1930 Hastings Tournament, 14-18 April

1922 (April) Hastings		1	2	3	4	5	Total
1	John Arthur James Drewitt	&;	½	1	0	1	2½
2	William Winter	½	&;	0	1	1	2½
3	Vera Menchik	0	1	&;	1	0	2
4	Theodore Henry Tylor	1	0	0	&;	½	1½
5	Edward Mackenzie Jackson	0	0	1	½	&;	1½

[The Times, 7 April 1930] "EASTER TOURNAMENTS – The organizers of the Easter Congress at Canterbury ask me to state that there are still a few vacancies in the second and third class sections, and also in the Major Open Tournament. Any players desiring to enter should make immediate application to the Rev. W. E. Evill, 14, St. Dunstan’s-terrace, Canterbury. This congress will be preceded by a small tournament at Hastings, arranged with their usual enterprise by the Hastings Chess Club when it was thought there would be no other Easter event. Mr. J. A. J. Drewitt informs me that the entries are:—Miss Menchik, T. H Tylor, E. M. Jackson, W. Winter, and two players yet to be selected, one of whom, I understand, will be Mr. Drewitt himself. The tournament begins on Monday, April 14, and should be very interesting..."

[The Times, 15 April 1930] "HASTINGS CHESS TOURNAMENT THE FIRST ROUND (FROM OUR CHESS CORRESPONDENT) HASTINGS, April 14. The tournament promoted by the Hastings Chess Club began this evening, when the first round was played in the club rooms. I find that they have been unable to secure a sixth entrant, so one competitor will have a bye in each round. The woman champion of the world had hers this evening.

"Miss Menchik had the bye. The game between Drewitt and Tylor meant that Wadham was meeting Balliol. and the honours went to Balliol. Drewitt varied the opening by playing Kt-Q 2 for his second move, Tylor adopting a defence favoured by Capablanca. An intricate position in the middle game arose from this, Tylor having several ways of making trouble for his opponent, but all these were foreseen and guarded against. Then Drewitt saw his way to the winning of a pawn through forcing an exchange of rooks, and should have come out with a clear win. Somewhat unaccountably he missed his way, allowing Tylor to force a winning combination on the queen’s side, and the game ended in 32 moves. Winter against Jackson had to meet what amounted to a French defence, and this was not improved through Jackson’s not playing P-Q 4 at once. Winter concentrated his attack on the queen’s side, making an effective use of his centre pawn to drive the defending knight away. That accomplished, a sacrificial combination gave him a clear piece, and only a few more moves were necessary to secure the win. In each game the gloves came off early, quite rightly in a tournament of this kind."

[The Times, 16 April 1930] "HASTINGS CHESS TOURNAMENT THE SECOND ROUND (from our chess correspondent) HASTINGS. April 15. The second round of the Hastings Chess Tournament was played to-day, one of the games ending very quickly this morning. Miss Menchik lost to W. Winter the last time they met, but she was able to turn the tables in this instance, and 20 moves were sufficient. Tylor had the bye. Miss Menchik against Winter began with the usual 1. P-Q 4, P-Q 4; 2. P-Q B 4 P-K 3; 3. Kt-B 3, P-Q B 3 ; and an exchange of the centre pawns soon followed, Winter playing to keep a pawn on the queen’s file, and eventually hamper his opponent by bringing it to Q 5. The plan had to be carefully watched, for there were innumerable variations ending in disaster if not properly met. The end came when Miss Menchik threatened an immediate mate, and Winter overlooked the further danger from an obtrusive knight in the centre. This could, and should, have been exchanged, the penalty for the oversight being the loss of the queen. Jackson had to work hard against the defence adopted by Drewitt, both avoiding the usual P—Q 4 in the early stages of the game. Later on came a king’s side attack by Jackson, which was miscalculated to the extent of tho loss of a pawn, exchanges bringing the ending to bishops and pawns for Drewitt against bishop, knight, and pawns for Jackson. The extra pawn was sufficient to enable Drewitt to force the win."

[The Times, 17 April 1930] "HASTINGS CHESS TOURNAMENT The third round (FROM OUR CHESS CORRESPONDENT) HASTINGS, April 16. The third round of the Hastings Chess Tournament was played to-day, the pairing bringing Miss Menchik and one of her mentors together. The result was a win for Mr. J. A. Drewitt, who thus leads with a score of 2 points. Mr. T. H. Tylor comes next with 1½ points. Miss Menchik and W. Winter have 1 point each. Winter had the bye. Tylor against Jackson turned out to be a very interesting game, once the opening stages of the Morphy Defence had been passed. Tylor then began an attack on the king's side which very nearly succeeded, there being only one defence against immediate loss in several of the positions. However, Jackson weathered the storm and drew in 26 moves. Drewitt played the variation of the opening wherein White obtains a “ stonewall ” position with pawns at Q 5, QB 4, and K 4, leaving Black very little freedom in the centre. It was a long while, however, before he could obtain any material advantage, and some of the major pieces were exchanged before he saw his way to win a pawn. This involved exchanging to leave himself with a rook and six pawns, to the rook and two pawns for Miss Menchik, and Drewitt does not usually make mistakes in an ending of this kind. He won in 43 moves."

[The Times, 19 April 1930] "TIE FOR FIRST PLACE (FROM OUR CHESS CORRESPONDENT) HASTINGS, April 18. The Hastings Chess Tournament finished to-day, Messrs. J. A. Drewitt and W. Winter coming out equal first with 2½ points each. Miss Menchik scored 2 points and Messrs E. M. Jackson and T. H. Tylor 1½ points each. In the fourth round the game between Miss Menchik and Tylor came down to an ending with each having knight and pawns. Tylor was outplayed here, and lost in 48 moves. Much exchanging brought about a draw in 22 moves between Drewitt and Winter. In the fifth round Tylor got rather out of his depth against Winter. He lost a piece, and resigned on the 35th move. Jackson was not quite happy against Miss Menchik’s defence, for she soon secured some positional advantage. Jackson recovered later, however, and won in 37 moves."

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File updated

Date	Notes
12 January 2022	First uploaded. Something of a curiosity as it seems only to have been reported in the Times and only two complete games have so far emerged. However, one of them, Menchik-Winter, round 2, played on 15 April 1930, is of interest as it has not made its way into any other database or modern publication as far as I can see. It was 'hiding in plain sight' in the Falkirk Herald - one of the finest chess columns of that era. The other complete game is Drewitt 0-1 Tylor from the first round. It seems strange that the only two games we have from this tournament feature losses by the joint tournament winners.
12 January 2022	Later the same day... Brian Denman has sent me two more complete scores: (1) W.Winter 1-0 E.Jackson, rd 1; (2) J.Drewitt 1-0 V.Menchik, rd 3. It seems only appropriate that we should have two wins by the joint winners. Thanks, Brian.