Hampshire Chess Individual Championship 1932

Again a change from the previous year where three preliminary sections of five players were played and the top two moved to the final where an all play all was completed. This also meant that more than one competitor per chess club was able to enter the competition.

The preliminary sections were

Section I

AB Coe
Rev HF Hawkes
HD Lloyd
HA Way
CF Chapman

Section II

H Grover
GP Britton
CT Bennett
A Graywallis
HL Gardiner

Section III

AS Dance
FJH Elwell
WJ Fry
FL Taylor
GT Lloyd

The preliminary results were not detailed in the Hampshire Chess Archives but with some investigation work in the British Newspaper Archives I was able to determine the majority of the results from the weekly chess column in the Hampshire Advertiser. There was also a discrepancy with the clubs included in FL Taylor’s document and I have stated the clubs as per the newspaper.

For a list of the winners of the Hampshire Individual Championship and links to any articles I have written the table on the Hampshire Individual Championship is the best place to look. In addition, the table on the Hampshire Tournaments will detail these and any other tournament articles I have completed. Both of these are available from the menu at the top of the site as well.

Section I

A tie between AB Coe (Southampton), Rev HF Hawkes (Woolston) and HD Lloyd (Portsmouth) meant a three way playoff had to be undertaken for the two places. AB Coe and the Rev HF Hawkes triumphed over HD Lloyd (although I cannot find any details) and progressed to the final. CF Chapman (Portsmouth) and HA Way (Southsea were the other contestants).

Section II

H Grover (Lymington) and reigning champion GP Britton (Tauntons School) both scored three wins and one loss, finishing just ahead of CT Bennett (Bournemouth). A Graywallis (unknown) and HL Gardiner (Bournemouth) were the other two players in the 2nd preliminary.

Section III

Full details of the 3rd preliminary has proved difficult to obtain and unlike section II I could not determine the results from the partial results. Frank Elwell (Southampton) won all his games whilst AS Dance (Andover) and GT Lloyd (also Andover) tied for 2nd place with two points and would have had a play off. WJ Fry (Southampton) who would later win the championship three times and F Taylor (Old Tauntonians) were the other entrants.

AS Dance was in the final so the assumption is that he won the playoff against his fellow club player.

Final

FJH Elwell dominated the final, winning all five games (along with his four from four in the prelim) and won his second title in three years. The change to the structure allowed more players from one club to qualify for the final and Southampton had two players in the final (who finished in 1st and 3rd place).

The best resource for additional information on Hampshire Chess in this period is the Hampshire Advertiser Chess Column. Unfortunately this was not published from June to the start of October and therefore the Final which would have been completed in this time is not covered in any detail.

In the 15th October’s Hampshire Advertiser’s article the game between AB Coe and GP Britton was included and this game with light annotations is below with a pretty Queen sacrifice.