45th Nottingham Congress

[John Swain]

118 participated in the 45th Nottingham Congress at Nottingham High School over the weekend of 23-24 April.

Prizes for the Open were enhanced thanks to generous sponsorship from Marcel Taylor (also one of the arbiters!) who also sponsored a new "Improvers" section.

Nottingham's FM Jonah Willow, who very recently qualified for the IM title, scored 4.5/5 and won £750, defeating GM Mark Hebden in round 4 and securing a draw with IM Brandon Clarke in round 5; Brandon and Bruce Baer finished 2= on 4/5 and collected £300 each.

Winners of the other sections were:

Major (<1950)
1= Sammy Benzaira, Alejandro Lopez-Martinez, James Luong, David Wells, all on 4/5

Intermediate (<1750)
1= Andre Cockburn, John Robinson, Bill Ward, Paul Wheatley, all on 4/5

Minor (<1550)
1st - James McBain 5/5

Improvers (<1350)
1st - Joseph Hogan 4.5/5

Further details may be seen at: https://chess-results.com/tnr626662.asp ... turdet=YES and at:
https://www.nottinghamshirechess.org/wp ... Prizes.pdf

Thanks are due to all who played or who helped to organise the event, including Neil and Ann Graham who ran a refreshments stall which raised £225 for Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine Appeal.