Players in the Hastings Masters 2008-09

As you might expect, since I have returned to being the English Chess Federation International Director, there is greater emphasis on English representation than applied in many earlier years. Even so, the leading players are foreigners.

Boris Grachev 2653 and Igor Kurnosov 2606 are young Russians, 22 and 23 years old respectively. They have been making a steady meteoric rise in rating in the past few years. Emanuel Berg 2623 Sweden is making his second appearance in Hastings. Valeriy Neverov 2571 Ukraine is appearing here for the fourth consecutive year. While he continues to win the tournament, as in the past three years, he will continue to be invited back. Milos Pavlovic 2524 Serbia is another perennial guest. His appearance here will provide him with an opportunity to work once again as a coach to Jovanka Houska. Least year he also worked with Gawain Jones. I failed to inform the arbiters that pairings between these three were undesirable and, of course, they clashed twice. Luis Javier Bernal Moro 2451 Spain and Uriel Capo Vidal 2340 Mexico are newcomers. The latter is just 22 years old and yet his rating has made no progress this year. But how did he manage to play 56 rated games in one rating period? If you look through the list for the entire event, you will find several Mexicans are playing. They find it difficult to get strong opposition at home. Simon Knight has encouraged a number of youngsters to come. Other international masters who are making a welcome return include Willy Hendricks Netherlands 2447, Vladimir Prosviriakov USA 2327 and Petr Marusenko Ukraine 2320. Last year Glenn Flear played, this time it is the turn of his wife Christine Flear France 2092 woman master.

The English challenge is led by David Howell 2593 who celebrated his 18th birthday in Dresden by making an excellent debut for our team in the Olympiad. He is currently taking a gap year and improving rapidly as a result. Stuart Conquest ENG 2526 won the British Championship in Liverpool this year. He used to be a local lad, but now lives in Spain. Stephen Gordon 2521 is only an IM, but is sure to get his final norm soon. He again won the British U-21 Championship, but that is the last time he will be eligible. He too is concentrating on chess currently as is Gawain Jones 2548. Mark Hebden 2515, Danny Gormally 2514 are familiar figures. Stewart Haslinger 2506 also played last year. Should he repeat his recent form in Essen it would be unsurprising if he won here. Simon Williams 2494 finally managed to get his rating over 2500 in Hastings last year, so that he is now also a GM. Look out for fireworks on his board. Jovanka Houska 2399 IM is England’s leading active woman player. Andrew Greet 2440 is another young, familiar professional player here. Adam Hunt 2431 and Richard Bates 2387 are less common fixtures in Hastings. Adam teaches chess professionally in one school, as do a couple of other English players. Richard has a more normal job – that may be no way to become a grandmaster, but it may well be a route to making more money – even in these days of a credit crunch.