Bangor Seeds Piped

Last weekend the City of Belfast Championship saw Bangor players Steve Scannell and Richard Proctor rated as top seeds in the Senior and Junior classes. A tournament review shows the vagaries of chess with a few spectacular upsets; up-and-coming youngsters demanding attention and not-so-young old-hands stamping their authority. Seedings didn't count for much after all.

Seniors competed for the Nemtzov Cup. Bangor were well represented with Ron Henderson, Damien Lavery, Philip Todd and David Grzymek all making strong challenges along-side Steve. The highlight of the competition was the match between Sam Moore (Civil Service 1693) and Tom Clarke (Clifton House 2178). Tom sacrificed a pawn (a big deal at this level) to gain advantage but instead Sam forced exchanges to gain an excellent win with his extra pawn in the end-game. Far from being crushed, however, Tom came back to win all his other 5 games and claim the cup. Some wags suggested, rather than Sam's victory stimulating Tom's play, he was more fearful of Richard Proctor's offer of a middle board for Groomsport.

Richard was in action himself, playing for the Henderson Cup. His opening game against youngster Ananda Srinivasan (Fisherwick) seemed an unreasonable match-up with nearly 40 years between the two. Ananda relished Richard's attacking play and not only gave as good as he got, but gave a little more to claim the win. It took another loss before Richard came back to form and finish with 4 wins. Also for Bangor, Richard Montgomery echoed the burgeoning potential of Ulster's young players by gaining 3.5 points over the weekend including an excellent win over Stewart McConaghy (Bombardier). But it was old-hand John Orchin (Hillsborough) who eventually took the Henderson Cup home with 5 full points; this was John's first major win since 1980.