RON BANWELL MIND SPORTS OLYMPIAD MASTERS took place at Alexandra Palace in North London 20-28 August 2000. The event was sponsored by the British Chess Federation, the London Chess Association, FIDE and the Friends of Chess. There were 62 contestants from 10 different federations.

In any sporting activity everybody wants to see a nail-biting finish. At first glance this seemed not to be the case here. Danny Gormally took the lead by winning his first 5 games. (He was totally lost in a very bad game against Graeme Buckley in round 4.) He then drew rounds 6 and 7, beat Mark Hebden in Round 8 and had a quick draw in the last round with Aaron Summerscale. However Danny has played a large number of events where he failed to gain a gm norm by half a point. Thus there was considerable tension in the hall when he played Mark, and a collective sigh of relief when he won. Not that this is any reflection on the Midland gm. This meant Danny had his norm with a whole round to spare. His 7.5/9 was an impressive 2664 performance. Presumably this counts as 40/40 in the Terence Chapman British Isles Grand Prix.

Aaron Summerscale ensured himself second prize by his last round draw. Julian Hodgson must have been disappointed to score only 6.5/9. He came looking for a Terence Chapman Grand Prix maximum. Surely his score was not good enough to achieve this. Still, he managed to beat micro-monster, David Howell. The nightmare scenario is to lose to the child and find oneself plastered all over the newspapers - as Dr John Nunn, in a 5 minute game, discovered to his cost last year.

Eddie Dearing has hardly played chess for the last year. That he found himself on Board 3 against Mark Hebden in the last round, demonstrates the young Scot has considerable potential.

Alexander Cherniaev and Amon Simutowe managed to eke out wins in the last round to join the prize money group. The young Zambian has made a good impression in England in the last month. If he can get good opposition, there is little doubt he can make considerable progress.

Heather Richards was the only player other than Danny to secure a norm, in her case a woman international master result. There can be no doubt we are in a golden age of female chess in England currently. Jovanka Houska has just won the European Girls Championship. This all presages well for our female team in Istanbul.

The tournament was unique in offering financial conditions not only to gms, but also disabled players. Only 6 out of 62 qualified, but even so this was a far higher proportion than we normally see at chess events.

The whole Mind Sports Olympiad was arranged at very short notice. The decision to go ahead only came in the middle of July. The BCF immediately made their key decision to support this event. However it was extremely late in the day. The Braille Chess Olympiads clashed and this took off all our blind international players.

Let us hope the event can be repeated next year and that other organisers will imitate the financial structure, favouring disabled players.

This would then be a most fitting tribute to Ron Banwell, himself a haemophiliac. It was most touching at the closing ceremony that Mrs Banwell presented the prizes. Several past Islington Club members and close friends of Ron attended the event. This included Jimmy Adams, Gerald Bayliss, Ray Cannon, Ron Harman, Paul Mercer and myself. Ron Jimmy and I played in the tournament, while Gerald acted as a filler for one round.

Top results:

1. Gormally, Daniel      m  ENG 2499  7.5
2. Summerscale, Aaron    g  ENG 2459  7.0
3. Cherniaev, Alexander  m  RUS 2454  6.5
4. Hebden, Mark          g  ENG 2505  6.5
5. Hodgson, Julian M     g  ENG 2640  6.5
6. Simutowe, Amon        m  ZAM 2322  6.5


ROUND 9 RESULTS

1.  Gormally        (7)   __ 0.5 __ Summerscale (6.5)
2.  Plaskett        (5.5) __ 0.5 __ Hodgson     (6 )
3.  Dearing         (5.5) __ 0-1 __ Hebden      (5.5)
4.  Cherniaev       (5.5) __ 1-0 __ Sherwin     (5.5)
5.  Simutowe        (5.5) __ 1-0 __ Ansell      (5.5)
6.  Rahman          (5.5) __ 0-1 __ McNab       (5)
7.  Arkell          (5)   __ 0.5 __ Buckley     (4.5)
8.  Crouch          (4.5) __ 1-0 __ Spence      (4.5)
9.  Sarkar          (4.5) __ 1-0 __ Devereux    (4.5)
10. Palliser        (4.5) __ 0.5 __ Moloney     (4.5)
11. Rendle          (4.5) __ 0-1 __ Cobb        (4.5)
12. Friedland       (4.5) __ 0-1 __ Jones       (4)
13. Snape           (4)   __ 0.5 __ Richards    (4)
14. Howell          (4)   __ 0.5 __ Pfeiffer    (4)
15. Nixon           (4)   __ 0-1 __ Bigg        (4)
16. Milligan        (4)   __ 0.5 __ Player      (4)
17. Menon           (3.5) __ 1-0 __ Karavade    (3.5 )
18. Mayers          (3.5) __ 1-0 __ Gupta       (3.5)
19. Pahud           (3.5) __ 0-1 __ Hebbes      (3.5)
20. Fox             (3.5) __ 0.5 __ Warman      (3.5)
21. Fraser-Mitchell (3.5) __ 1-0 __ Spanton     (3)
22. Barron          (3)   _1-0 def_ Deva      (3)
23. Kieran          (3)   __ 0.5 __ Bass        (3)
24. Birchall        (2.5) __ 0.5 __ Harman      (2.5)
25. Hardy           (2.5) __ 0.5 __ Gilbert     (3)
26. Young           (2.5) __ 1-0 __ Rety        (1.5)
27. Flower          (2.5) __ 1-0 __ Kennedy     (2)