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Hastings Premier PGN Game Downloads

Last Updated: Tuesday May 11, 2004 3:58 PM

The following is a collection, in zipped PGN files, of all the games that have been played in the Hastings Premier (during the Hastings Xmas Congress) from its beginning in 1920/1 to the present day. Note that this does not include the famous Hastings tournament of 1895 which is not considered to be part of this series, nor one or two other competitions which have been played in Hastings from time to time. Note also that there were no tournaments played between 1940/1 and 1944/5 inclusively. There were 20 pre-war Hastings Congresses from 1920/1 to 1939/40 inclusive, and there have been 58 congresses from 1945/6 up to 2002/3, making 78 in all.

Unfortunately, though the files contain a game entry and result for every game played in the competition, there are still many missing and incomplete game scores. Player names and game results have been thoroughly cross-checked against printed sources and a great many corrections and additions made to results and scores as published in ChessBase's Mega Database 2003. This will enable you to compile accurate crosstables and statistics via standard ChessBase functions. Any chess writers or historians making use of this source are asked to show the courtesy of acknowledging Britbase as the source of their information and should if possible quote the web address.

Because of the large number of games, they have been divided up into separate files for downloading purposes. The 20 pre-war competitions have been collected together and the rest have been collected into groupings of two decades.

Hastings 1: 1920/1 to 1939/40 -  847 games (150k download) - Updated 10/10/2003 
Hastings 2: 1945/6 to 1959/60 -  696 games (124k download) - Updated 11/05/2004
Hastings 3: 1960/1 to 1979/80 - 1551 games (306k download)
Hastings 4: 1980/1 to 1999/00 - 1317 games (268k download)
Hastings 2000/1               -   45 games 
Hastings 2001/2               -   45 games
Hastings 2002/3               -   45 games
Hastings 2003/4               -   45 games JAVA

Update (11 May 2004): many thanks to Andy Ansel who has found four of the missing 1947/8 games. I've added another from the same tournament which appeared in BCM in 1948.

Update (19 April 2004): many thanks to Bernard Cafferty who has loaned me the published bulletin of Hastings 1952/3 which had all the games of the Premier. This was one of three missing post-war Hastings Premiers, so that only leaves 1947/8 and 1958/9 still to find (can anyone help?). As well as the 29 missing games from 1952/3, I discovered a number of discrepancies in the other 26 games, so you would be well advised to overwrite your database with the new file. If you would prefer to download just the 1952/3 games rather than all the games from 1945/6 to 1959/60, click here.

Amendments (16 Nov 03): Winser-Horne Hastings Premier 1949/50 Black's 14...Rb8 amended to 14..Re8 as suggested by Brian Denman. Also, Winser-Barda, Hastings Premier 1949/50 - Black lost on time. My thanks to Brian Denman.

Game added (19 Sept 2003): Mackenzie-Morry (1939/40): many thanks to Brian Denman for suppyling the score;

Amendments (10/10/2003) to 1948/9 games to show W Arthur Winser rather than William Winter / name change passim to Victor Buerger / also notes added to Norman/Tartakower from the 1924-25 Hastings, and Michell/Menchik from Hastings 1931-32

Missing and Incomplete Game Scores: tournaments from 1959/60 onwards are complete. However there are significant gaps before this time. Numbers of missing/incomplete games scores are shown in brackets: 1920/1 (2), 1922/3 (12), 1922/3 (16), 1924/5 (1 from section games and some unidentified play-off games), 1925/6 (16), 1927/8 (18), 1929/30 (19), 1930/1 (13), 1931/2 (10), 1933/4 (1), 1939/40 (21), 1947/8 (35), 1958/9 (32). Anyone who can help with finding these missing scores, or who identify any inaccuracies in the downloads, should contact John Saunders via email.

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