Frank Hatto Individual Rapidplay Championships 2008
Report by Jon Gilbert

The 3^rd Frank Hatto (Welsh Individual Rapidplay) Championships were held on Sunday 9^th November 2008 at the Briton Ferry Constitutional Club, Briton Ferry. The policy of rotating the event around the WCU club venues continued as this was the 7^th different venue in as many years and West Wales’ turn to host the event. There were again two sections held this year, with 16 players in the Open, which was restricted to Welsh qualified players and 12 players in the “Frank Hatto” Memorial. In addition, the Hazel Brunker Cup was awarded to the highest placed Welsh lady player and there was also an under 1500 grading prize in the Major. All players had 30 minutes each per game.

Open “ Closed” Championship

Entries this year were significantly higher than in previous years. Defending Champion Ioan Rees; winner for the past 5 years was favourite, closely followed by Tim Kett and seven 2000’s who were hoping to get a lucky chance this year !

In the first round there were three surprise results with Jon Gilbert, Alan Young and Jason Garcia all drawing against lower rated opponents. By the end of round two only Tim Kett remained on 2/2 as Ioan Rees had only drawn with DK Evans. In Round 3, Tim won again against James Thomas while Ioan and DK kept up the pressure by winning their games too. Round 4 was the crunch game with Ioan against Tim. After a hard fought game, Ioan won to lead on 3½/4 along with DK who had beaten Yinglun Teng. In Round 5 Ioan won again after another tough game against Alan Young while DK could only manage a draw with Bill Hunt. In the meantime Tim had beaten Jason to move into second place with DK on 4.

Round 6 pairings

Ioan Rees (4½) v Bill Hunt (3)  D.K.Evans (4) v Tim Kett (4)

With a relatively easy pairing, as he had played all his nearest contenders, Ioan knew that a win guaranteed him 1^st outright and proceeded to beat Bill fairly comfortably leaving the winner of DK v Tim playing for 2^nd place. After a very close and tense game Tim duly won.

This was Ioan’s 6^th successive win and while it wasn’t probably his best performance to date in the championships it shows what a talented and determined player he is. Who is going to stop him winning next time?

Final Scores
=1^st 5½/6 I.Rees
=2^nd 5 T.Kett
=3rd 4 I.R.Jones, D.K.Evans
=5^th 3½ J.Garcia, James Thomas
=7^th 3 A.J.May, Y.Teng, W.Hunt
=10^th 2½ A.Young, M.Thomas, F.Clough
=13^th 2 J.A.Gilbert, G.Wagner
15th 1½ P.Tew
16th 1 N.J.Smith
 

Frank Hatto Individual Rapidplay Championships 2008 U1800

The “Frank Hatto” Major and U-1500 Minor had to be combined due to the low entries in both sections. The first round saw two complete surprises when Phillipe Rodgers (1340) beat Peter Thomas (1638) and Ben Thomas (1246) beat Malcolm Probert (1579). Phillipe and Robert Dineen both won their 2^nd games with Phillipe having another great win by beating top seed Lisbeth Haugsvaer from Cardiff. In the 3^rd round, Phillipe then beat Robert to be sole leader with 3/3. After 3 wins against the top seeds, Phillipe then had two draws, firstly with Julie Wilson in Round 4 to maintain his ½ point lead and then again in round 5 with Simon Blackmore to move to 4/5. At this point Julie had won her 5^th round game to become co-leader.

Round 6 pairings

P.Rodgers (4) v J.Spooner (3)   J.Wilson (4) v P.Thomas (3)

Phillipe won but Julie lost to allow Peter Thomas and Robert Dineen to finish joint 2^nd with her.
Incredibly Phillipe was only seeded 8^th with a rating of 1340 but played all the top 1600+ players  scoring 3½/4 in the process and thoroughly deserved his win. He became the 3^rd successive Junior to win the Frank Hatto trophy for which I’m sure Frank would have been very pleased with.

Final Scores
1^st  5/6 P.Rodgers
=2^nd 4 J.Wilson, P.Thomas, R.Dineen
=5^th 3 L.Haugsvaer, S.Blackmore, J.Spooner, B.Thomas, V.Varma
10^th 2 P.M.Smith
11^th 2 D.Wilmot
12^th 1/5 M.Probert (withdrew)

The Welsh Ladies championship (Hazel Brunker Cup) was played as part of the combined Major/Minor section and was won by Julie Wilson with a score of 4/6.
Thanks to all those who supported the event and to Wilf Arnold who controlled the championships and David Merryweather who arranged the facilities and buffet for us.