1990 British Isles & Ireland Zonal Tournament, 9-20 May, Blackpool

1990 GBR/IRL Zonal Blackpool		Fed	Elo	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Total
1	Murray G Chandler	ENG	2585g	&;	½	½	½	1	1	1	½	1	1	1	-	8
2	Michael Adams	ENG	2555g	½	&;	½	½	½	½	1	1	1	1	1	-	7½
3	Julian M Hodgson	ENG	2540g	½	½	&;	1	½	½	1	1	1	½	1	-	7½
4	Mihai Suba	ENG	2505g	½	½	0	&;	½	1	1	1	1	1	1	(1)	7½
5	Daniel J King	ENG	2515g	0	½	½	½	&;	1	1	½	½	1	1	-	6½
6	Nigel R Davies	WLS	2475m	0	½	½	0	0	&;	½	1	1	1	1	(1)	5½
7	Paul Motwani	SCO	2470m	0	0	0	0	0	½	&;	½	1	1	1	-	4
8	Kilian A Hynes	IRL	2240	½	0	0	0	½	0	½	&;	0	½	½	-	2½
9	Patrick Carton	IRL	2240	0	0	0	0	½	0	0	1	&;	½	½	-	2½
10	Colin A McNab	SCO	2390m	0	0	½	0	0	0	0	½	½	&;	1	-	2½
11	Francis Rayner	WLS	2270	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	½	½	0	&;	-	1
-	(Jonathan R Hawes)	JCI	2205	-	-	(0)	-	(0)	-	-	-	-	-	-	&;	-

Murray Chandler and Michael Adams qualified for the FIDE Interzonal stage
Average Elo: 2435, Category: 8 - GM norm = 7½, IM norm = 5½
Jonathan Hawes (Jersey) withdrew ill after two rounds.

1990 British Isles & Ireland Women's Zonal Tournament, 13-20 May, Blackpool

1990 GBR/IRL Zonal Blackpool		Fed	Elo	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total
1	Cathy Forbes [Warwick]	ENG	2075	&;	1	1	1	1	½	½	1	6
2	Susan K Arkell [Lalic]	ENG	2270wg	0	&;	½	½	1	1	1	1	5
3	Christine Flear	ENG	2185wm	0	½	&;	1	½	½	1	½	4
4	Sheila Jackson	ENG	2220wm	0	½	0	&;	½	½	1	1	3½
5	Natasha K Regan	ENG	2010	0	0	½	½	&;	½	½	1	3
6	Lynda Powell	WLS	2010	½	0	½	½	½	&;	½	0	2½
7	Alison McLure	SCO	2010	½	0	0	0	½	½	&;	½	2
8	Helen Milligan	SCO	2035	0	0	½	0	0	1	½	&;	2

Cathy Forbes qualified for the FIDE Women's Interzonal stage.

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BCM, July 1990, ppn 273-279 (Editor Bernard Cafferty)

The Pilkington Glass British Isles Zonals

The British Isles Zonal for men was played rather late in the schedule, given that the two qualifiers were due in Baguio City in the Philippines by late June to take part in the Interzonal. The calendar congestion was particularly hard for Murray Chandler and Daniel King who had just completed the Watson, Farley & Williams tournament before coming North and had at the back of their minds that they were due to fly out to Moscow within a day of finishing at Blackpool!

An additional worry was the news that the final GMA qualifier in Moscow which carries much prestige and earning potential was possibly in jeopardy due to doubts about an extensive prize fund. The Sandcastle Centre on the South Shore is hardly the best place to be when agonising over the collection of visas from the Soviet Embassy in London.

By a freak of the draw, Chandler and King were due to meet in the last round. The former won his fifth game in a row, an heroic performance by modern standards, and set the scene for a bizarre finish.

Mihai Suba had just won four games in a row, including an effort of 100 moves against Paul Motwani. This left the position at the top that Chandler had qualified outright, but Michael Adams, Julian Hodgson and Suba had to settle one place between them within a day. To accommodate the Moscow-bound, and leave more time in hand for the likely play-off, the rest day scheduled for Saturday 19 May had been used by mutual consent for the three crucial games Chandler v King, Rayner v Adams and Carton v Suba.

Hodgson was the odd-man-out in the discussions, since he had had to sit it out in the last round, due to the early withdrawal of John [sic - Jonathan] Hawes (Channel Islands). While Suba and Adams favoured quick-play games, the Londoner stuck out for the drawing of lots, as allowed in the regulations. A spin of a coin favoured the minority view and the lottery was conducted in style, if not in the luxury surroundings of the precedent for this sort of thing: Smyslov-Hübner in the Austrian casino in 1983.

The bingo caller offered numbers 1-80. Hodgson chose 13, Suba chose 1 and Adams 9 — allegedly related to the number of pints of beer consumed on the nervous night before. Hence a Guardian headline "One over the Eight". Certainly the bizarre proceedings ensured more publicity for the result than straightforward play over the board would have done. Nobody succeeded at the first try, but on the second call, lo and behold, up came the British Champion's number – 9! So the youngest of the aspiring trio booked his ticket for East Asia, where, the cynics would say, another lottery awaits him! The Interzonal is to be a Swiss for the first time.

