The 6th Bournemouth Grand Chess Congress was held at the excellent Bournemouth West Cliff Hotel over the weekend of 13th to 15th March 2025 and it attracted a full house of 145 players.
The winner of the Open section was IM Wang Hao who scored 4½ points out of 5.
Wang Hao (on the right) on his way to winning the £1,000 1st prize.
The overall prize fund was in excess of £5,000 and there were also excellent prizes in the other sections.
Many of the winners included local players, Mike Waddington, Mike Duggan, Adam Ursell, Hugo Melling, Lindsay Aris, John Torrance, Jarad Clark, Nicolas Oo & Advik Dongre.
The full results can be found here …
Open … https://s2.chess-results.com/tnr1371175.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=5&SNode=S0
Major … https://s2.chess-results.com/tnr1371177.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=5&SNode=S0
Intermediate … https://s2.chess-results.com/tnr1371178.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=5&SNode=S0
Minor … https://s3.chess-results.com/tnr1371181.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=5&SNode=S0
In total there were 32 winners! Close to a quarter of the players won prizes!
There were 2 DGT boards in use which transmitted the games on the top 2 boards for each of the 5 rounds live over the internet. These games can still be found on the following link … https://www.dorsetchess.co.uk/grand-2026-live-games/
List of Prizewinners
| Open | Name | Points | £ | ||||||
| 1st | Wang, Hao | 4½ | 1,000 | ||||||
| 2nd | Graham, David B | 4 | 300 | ||||||
| 3rd | Bezuidenhout, Roland | 3½ | 34 | ||||||
| Blackburn, Jonathan Lb | 3½ | 34 | |||||||
| Hill, Andy | 3½ | 34 | |||||||
| 3rd & Under 2100 & Under 2000 | Lyon, Hannah Jane (1) | 3½ | 100 | ||||||
| Under 2000 | Ursell, Adam R | 2½ | 25 | ||||||
| Melling, Hugo | 2½ | 25 | |||||||
| Bowley, Clive R | 2½ | 25 | |||||||
| Smith, Richard | 2½ | 25 | |||||||
| Major | |||||||||
| 1st | White, Chris | 4 | 267 | ||||||
| Pack, James | 4 | 267 | |||||||
| Czarnuch, Dominic | 4 | 267 | |||||||
| Under 1900 | Goodlad, Daniel (2) | 3½ | 100 | ||||||
| Under 1850 | Ingham, H William (2) | 3½ | 100 | ||||||
| Under 1760 | Aris, Lindsay P | 2½ | 50 | ||||||
| Torrance, John | 2½ | 50 | |||||||
| Intermediate | |||||||||
| 1st | Slonczuk, Pawel | 4½ | 500 | ||||||
| 2nd | Tarrant-Edwards, Philip | 4 | 150 | ||||||
| Dore, Alex | 4 | 150 | |||||||
| Under 1700 | Coltman, Andre (3) | 3½ | 50 | ||||||
| Under 1700 & Under 1650 | Norman, Dinah M (3) | 3½ | 75 | ||||||
| Williamson, Oliver (3) | 3½ | 75 | |||||||
| Under 1700 , Under 1650 & Under 1600 | Boztas, Lana (3) | 3½ | 100 | ||||||
| Minor | |||||||||
| 1st | Stevens, Phil | 4 | 167 | ||||||
| Greenaway, Terence V | 4 | 167 | |||||||
| Clark, Jarad | 4 | 167 | |||||||
| 2nd | Namazbayeva, Sholpan (4) | 5 | 200 | ||||||
| 3rd | Oo, Nicolas (4) | 4 | 100 | ||||||
| Under 1475 | Lamb, Keven A | 3½ | 100 | ||||||
| Under 1375 | Hill, Glyn (5) | 3 | 100 | ||||||
| Under 1200 | Dongre, Advik | 2½ | 100 | ||||||
| Organiser’s Discretionary Prize | Namazbayeva, Sholpan (6) | 100 | |||||||
| Total | 5,004 | ||||||||
| Notes | |||||||||
| (1) Hannah Jane Lyon wins the highest prize of the 3 she is eligible for, hence she wins the Under 2100 prize. | |||||||||
| (2) Girish Harihar also scored 3½ points but he did not have an ECF A or K rating so he was not eligible to win a rating prize. | |||||||||
| (3) These players scored the same points but prizes were split depending on how many rating prizes they were eligible for. | |||||||||
| (4) These players did not have an ECF A or K rating so they were not eligible to win the 1st Prize. | |||||||||
| (5) Aaron Macbeath also scored 3 points but he did not have an ECF A or K rating so he was not eligible to win a rating prize. | |||||||||
| (6) This player scored 5 points out 5 in the Minor section and won an extra Organiser’s Discretionary prize of £100. | |||||||||
The Mayor Cooper Trophy for the best performing Dorset player in the Open Section – Mike Waddington & Mike Duggan – 3 points
Martin Simons – Congress Organiser – March 2026
