1928 (4th) West of England Premier, Cheltenham Town Hall, 7-13 April

1928 West of England Premier		Nat'y	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total
1	Victor Buerger	ENG	&;	0	½	1	½	1	1	1	5
2	John Arthur James Drewitt	ENG	1	&;	1	½	0	0	1	1	4½
3	Eugene A Znosko-Borovsky	FRA	½	0	&;	1	½	0	1	1	4
4	Dr. (Jakob) Adolf Seitz	GER	0	½	0	&;	½	1	1	1	4
5	Sir George Alan Thomas	ENG	½	1	½	½	&;	1	0	0	3½
6	Fred Dewhirst Yates	ENG	0	1	1	0	0	&;	½	1	3½
7	Comins Mansfield	ENG	0	0	0	0	1	½	&;	½	2
8	William Henry Watts	ENG	0	0	0	0	1	0	½	&;	1½

1928 West of England Major Open

1928 West of England Major Open		Nat'y	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total
1	Vera Menchik	ENG	&;	1	1	½	1	1	1	1	6½
2	Edmund Macdonald	ENG	0	&;	1	1	½	0	1	1	4½
3	Dr. Stephen Francis Smith	ENG	0	0	&;	½	1	1	½	1	4
4	Patrick Charles Littlejohn	ENG	½	0	½	&;	0	1	1	½	3½
5	Herbert Parsons	ENG	0	½	0	1	&;	1	½	½	3½
6	Rev. Charles Fenton Bolland	ENG	0	1	0	0	0	&;	1	0	2
7	William James Fry	ENG	0	0	½	0	½	0	&;	1	2
8	George W Powell	ENG	0	0	0	½	½	1	0	&;	2

BCM, May 1928, ppn 191-192

The fourth West of England Chess Festival was held at the Town Hall, Cheltenham, from Saturday, April 7th to the 14th. Sixty-six players took part in the tournament, and they were welcomed by the Mayor, C. H. Margrett, O.B.E., J.P., and after the opening ceremony all the tournaments commenced at 9-30 a.m.

The rate of play for the Premier and major tournaments was seventeen moves an hour and twenty moves in the other tourna-inents. We are unable to give space to report the Premier tournament round by round owing to the limited space at our disposal. There were many adjourned games and the position was not clear till towards the end, but from the start it was seen that Victor Buerger, who by many is looked upon as one of our most promising players, was slightly ahead of the rest. By the last day but one he was assured of first position, whatever happened to his last game, but if he lost it was just possible that Dr. A. Seitz, by winning his two adjourned games v. Yates and Znosko-Borovsky, might tie with him. As a matter of fact Drewitt, who was Buerger’s last opponent, got the better of the game and eventually won, but as Dr. Seitz lost his game with Znosko-Borovsky this loss to Drewitt did not affect his position as winner: In such company his score of five was an excellent result. His play in a difficult position with Sir George Thomas was much admired.

Drewitt took second prize, but was somewhat lucky in a scramble by both players against the clock in his game with Znosko-Borovsky.

By the time of the prize-giving, by Lady Colchester-Wemyss, the position in the Premier tournament was not settled, as there was a pending game between Dr. A. Seitz and F. D. Yates, which was not finished till late Saturday afternoon and went on to the 108th move.

Sir George Thomas, who won the City of London Championship for the ninth time this year, seemed to be somewhat stale. He defeated Yates in a very fine game, which will no doubt appear later on in our games department, but was defeated by the West of England representative, C. Mansfield, in enterprising fashion as Black, in another Ruy Lopez.

The Russian player, E. Znosko-Borovsky, who now lives in Paris, and the Bavarian, Dr. A. Seitz, shared the third prize.

In the Major Open tournament Miss Vera Menchik, the World’s lady champion, created quite a sensation by her magnificent score of 6½ out of 7, many of her games showing as much chess knowledge as those in the Premier tournament; and it is to be hoped that she will be given the opportunity in the near future of meeting our best players. E. Macdonald, who was second in this tournament with 4½, was followed by the veteran, Dr. S. F. Smith, with 4.

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In addition to these two tournaments there were two sections of ten each in class 1. Class 1A was won by Alfred Mortlock, a young player from Hastings, with 7 out of nine games. He was followed by (2) Francis Herbert Terrill (Birmingham) 6½; (3) Harold Dotson Wells 6; (4) H Loeffler 5½; (5) Robert Douglas Wormald 4½; (6) Capt. Arthur Edward Dickinson 4; (7) W Barker 3½; (8) Mrs. Amabel Nevill Gwyn Sollas 3; (9-10) Vickerman Henzell Rutherford, Francis Frederick Finch 2½.

Class 1B: (1) Clarence Bernard Pepler 8/9; (2) Philip Ashby Ursell 7; (3) George Wright 5½; (4) Percival John Lawrence 5; (5) Albert H Hart 4½; (6) Rev. William Ernest Evill 4; (7-9) Frederick Wilkinson, Leslie Edward Vine, Charles Henry Taylor 3; (10) Willington Lucette Wakefield 2.

There were also twenty players in Class 2, divided into two sections. Class 2A was won by (1) William Ernest Baker Pryer, the late University player, with 8/9; (2-3) John Baines-Lewis, Henry A Foxwell 6; (4) S J Osborn 5½; (5) Mrs. M Healey 5; (6) Henry Stanley Shelton 4½; (7) Roger Oswald Platt 4; (8) E A Hewitt 3½; (9) Miss Olga Menchik 2½; (10) J G Tate 0.

Class 2B was won by (1) Sydney Meymott with 7½/9. (2-3) John Keeble, the well-known problemist, Miss M Andrews 6; (4) Oscar Serck 5½; (5-6) Frederick George Perrins, Mrs. Rosa Annie Banting 5; (7) A E Harding 4; (8) Miss Lillie Eveling 3; (9) Rev. G R Parkinson 1; (10) Miss C Eveling 0. (n.b. adds up to 43 points out of a possible 45 but those are the scores given in BCM)

There were ten competitors in Class 3. (1-2) A J Friend, Rev. (Percy Charles) Wyndham Earee 8/9; (3-4) Miss K Earee, Mrs. Lizzie Vine (née Goring) 5; (5-6) (Lady) Muriel Ivy Scobell A Mackereth, Mrs. Knapp 4½; (7) Mrs. T D Fitzgerald 4; (8-9) R N Murray, Robert Henry Alexander Morton 2½; (10) Miss F Brewster 1.

n.b. I have edited the above to include forenames, none of which appeared in the original, and for clarity. JS

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File Updated

Date	Notes
16 December 2022	First upload. Of a possible 28 Premier games, we have 14 full scores (one of which is suspect because of a newspaper's typographical errors) and two part-games. The 12 missing scores are included as stubs in the hope that they are found eventually. There are also 13 games from subsidiary tournaments, including a stub of one of Vera Menchik's games (we have full scores of her other six games, only one of which appears in the Tanner biography).
18 December 2022	Added one game from the 1B section: P.Ursell 1-0 W.Wakefield. Many thanks to Brian Denman for sending the game.