Royal Automobile Club Centenary Celebration

ROYAL AUTOMOBILE CLUB CENTENARY CELEBRATION

100 BOARD SIMULTANEOUS CHESS EXHIBITION

This year the Royal Automobile Club celebrated the centenary of its Pall Mall Clubhouse and the 1911 founding of its Chess Circle with a 100 board simultaneous display held on Saturday 16 April 2011 at the Clubhouse in Pall Mall.

In a truly unique format, ten of Britain’s highest-rated grandmasters took part:

Mickey Adams, Luke McShane, David Howell, Julian Hodgson, Gawain Jones, Nick Pert, Stephen Gordon, Jon Speelman, Simon Williams and Jovanka Houska.  

The grandmasters took on ten teams of ten players drawn from the members of the Royal Automobile Club Chess Circle, the leading players from the other London Club teams that compete for the Hamilton Russell Trophy, ex-Varsity players and two teams of juniors – one from the English Chess Federation and one drawn from Chess in Schools and Communities (a charity with a mission to promote chess in state schools and communities).

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Three rounds were played (of one hour per game), with the grandmasters being repaired with teams after each round. Where games were still unfinished after one hour, Grandmaster Ray Keene officiated as adjudicator.

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The grandmasters’ scores were as follows: Stephen Gordon 29 (out of 30), Mickey Adams, David Howell, Nick Pert 27½, Gawain Jones, Luke McShane, Jon Speelman 27, Simon Williams 26, Julian Hodgson 25½, Jovanka Houska 23, making a total of 267 points.

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The teams scored as follows:

1          Hamilton Russell Clubs                             8 / 30

2=       RAC 2nd team                                              6½

2=       Ex-Varsity                                                     6½

4          RAC 1st team                                                            4½

5          Junior Chess                                                            3

6          RAC 3rd team                                               2

7=        RAC 4th team                                               1

7=        RAC 5th team                                               1

9          RAC 6th team                                               ½

10        Chess in Schools and Communities        0

TOTAL           =                                                          33

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In total, 13 games were lost by the grandmasters, as follows:

Round 1

Chris Gant (RAC 2, board 4) bt Julian Hodgson

Shaun Taulbut (Hamilton Russell Clubs, board 1) bt Simon Williams

Yaroslav Voropayev (Hamilton Russell Clubs, board 7) bt Simon Williams

Round 2

Hans Hansen (RAC 4, board 1) bt Simon Williams

Lee Green (RAC 1, board 5) bt Mickey Adams

David Green (RAC 3, board 4) bt Luke McShane

Tam Freestone-Bayes (Hamilton Russell Clubs, board 3) bt Luke McShane

Richard VM Hall (Hamilton Russell Clubs, board 10) bt Jon Speelman

Isaac  Sanders (Junior Chess, board 6, aged 12) bt David Howell

Round 3

Natasha Regan (Varsity, board 4) bt Jovanka Houska

Michael Yeo (Varsity, board 5) bt Jovanka Houska

Peter Andrews (Varsity, board 6) bt Jovanka Houska

Matthew Wadsworth (Junior Chess, board 5, aged 10) bt Mickey Adams

The best score by a team player was 2/3, made by four players:

Chris Gant (RAC 2) 2

Yaroslav Voropayev (Hamilton Russell Clubs) 2

Richard VM Hall (Hamilton Russell Clubs) 2

Matthew Wadsworth (Junior Chess, aged 10) 2 (½ Gawain Jones, ½ David Howell, 1 Mickey Adams)

Two IMs took part and scored as follows: Shaun Taulbut 1½/3 and Nigel Povah ½/3.

The organisers were Stephen Meyler, Sheldon Marshall (both of the RAC Club) and Malcolm Pein, director of the London Chess Classic.

The arbiter was David Sedgwick. Commenting on the day’s play, David said: “To my mind, Matthew Wadsworth was the star of the day. He played three members of the England Olympiad team (Gawain Jones, David Howell and Mickey Adams) and got a win and two draws. Mention should also be made of Grandmaster Stephen Gordon for his magnificent 29/30.”

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Photos attached to this press release include ‘Ten GMs.JPG’ which shows (standing, left to right) Jo Speelman, Luke McShane, Gawain Jones, David Howell, Simon Williams and (sitting, left to right) Stephen Gordon, Julian Hodgson, Jovanka Houska, Michael Adams and Nick Pert. (Note, all hold the GM title except for Jovanka Houska who holds the IM and WGM titles).

Also attached is a PGN file with some games from the event.

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The Royal Automobile Club Chess Circle has a very distinguished playing record of its own.  Since 1924, it has competed with other London clubs for the Hamilton-Russell Challenge Trophy which it has won more times than any other club.  It also has regular fixtures with teams both in the USA, France and Gibraltar.

CONTACT DETAILS

For details of the Royal Automobile Club Chess Centenary Event:

Siobhan Croll 020 7747 3295, chesscentenary@royalautomobileclub.co.uk

For further chess-related details:

John Saunders, Editor, CHESS Magazine, editor@chess.co.uk

The Royal Automobile Club has two clubhouses, at:

89 Pall Mall London, SW1Y 5HS Telephone 020 7930 2345

Woodcote Park Wilmerhatch Lane, Epsom, Surrey KT18 7EW Telephone 01372 276311

Membership remains at record levels of around 16,500 members in the UK and beyond, with members ranging from those in their teens to those over one hundred years of age. 

For further information, please visit www.royalautomobileclub.co.uk