Commonwealth Chess Championship

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The Commonwealth Chess Championship is a gathering of chess players from Commonwealth countries.

1 History
2 Winners
3 References

[edit] History

A championship was planned for New Zealand in 1949, but it was canceled because the British Chess Federation was unable to attend.

[edit] Oxford 1950

In 1950 an informal all-play-all championship was held as the strongest players of Canada (Daniel Yanofsky), New Zealand (Robert Wade), and South Africa (Wolfgang Heidenfeld) were all in England. The field was rounded out with a player from England, Scotland, and a promising Australian. William Fairhurst (Scotland) won the unofficial championship held in Oxford.^[1]

[edit] Melbourne 1983

The Commonwealth Chess Association (formed in 1981) planned a 1982 championship in Nigeria, but it was not held. The 1983 Swiss system tournament was held in Melbourne, and won by Ian Rogers and Gregory Hjorth, both of Australia.

[edit] Hong Kong 1984

The winners of the 1984 Hong Kong tournament were Kevin Spraggett (Canada) and Murray Chandler (England).

[edit] London 1985

The winners of the 1985 London tournament were Praveen Thipsay (India) and Kevin Spraggett.

[edit] 1988

In 1988 the championship was won by Gary Lane.

[edit] Bikaner 1999

Grandmaster Alexander Baburin of Ireland remained undefeated throughout with 8.5/10 but since Ireland is outside the Commonwealth federation the title went to Atanu Lahiri.

[edit] Sangli 2000

The championship with 72 players was played as a 11 round swiss event. Four players ended with 8.5/11: Max Sorokin, Krishnan Sasikiran, Evegeny Vladimirov and Aleksander Fominih. Sorokin won the championship on tie-break points but the title went to Krishnan Sasikiran.

[edit] Mumbai 2003

Nguyen Anh Dung from Vietnam finished first with 8.5/10, the title went to 4th placed Dibyendu Barua.

[edit] Mumbai 2004

The 2004 Championships were held in Mumbai, India. The winner was Nigel Short. In 2005 the event was scheduled to be played, but was in the end cancelled.

[edit] New Delhi 2007

Sponsored by Parvnath Developers Ltd., the 2007 tournament was held at the Sirifort Sports Complex, Khel, New Delhi. The Delhi Chess Association organized the event on behalf of the All India Chess Federation and Commonwealth Chess Association and The ten-round Swiss system tournament boasted a record field of 282 players included entries from eleven commonwealth countries: Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Trinidad & Tobago, with 13 Grandmasters, 35 International Masters, 5 Woman Grandmasters and 7 Woman International Masters. The prize fund totaled US$20,000, with $4000 for the winner.

Former British Champion GM R. B. Ramesh won the final three rounds to tie with top seed GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly at 8½/10 points. Ramesh won the title on tie-break, with Ramesh and Ganguly splitting the top two prizes equally for Rs 137,500 (approximately €2400). IM Abhijeet Gupta finished third with 8, completing the requirements for the Grandmaster title to become India’s 17th Grandmaster. He also won the Under-20 prize and received Rs 75,000. IM Harika Dronavalli won Rs 40,000 by taking the women’s title for the second consecutive year with an overall finish in seventh place. There were three medals (gold, silver, and bronze) awarded in each fifteen categories: Overall, Women, Seniors, Under-20, Girls Under-20, and boys and girls U-18, U-16, U-14, U-12, and U-10. Players from India won 44 of the 45 medals, with English GM Gawain Jones preventing the sweep by winning the U-20 bronze.^[2]

[edit] Winners

#	Year	City	Winner
(1)	1950	Oxford	William Fairhurst (SCO)
1	1983	Melbourne	Ian Rogers (AUS) & Gregory Hjorth (AUS)
2	1984	Hong Kong	Kevin Spraggett (CAN) & Murray Chandler (ENG)
3	1985	London	Praveen Thipsay (IND) & Kevin Spraggett (CAN)
4	1988	?	Gary Lane (AUS)
5	1996	Calcutta	?
6	1999	Bikaner	( Alexander Baburin (IRL)), Atanu Lahiri (IND)
7	2000	Sangli	Krishnan Sasikiran (IND)
8	2001	London	Pentala Harikrishna (IND)
9	2003	Mumbai	Dibyendu Barua (IND)
10	2004	Mumbai	Nigel Short (ENG)
11	2006	Mumbai	Nigel Short (ENG)
12	2007	New Delhi	Ramachandran Ramesh (IND)