York RI 'A' chess team were in rampant mood in the opening round of the Woodhouse Cup.

They faced Wakefield and were expected to win but the margin of victory by 9 to was impressive and has sent a warning to the other teams in the competition.

The nine winners were David Adams, Paul Townsend, Gawain Jones, Detlef Plump, Alistair Cargill, Tony Slinger, Paul Hopwood, Jon Griffith and Paul Johnson. The draw was by top board Richard Palliser.

If RI 'A' can keep turning out this strength of team then they will have a good chance of winning the cup.

York RI 'B' started their IM Brown campaign in fine fashion with a 5 to 2 win over Pontefract 'A', who were without several players.

An early win by Eric Key started the ball rolling and there were further wins from Richard Mounce, Laurance Cornhill and Steve Webster, interestingly all of whom had the black pieces.

There were draws from Barry Marshall, Herbert Lockwood and Norman Andrews.

In the Silver Rook division there was an intriguing match between clubmates RI' 'C' and RI 'D', who had done very well to gain promotion last season.

The 'D' team fielded five junior players and the scoreline of 6 to

1 in the 'C' team's favour is not an accurate reflection on how close the game was.

Many boards could have gone either way but in the end the greater

experience of the 'C' team shone through.

The winners were David Findlay, Owen Robson, Sri Sriharan,

Mick Beavers, John Blades and John Lafferty, while the draw was between Neville Pearce and Tom Anderson.

York RI 'D' did, however, win on the top board where Patrick Gower had a fantastic result in beating Richard Hardy.

Last week we reported on the Bradford Congress and below is one of the wins that helped Owen Robson to be joint winner of the Minor Tournament.

Wadsworth, B - Robson, R (Bradford Minor round 2, September, 2001):

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 g6 3. Bg2 Bg7 4. 0-0 d5 5. d3 0-0 6. Nbd2 Re8 7. e1 e5 8. e4 d4 9. Nc4 g4 10. h3 Bxf3 11. Qxf3 c5 12. a4 Qc7 13. Qe2 Nbd7 14. Rf1 Nb6 15. Nd2 Rac8 16. b3 a6 17. Kh2 Nbd7 18. f4 b5 9. f5 Qa5 20. Bb2 Qc7 21. g4 Bh6 22. Nf3 Bf4+ 23. Kh1 g5 24. h4 h6 5. Bh3 c4 26. hxg5 hxg5 27. Bc1 Bxc1 28. Raxc1 Nh7 29. Rf2 cxb3 30. xb5 axb5 31. d2 Qc3 32. Ne1 b2 33. Rb1 Ra8 34. Bg2 Ra1 35. Qd1 xb1 36. Qxb1 Ra8 37. Nf3 Ra1 38. Rf1 Rxb1 0-1.

Updated: 11:59 Thursday, October 04, 2001