Guernsey Chess Club and Federation Reports
The 31st International Guernsey Chess Festival October 2005. The venue was the Cobo Bay hotel in Guernsey. The playing hall had spectacular views over the bay. The blue water was often calm but mainly crashing against the red granite rocks a bit like the chess most the time. There were 52 players in the Open tournament and 39 in the Holiday tournament.
The tournament began under a cloud with the news of the very sad loss of highly respected arbiter Steve Boniface. One of the players (Kevin Thurlow) was also a qualified arbiter, and he stepped in until the arrival of BCF chief arbiter David Welch, who kindly rushed to our aid in the sad and unfortunate circumstances.
Grand Master Tiger Hillarp-Persson and International Master Robert Bellin both began the tournament with comfortable wins in the first round. Grand Master Oleg Korneev took a half point bye in the first round and began play in round two.
Hillarp-Persson and Korneev met in round 5 (Korneev white) and played a very sharp Sicilian which ended in a draw being agreed after 24 moves.
Hillarp-Persson this time with white was again held to a draw by Bellin in round 6 with an interesting Dutch defence. Korneev and Bellin were not paired in the final round and of course this left the door open for Korneev to take first place which he duly did.
GM Tiger Hillarp-Persson asks the audiance for suggestions for the next move that Robert Bellin may have made next in his brilliancy game, chosen by Tiger.
IM Robert Bellin with his brilliancy prize, he's deserved it many times before and was very pleased to eventually win it.
See full report by Kevin Thurlow on the British Chess Magazine site.BCM report