Scotsman Burnett leads Zollner

(Newcastle Chronicle, 21 February 2025)

These days, chess comes in all shapes, sizes and time controls. In Blitz players make all their moves in under 10 minutes. In Rapid players take between 10 minutes and an hour. And in Classical, players have over an hour.

In the Northumberland Individual Championships, players have 75 minutes, plus a bonus of 10 seconds per move. The whole competition takes place over seven months. With one game per month, the competitors prepare intensively for their opponents, trying to spring opening surprises.

With just over two rounds left to go in the 2024-25 Northumberland Open Championship, Andy Burnett, a Scottish international who plays for Newcastle in the Northumbria League, has taken the lead. It would be Burnett’s first time winning the Zollner Trophy, first awarded in 1930. The silver trophy, portraying Viking King Rollo with sword in hand, has been valued on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow at £25,000.

Burnett has 4/5, ahead of Gustavo Leon Cazares (Gosforth) on 3.5, while there are five players on 3 points: Husain Nakara (Newcastle University), Tim Wall (Newcastle), David Armbruster & Jack Erskine-Pereira (Gosforth) and Chris Izod (Jesmond). Paul Dargan (Tynemouth) and Andy Trevelyan (Jesmond) are on 2.5, John Boyd (South Shields) and Nathan Ekanem (Newcastle) are on 2, Gary Murphy (Jesmond) is on 1.5, and Dalil Benchebra (Leam Lane) is on 1.

The game between Dargan and Wall was due to be played on Thursday. A win for Wall would see him keep pace with Burnett, but any other result would leave Burnett as the clear favourite.

In the other two sections, Alex Blake (Gosforth) leads the Sell (Under 2000), while Denise Mosse (Gateshead) is in poll position in the Gilroy (Under 1700).

Sell scores: Blake 4.5/5, Stuart Skelsey (Forest Hall) 4; John Awesome (Newcastle) and Morgan French (Forest Hall) 3; Raj Mohindra (Forest Hall), Paul Bielby (South Shields), Jounaid El-Archi (Newcastle) and Mick Riding (Gosforth) 2.5; Andrew Robinson (Gosforth) 2; Ian Chester & Mark McKay (Gosforth), Michael Allen (Newcastle University), Jeremy Revell (Newcastle) 1.5; Reese Wright (Forest Hall) and Alan Green (Gosforth) 1; Stamen Kolev 0 (Newcastle).

Gilroy scores: Mosse 4.5/5; Jonny Kearney (Tynedale) 4; Ian Rook (Forest Hall), David Simm (Morpeth), Michael Owen (Gosforth) 3.5; Darren McCarthy and Andrew Hardy (Alnwick), James Phillips (Newcastle), Alex Piercy (Gosforth) 3; Tom Krause, Jonathan Rooney, Brandon Russell and Alykhan Bandali (Gosforth), Kevin Cox (Gateshead), James Flint and Thomas Cameron (Newcastle University), Dave Peardon (South Shields) and Martin Brookes, 2.5; Alfie McMonagle (Newcastle University), Joey Pramana, Antonio Stipanovic and Felix Glover (Gosforth), Ethan Tatters (Forest Hall) 2; Alan Smith (South Shields), Bob Heyman, Gautham Satishkumar, Sanjay Satishkumar, Ethan Ross, Vishnu Sriram and Viaan Gokul Nath (Gosforth), Jonathan Solomon (Forest Hall), Viktorija Bezganovic (Newcastle University), Daniel Atcheson (Newcastle) 1.5; Simon Horrocks, Aaron Cheung (Gosforth) 1; Steve Armstrong (Gosforth) 0.5.