By Stan Lovell

Download the games from the Louis Braille Bi-centenary Congress 2009

Venue: Best Weston Edinburgh Capital Hotel

Dates: Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th January 2009.

We offer sincere thanks to our main sponsor 'Royal Blind' and to the 'Hugh Fraser Foundation', The 'Robertson Trust' and the FIDE committee for the disabled for their generous donations.

This event was part of the cellebrations for the 200th anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille, who devised the tactile method of reading known as Braille, which is used by blind people worldwide.

The event was for teams of four players in which, all used braille chess sets, braille chess clocks and wrote their moves in braille.  methods used included: hand frames, Braille writing machines and modern electronic braille notetakers.

France, Sweden, The Netherlands, Ireland each sent teams of four players.

Belgium sent two players who joined with two from UK to form a joint Anglo Belgian team.  Four players from UK formed the sixth team.  The youngest player was 11 year old Viktoria karlsson playing for Sweden and the oldest player was Hans Cohn, aged 85 playing as one of the UK players in the anglo Belgian team.

As the tournament progressed it became clear the battle for first place would be between UK, Ireland and The Netherlands.  All three won their games against the other three teams but UK and The netherlands drew their encounter in round 2.  When the final day was reached Ireland had the hardest task ahead of them with games against UK and The netherlands.  In round 4 Ireland and Uk drew a hard fought struggle and The netherlands won their match.  In the final round Uk had a win over the Anglo Belgian team whilst The Netherlands were battling against Ireland.  At the start of this round UK, Ireland and The Netherlands could all finish first.  After three of the games in the key match between Ireland and The Netherlands had finished all three results were still possible.  It was left to Martin Kane, the Irish board 4 to draw his match which gave Ireland a 2,5 to 1,5 victory and first place with 9 match points.  Uk were second with 8 and The netherlands third with 7.

Each player in the winning team received a trophy with players in the teams finishing second and third receiving medals.  The trophies and medals along with certificates for all contestants were donated by our sponsors 'Royal Blind'.

Following the closing ceremony and the final dinner the whole party was entertained by 'The Tartan Lads', a Scottish band.  This was a fitting end to the event with all nations joining in the party spirit.

Final scores of uK players:

John Gallagher 2,5  Stan Lovell 3,5  David Hodgkins 4,5  Stephen Thacker 3,5

UK players in the Anglo Belgian team: Hans Cohn 2,5 Guy Whitehouse 3,5.
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Please find below the full team lists and results for all the countries that took part in the Louis Braille Bicentenary Tournament at the Edinburgh Capital Hotel, 2nd - 5th January 2009.

TEAMS:

BELGIUM / UK

1 Koen Lecluyse

2 Wilfried Vandervelden

3 Hans Cohn

4 Guy Whitehouse

FRANCE

1 Dominique Asselineau

2 Bernard Duthoit

3 Nenad Antonic

4 Didier Coruble

IRELAND

1 Philip Doyle

2 Sean Loftus

3 Eamonn Casey

4 Martin Kane

NETHERLANDS

1 Jan Boer

2 Martien Boerefijn

3 Pieter Witteveen

4 Kurt Tesselaar

SWEDEN

1 Håkan Thomsson

2 Olle Engström

3 Victoria Karlsson

4 Bengt Eriksson

UNITED KINGDOM

1 John Gallagher

2 Stan Lovell

3 David Hodgkins

4 Steve Thacker

ROUND 1

UNITED KINGDOM 2.5 1.5 SWEDEN

1 Gallagher 0 1 Thomsson

2 Lovell 0.5 0.5 Engström

3 Hodgkins 1 0 Karlsson

4 Thacker 1 0 Eriksson

NETHERLANDS 2.5 1.5 BELGIUM/UK

1 Boer 1 0 Lecluyse

2 Boerefijn 1 0 Vandervelden

3 Witteveen 0.5 0.5 Cohn

4 Tesselaar 0 1 Whitehouse

FRANCE 1 3 IRELAND

1 Asselineau 0 1 Doyle

2 Duthoit 0 1 Loftus

3 Antonic 0 1 Casey

4 Coruble 1 0 Kane

ROUND 2

SWEDEN 1.5 2.5 IRELAND

1 Thomsson 0.5 0.5 Doyle

2 Engström 0 1 Loftus

3 Karlsson 0 1 Casey

4 Eriksson 1 0 Kane

BELGIUM/UK 1 3 FRANCE

1 Lecluyse 0.5 0.5 Asselineau

2 Vandervelden 0 1 Duthoit

3 Cohn 0 1 Antonic

4 Whitehouse 0.5 0.5 Coruble

UNITED KINGDOM 2 2 NETHERLANDS

1 Gallagher 0.5 0.5 Boer

2 Lovell 0.5 0.5 Boerefijn

3 Hodgkins 1 0 Witteveen

4 Thacker 0 1 Tesselaar

ROUND 3

NETHERLANDS 2.5 1.5 SWEDEN

1 Boer 0 1 Thomsson

2 Boerefijn 0.5 0.5 Engström

3 Witteveen 1 0 Karlsson

4 Tesselaar 1 0 Eriksson

FRANCE 0 4 UNITED KINGDOM

1 Asselineau 0 1 Gallagher

2 Duthoit 0 1 Lovell

3 Antonic 0 1 Hodgkins

4 Coruble 0 1 Thacker

IRELAND 2.5 1.5 BELGIUM/UK

1 Doyle 1 0 Lecluyse

2 Loftus 1 0 Vandervelden

3 Casey 0.5 0.5 Cohn

4 Kane 0 1 Whitehouse

ROUND 4

SWEDEN 2.5 1.5 BELGIUM/UK

1 Thomsson 1 0 Lecluyse

2 Engström 1 0 Vandervelden

3 Karlsson 0 1 Cohn

4 Eriksson 0.5 0.5 Whitehouse

UNITED KINGDOM 2 2 IRELAND

1 Gallagher 0 1 Doyle

2 Lovell 0.5 0.5 Loftus

3 Hodgkins 0.5 0.5 Casey

4 Thacker 1 0 Kane

NETHERLANDS 2.5 1.5 FRANCE

1 Boer 0.5 0.5 Asselineau

2 Boerefijn 1 0 Duthoit

3 Witteveen 0.5 0.5 Antonic

4 Tesselaar 0.5 0.5 Coruble

ROUND 5

FRANCE 2 2 SWEDEN

1 Asselineau 0.5 0.5 Thomsson

2 Duthoit 0.5 0.5 Engström

3 Antonic 1 0 Karlsson

4 Coruble 0 1 Eriksson

IRELAND 2.5 1.5 NETHERLANDS

1 Doyle 1 0 Boer

2 Loftus 0 1 Boerefijn

3 Casey 1 0 Witteveen

4 Kane 0.5 0.5 Tesselaar

BELGIUM/UK 0.5 3.5 UNITED KINGDOM

1 Lecluyse 0 1 Gallagher

2 Vandervelden 0 1 Lovell

3 Cohn 0 1 Hodgkins

4 Whitehouse 0.5 0.5 Thacker

FINAL STANDINGS (Match points / Game points)

IRELAND 9 / 12.5

UNITED KINGDOM 8 / 14

NETHERLANDS 7 / 11

SWEDEN 3 / 9

FRANCE 3 / 7.5

BELGIUM/UK 0 / 6