| Home | 1999/2000 | Past Winners |
Although the championship itself was only contested by nine players, the field contained all the strongest active players in this age group and, as well as the defending champion, included several with realistic chances of winning the title. One of the aspects of this year's competition that gave me particular pleasure as controller was to see how much it meant to the players to win this trophy, on which is engraved the names of most of the strongest players to have come from Cornwall, including Michael Adams himself.
In the end it was Patrice Gluck, of Truro College and Camborne, who triumphed, although the winning margin of 1 point does not reflect the closeness of the struggle. In round 4 he took the lead by defeating the defending champion Tim Manton in the best game of the tournament, taking full advantage of a positional error to win a pawn and the game. At the beginning of the last round both Neil Currah and Grant Lakeland were still in contention. After Patrice had agreed an early draw with Neil, Grant could have won a share of the title by defeating James Hooker. However his position was difficult and he went on to lose the game. James started as top seed but was beaten twice with white in his favourite Stonewall opening (both times losing material to a similar combination after an early h3). The round 5 game between Rico Wong and Tim Gordon featured that most unusual of occurrences, a successful claim of a draw under the 50 move rule. I will refrain from giving the 112 moves of this game for fear of taxing the patience of the readers.
Patrice now holds the trophy for the year to come. There follow the round by round results and a selection of games.
| 1
|
| Patrice Gluck
|
| 4
|
| 2=
|
| Grant Lakeland Tim Manton Neil Currah Douglas Cooke James Hooker
|
| 3
|
| 7=
|
| Rico Wong Jeremy Kneebone
|
| 2
|
| 9
|
| Tim Gordon
|
| 1
|
Round 1
| Hooker | 0 - 1 | Wong | |
| Currah | 0 - 1 | Lakeland | |
| Manton | ½ - ½ | Cooke | |
| Kneebone | 0 - 1 | Gluck |
½ point bye: Gordon.
| Lakeland | (1) | ½ - ½ | Gluck | (1) | |||
| Wong | (1) | 0 - 1 | Manton | (½) | |||
| Cooke | (½) | 1 - 0 | Gordon | (½) | |||
| Kneebone | (0) | 0 - 1 | Hooker | (0) |
1 point bye: Currah (0)
| Manton | (1½) | ½ - ½ | Lakeland | (1½) | ||||
| Gluck | (1½) | 1 - 0 | Cooke | (1½) | Moves | |||
| Hooker | (1) | 0 - 1 | Currah | (1) | Moves | |||
| Gordon | (½) | 0 - 1 | Kneebone | (0) |
½ point bye: Wong (1)
Round 4
| Gluck | (2½) | 1 - 0 | Manton | (2) | Moves | |||
| Lakeland | (2) | 1 - 0 | Wong | (1½) | ||||
| Cooke | (1½) | ½ - ½ | Currah | (2) | Moves | |||
| Gordon | (½) | 0 - 1 | Hooker | (1) |
1 point bye: Kneebone (1)
| Currah | (2½) | ½ - ½ | Gluck | (3½) | ||||
| Hooker | (2) | 1 - 0 | Lakeland | (3) | Moves | |||
| Manton | (2) | 1 - 0 | Kneebone | (2) | ||||
| Wong | (1½) | ½ - ½ | Gordon | (½) |
1 point bye: Cooke (2)
| Home | 1999/2000 | Past Winners |