The 15th Fulprint York Chess Congress was a fantastic

success, with over 234 competitors in four sections.

Three members of from York Evening League second division team Royal Oak won £150 in their respective sections for scoring 4 points from five games.

Team captain Neil Atkin led the way in the Minor Section, while congress veteran Laurence Cornhill was joint winner in the Intermediate Section.

Robin Slade came joint

second in the Major Section, but due to the prizes being awarded for the number of points scored not placement he also won £150.

The prize structure, introduced

last year, proved very popular and resulted in over £2500 being given out in prizes to 43 players. This included grading and junior prizes.

Richard Palliser won the Open competition, with 4 points, and became the both the Yorkshire 2002 individual champion and the Northern Counties champion.

Gawain Jones became Northern Counties Junior Champion when he scored 3 points in the Open competition.

Other York players scored:

Open Section: Scott Fraser (3), Mark White (2), David Adams (2), Paul Johnson (2) and Don Baldwin (2). Scott Fraser won a grading prize.

Major Section: Tim Turner (3), Tony Slinger (3), Paul Hopwood (3), Paul Anderson (3), Eric Winn (2), Eric Key (2), John Cawston (2), Norman Andrews (2), Jim Shemilt (2), Patrick Gower (1) and Richard Mounce ().Tim Turner, Paul Anderson and John Cawston won grading prizes.

Intermediate Section: James Miers (3), Owen Robson (3), Fahad Yousif (2), Colin Snowball (2), Sri Sriharan (2), Mick Rawlings (2), Graham Marshall (1), Les Bresnan (1) and John Foo (1). Fahad Yousif won a grading prize.

Minor Section: Tom Anderson (3), Arjuna Prithiviraj (3), Ray Shewan (2), Steve Webster (2), Aaron Barker (2), Peter Ewer (1) and John Lafferty (1). Arjuna Prithiviraj won a grading prize and Tom Anderson won a

junior prize.

Here is the last round game of Laurence Cornhill, against J Smith:

1.d4 f5 2.Bg5 Nf6 3.Bxf6 exf6 4.e3 g6 5.c4 b6 6.Be2 Bb7 7.Bf3 (A Julian Hodgson trick) Bxf3 8.Qxf3 Nc6 9.Nc3 Bb4 10.Nge2 Kf7 11.0-0 Bxf3 12.Nxc3 Re8 13. Rfd1 Na5 14.b4 (proving there was no threat to the c-pawn because of the check on d5!) Nc6 15.a3 Kg7 16.Rac1 Rc8 17.Nd5 Ne7 18.Nf4 a5 19.b5 g5 20.Nh5+ Kg6 21.h3 d5 22.c5 Qd7 23.a4 Qe6 24.Ng3 Kg7 25.Rc2 (it takes a while to effect this plan!) g4 26.Nh5 Kf7 27.hxg4 fxg4 28.Qe2 Ng6 29.Rdc1 f5 30.cxb6 cxb6 31.Rc6 Rxc6 32.Rxc6 Qd7 (a fatal error) 33.Nf6 Qe7 34.Nxe8 Qxe8 35.Qc2 Nh4 36.Rc7+ Kg6 37.Qc6+ 1-0 (forces the queens off and so black resigned. White will promote on the queenside!)

Updated: 12:12 Thursday, January 10, 2002