The Return of the Puller Cup!
This is a blog post about a tournament run by the Hertfordshire Chess Association in England. If you live in Hertfordshire (or the surrounding areas) and you would like to find out more about chess in Hertfordshire, please visit this page which contains all of the information you will ever need as well as contacts: Herts. Chess link
After a long hiatus, Hertfordshire chess was able to celebrate once more with the return of the prestigious Puller Cup. This was a team rapidplay event in which Hertfordshire based teams would compete against each other in order to win the illustrious Puller Cup.
A brief(ish) history of A. G. Puller
Since the late 19th century, the Puller Cup has fought over by generations of Hertfordshire based players. The cup was named after a club player from the Hertford area (Ware to be precise). There was sadly not much I could extract of A. G. Puller's life other than what was provided by passionate chess "kibitzers" on chessgames.com. He was born in 1833 and his obituary states that he passed away on March 30th 1885 after travelling to Canada. He described himself as a barrister. His only other references to his life were that he had a handful of games against some of the strongest players in the world and a funny incident involving his arrest in 1866 for "wilfully breaking two squares of plate glass":
Who said chess players weren't normal...
I can somewhat sympathise with Mr. Giles actions as I too am not my usual self if I have not had my morning coffee... however my reactions are a little more muted than his...
Mr. Giles must have been a decent amateur chess player but his handful of games do not suggest this sadly. He got opportunities to play Henry Joseph Blackburne (albeit in a blindfold simul), Louis Paulsen (miraculously he was able to hold a draw with the strong German master, albeit blindfolded again...) and the strong Irish player, George Macdonnell.
Here is one of the games against Henry Joseph Blackburne, who is known as the "Black Death" of chess due to his fearsome tactical prowess:
As mentioned in my annotations, the first seven moves started the same way as the very famous "Opera House Game." In that game, Duke Karl and Count Isouard, in consultation, were soundly thrashed by Paul Morphy in a widely celebrated game. Unfortunately, a similar fate was bestowed upon A. G. Puller who, like the Duke and the Count, was beaten very quickly by Blackburne. Perhaps this game should be renamed the "Hertfordshire Opera House Game?" Note* There are no Operahouses in Hertfordshire as far as I am aware...
In 1883, he got the opportunity to compete in a large 26 player round robin tournament in London which was sponsored by the Maharajah of Vizayanagram. He placed 24th only mustering a measly 4/25 pts. for the entire event:
I will never complain about chess tournaments again... Players were expected to play 2 tournaments games over the course of each day potentially lasting up to 5 hours. This meant you did 13 days of classical chess. To think I once complained about doing a 9 round chess event over 5 days once...
Back to Modern Times
The Puller Cup took place in one of the most unusual chess tournament venues I have ever played in. An Asda! Yes Asda, a supermarket primarily known for their cheap bargains on selected foods, was the home of this prestigious event. Within the Labyrinthian depths of the store, Asda provided a "community space" in order to run this event. Some selected Asda have community spaces with the sole purpose to help the community run free events. The only catch is that the event must be run for free. This is of course amazing news for chess tournament organisers as running chess events often come with a heavy cost from the venue. The venue was well-heated, had plenty of space and had an area for us to have teas, coffees and even analyse our games away from the playing hall. We were of course never going to go hungry in the Asda, especially as the Watford Asda had plenty of food options available within the supermarket.
Two sections were run in this event - An open section, made up of three teams and an U1750 section, made up of five teams. The format was a normal Swiss format but players of the same team could not be drawn together in a match. The team with the highest point total amongst their four players would be crowned the winner of their section. Time controls were 20 minutes + a 5 second increment.
Our arbiters who ensured the smooth running of the tournament. The unassuming Puller Cup sits in front of them.
The U1750 section report
Five teams competed in the U1750 section: Hemel Hempstead, Watford A (adults) and B (juniors), Enfield and St. Albans. Hemel Hempstead took a very commanding lead from the get-go scoring an impressive 4/4 in the 1st round. From there they never really could be stopped with their top three boards scoring impressive results over the 5 rounds - 5, 4.5 and 4 respectively.
An impressive showing from Kewal Krishna Bhoi who netted 5/5 in the event! Well done to him! Full results here
Other impressive feats were the results of the Watford junior team who managed to record some impressive "giant slaying" in their section. One particular junior, who plays for the U9s Hertfordshire chess team, managed an impressive result against a formidable 1700+ opponent! As I am the U9s Hertfordshire Junior coach, I am excited to see what he is capable of in the future!
The Open Section
The Open section featured three premier teams made up of some of the strongest players in Hertfordshire: Hertford, St. Albans and Watford. Rounds one and two saw both St. Albans and Watford come out of the gates strong scoring good results. Meanwhile Hertford, who had the highest average rating of the three teams, struggled to get off the mark. Interestingly Watford, apart from one player, featured some of the brightest Junior prospects in English Chess. This became the main story of the Open section; witnessing phenomenal junior players outmuscle the best players in Hertfordshire. Avyukt Dasgupta, a very strong teenage Watford player, was able to score a perfect 5/5 score over the course of the tournament; a credit to himself and the Watford Junior Coach, Roger Lancaster. Amit Salvi, their one adult player, also punched well above his own weight by getting an impressive 4/5 despite being outgraded every game. Well done to Watford!
Results of the Team event: You can find the results here
Winners of the U1750 Section: Hemel Hempstead!
Winners of the Open Section: Watford!
It was a fun event to run and I look forward to it happening again in near future hopefully with even more Hertfordshire players able to compete.
