beating their 1700 rated opposition, Horvath was second best vs Gonzaga's Ben Cullen but came back to win in a nailbiter. Annesley made short work of Brendan Jamison and Leitch won yet another trademark rook and pawn ending when under the cosh vs Mark Newman. Robert Lavery created the upset of the tournament so far when dispatching clubmate Thomas Donaldson.

The junior section saw Matthew Chapman, Aaron McCully and Martin Kelly all move to 100% while John McKenna was once again held to a draw by a promising Junior, Joshua Geary.

Round 3 saw the top 2 seeds clash in the Williamson and it was Horvath with the white pieces who scored the win. Leitch kept the pace with victory over Ben Cullen despite being on the brink of withdrawing due to illness. Mark Newman blundered a piece for nothing on move 3 in the most bizarre circumstances but somehow came back to win against Ross Harris.....just whenever you thought you had seen everything in chess!

In the Junior, McCully and Chapman faced off and in a predictably close game, the spoils were shared. Kelly lost to Mohamed Saad and the tournament was blown wide open. Paddy Magee caused another upset when he defeated William Storey and John McKenna finally beat a Junior, Andrew Todd the unlucky benefactor. 9 players within half a point heading into the final day!

Round 4 witnessed the re-match of Lindores clubmates Horvath and Leitch. Leitch still heavily suffering with a virus managed to hold Horvath to a draw despite overlooking a tactic in the middlegame which looked costly at the time. Defending champion Gareth Annesley wasn't to go down without a fight as he moved to 3, half a point behind the Lindores pair.

In the Junior Section it was very much a case of make or break and with no draws in this round it proved to be make or break indeed. Chapman took a travelling bye to hold a fragile clubhouse lead on 3, this was overtaken by McCully who smoothly decimated Saad with black to take the outright lead on 3.5. McKenna ended his teammate Bernard Jaffa's chances with a win with black to propel the "Sultan" up to an unbeaten 3. John Phillips had recovered from an early blip to score 3 in a row in almost Martin Kelly like fashion. Kelly himself was joined on 3 by the prolific Pat McKillen.

In the penultimate round of the Williamson, Annesley beat Leitch in the game of the tournament where the latter sacked absolutely everything and with victory in sight, he found himself a move behind and backranked! (Terrible thing, these viruses!) Horvath clinched victory over Newman to give himself a half point lead heading into the final round.

McCully's unbeaten run came to an end at the hands of John Phillips in the Junior, while John McKenna maintained his with a draw with teammate Kelly to push both players to 3.5. Chapman joined Phillips on 4 after beating Pat McKillen.

In the final round, Horvath, Annesley and Leitch all won comfortably to seal a 1 2 and 3 meaning their heads to heads was the deciding factor in the destination of the Williamson Shield. Donaldson picked up his obligatory grading prize despite two early losses to finish on 50%.

John Phillips won the under 1600 with a quick win over Matthew Chapman, showing that a first round loss can be inconsequential and tactically astute! John McKenna claimed outright 2nd to inflict back-to-back defeats on McCully and finish unbeaten himself. Martin Kelly won the Under 1300 grading prize on tiebreak and Suraj Tirupati was the Under 1100 grading prize winner.

All in all, an excellent weekend's chess full of fresh faces, returning renegades, blatant blunders, virus victims and extremely competitive chess throughout of course! Congrats to all those that won prizes and Civil Service for a fantastic venue.

Links

• Williamson Shield trophy & history
• Detailed standings & results: Senior and Challengers
• visit the Photo gallery from the event