Meanwhile, the women's Zonal, which began on May 13, four days later than the men's, also had its drama. Susan Arkell has dominated British chess for the last few years, having displaced Jana Bellin and kept ahead of Sheila Jackson. Now, after Blackpool, leadership may have passed to the younger Cathy Forbes, as may be seen from the table.

Now to the play in sequence.

Nigel Davies, recently transferred to Wales as a FIDE affiliation, and currently resident in Israel, was the early leader when he beat Irishman Pat Carton and John [Jonathan] Hawes. The latter game, 50 moves long, in which White had relied on opposite coloured bishops to save him, was followed by gastric trouble for Hawes, who postponed one game, against Adams, lost the next by default and had to withdraw, so cancelling his score.

[Davies - Carton]

The first breakthrough in terms of the titled players beating each other came in the third round.

[Davies - Chandler]

In the next round [the 4th] the shade of Morphy seems to have descended upon Julian Hodgson, though the opening idea derives from Basman, who played it against Stean at Hastings in the 1970s.

[Hodgson - Suba]

In the same round the lead was taken over by King, who beat Davies at the end of the first time control. The game had been a long war of attrition behind pawn barriers. White's knight at e4 is the pride of his position, striking at d6 and f6.

[King - Davies, given in part]

The Scots had a disappointing tournament. Colin McNab was struggling throughout, and Paul Motwani, after taking the joint lead with this win in the fifth round, fell away badly.

[Motwani - Carton]

The next development in the fight for the leadership came in round 6, when King had to concede a draw to Killian Hynes, despite having the white pieces. In fact White never seemed to have much in this game and agreed the draw after 41 moves. Meanwhile Chandler beat Rayner in a gritty struggle of 61 moves to leave the position after six rounds as follows: King, Chandler 4(6); Motwani, Adams 3½(5); Hodgson, drawing many games, 3½(6); Suba 3(5); Hynes 2(5); Carton, McNab 2(6); Davies 1½(5) and Rayner 1(5). It was already becoming clear that Chandler's last-round game with King could well be the decider.

Round 7 was marked by a very strange business in the key game Motwani v Chandler. A report in the Daily Telegraph claimed that Chandler had played the Berlin Defence to the Ruy Lopez. Whoever was looking at the board must have had a skewed vision of the first few moves!

Your editor [Bernard Cafferty] commented many years ago in a similar case, that if such rulings were to stand, some players would feel they need never resign without first trying an illegal move in the hope that it would be taken as 'good'. That was not the case here, of course, but the Scotsman did appeal and learned the FIDE rule the hard way. Could the incident also be Caïssa's revenge on those modern players, who, following blindly the Informator practice, omit the check sign on their score sheets? The Yugoslav publication has a justification for its practice, since it is trying to lessen the number of conventional signs on a 'full and busy' page. Players have no such justification.

As McNab went down in 39 moves to Davies, this was a sorry day for Scotland. Caïssa went on to 'kick a man when he's down' as Motwani lost his next three games too, to King, Hodgson and Suba. The last game took 100 moves to be brought to a conclusion, and marked a very successful finish by Suba, who won his last four games.

In round 9 Carton took a draw off King, who had to defend throughout. The Londoner finished with two Blacks and was free in the tenth round, so he had to watch his rivals coming up fast.

Carton was not so successful in the next round as Hodgson nursed along his slight advantage of the two bishops and a Q-side pawn majority.

[Hodgson - Carton]

This left the scores after ten rounds as: Hodgson 7½(10); Chandler 7(9); King, Adams, Suba 6½(9); Motwani 3½(9); Carton 2½(9); Hynes, McNab 2(9).

Hodgson had to sit it out while the three key games all had decisive results.

[Chandler - King]

So, the results went very much according to status: the GMs finished at the top. The untitled were at the bottom. On the basis of the high status of England, one would have hoped for three qualifying places instead of two.

One place in the Women's Interzonals was on offer. The women are not on the same basis as the men in the sense that there are two Interzonals: the 'A' section of 36 players in Malaysia, 30 vi - 27 vii, and the 'B' section of 35 at Azov, USSR.

The games were all hard-fought, showing a high standard not just at the top. Christine Flear had a superior game against Cathy Forbes till she relaxed in the second round. In the fourth round Flear took a draw off the pre-tournament favourite Susan Arkell, so that when the crunch game Arkell v Forbes came in the fifth round, the Londoner was half a point ahead and practically clinched first place by winning as Black in 54 moves to reach the perfect score of 5(5)!

[S Arkell - C Forbes, round 5, part-game]

Cathy's hundred per cent record came to an end finally when she drew a tense 40-move game in round 6 with Alison McLure, but by then she was in the clear and the last-round draws made no difference to her lead.

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File Updated

Date	Notes
2 October 2025	First uploaded. 57 (open) + 28 (women) games, plus crosstables & report.