GAWAIN Jones won the York Rapidplay chess tournament at the Elmbank Hotel.

He scored 4 out of five points to win on tie-break from Jim Burnett, from Doncaster.

The adult section was well supported with a strong line-up, including many players from York.

Among them were Tim Turner (3 points), Eric Key (3), Paul Hopwood (3), Don Baldwin (3), Jim Shemilt (2), David Smith (2), Paul Johnson (2), Neville Pearce (2), Mark Kambites (2), Richard Mounce (1), Rodney Mitchinson (1), Paul Anderson (1), Graham Marshall (1) and John Blades ().

York's Aaron Barker and Richard Alliss were joint under-14 North Yorkshire champions, Paul Barber is Under-18 North Yorkshire title-holder, and Arjuna Prithiviraj is Under-11 North Yorkshire champion.

In the York Evening League, University have won two important games.

They thrashed Lady Anne Middleton 1 5- with wins from Almas Ermekov, Scott Fraser, Mark Kambites, Moxley and Richard Mounce and a draw between Matthew Palmer and Laurence Cornhill.

University then had a 3-2 win at Shepherds. University were missing a couple of key players but were quickly 2-0 up with wins by Almas Ermekov, on board one, and Martin Cook on board four.

Mark Kambites and Eric Key then agreed a draw. Shepherd's fought back with wins from Stuart Acton and Keith Goodey to tie the match at 2-2.

However, Matthew Palmer, with a brilliant queen sacrifice under time pressure won the last game to give University the win.

Lady Anne Middleton I bounced back from defeat by beating Minster Inn 4-1 with wins from Jon Griffith, Tim Turner, James Miers and John Knowles and a draw between Tony Slinger and Paul O'Neill. Les Bresnan won for Minster Inn.

In the second division, Lady Anne Middleton II drew three points each with Danger Squares with wins from Sam Watson, Lee Wilson and Steve Cooper.

Danger Squares' wins came from John Wynne, Aaron Barker and one by default.

The next games proved controversial. Danger Squares defaulted board one against Nowhere Men but allowed one of their 'spare' players to play for another team, Lady Anne Middleton II, who were short of players.

Defaults do happen, but they shouldn't be on top board and more importantly players should only play for one team in the same division as stated in the league rules.

The chess committee should look at this situation because the outcome was reached with the consent of all captains and it did allow a player to play who would have missed out.

However, it was against the present rules and when a similar thing happened last season one team felt so strongly they tried to have the player banned.

It seems the Evening League Committee must change the rules or create some guidelines to clarify this situation.

The results of the two games were that Lady Anne Middleton II defeated More Whipps 4- (until further notice) while Nowhere Men defeated Danger Squares 3-2 with wins from Paul Usher, Andrew McNichol and one by default, plus a draw from Roger Hall and Mick Miller. Danger Squares' wins came from Aaron Barker and Chris Conlin.

Shepherds II narrowly defeated Conquerors 3-2 points when Herbert Lockwood hung on for a draw in the last game against Richard Hardy.

Earlier, a win from Richard Alliss and a default win had put Conquerors 2-0 up but Shepherds replied through wins from Don Glasgow, David Latimer and Bob Maltby.

Updated: 11:38 Thursday, January 31, 2002