Success for South Hams Players at the 2018 East Devon Congress

Many, many congratulations to David Archer, who was, for the second year running, the outright winner of the Major (under 155) Tournament at this year's East Devon Chess Congress held at the Exeter Corn Exchange, winning all five of his games.

In a field of 39 players, David beat Alexander Poyser (137), John Morrison (147), Max Walker (144), Jamie Morgan (145) and Roy Shapland (139) - giving him a "grading performance" for the tournament of 193. Brilliant!

Logged-in members of South Hams Chess Club can play through all David's games, which are already on the club's games database.

In the Minor (Under 125) Tournament, Roy Greenhalgh was one of six players sharing the first prize, with 4 points out of 5. Roy finished with 3 wins, a bye and a draw. Even before the Congress, Roy had become a club legend for finding extraordinary ways of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, but in the 4th round of the Congress he truly excelled himself. It was a real conundrum of a position - doubled rooks were attacking doubled rooks, with pins all over the place. When his opponent played RxR he had the opportunity to force checkmate on Roy's king, but he couldn't understand why the win evaporated when he played the second RxR two moves later. The reason was that he had taken his own rook! So when Roy played RxR he found himself a rook up. In the heat of the moment, with the complexity of position and the pressure of several people watching, neither player realised what had happened!

Three other South Hams players participated in the Congress:

• Cliff Peach scored 1½ against some strong opposition in the Major, with a bye, two draws and two defeats
• Ken Ashby scored 2 in the Minor, with 2 wins and 3 defeats
• John Belli scored 1½ in the Minor, with 3 draws and 2 defeats

By all accounts it was a great weekend.