Julian Hodgson

Julian Michael Hodgson (born 25 July 1963) is a British International Grandmaster and former British Champion of chess.

Hodgson was born in Shepherds Bush, London. He first came to the notice of the chess world for his phenomenal prowess as a junior; he was London under-18 champion at 12 years of age and won the British Boys under-21 title aged just 14.

Biography

International Master and Grandmaster titles followed in 1983 and 1988 respectively. Tournament successes, either shared or outright, included second place Lloyds Bank Open 1986: first place Benidorm 1986: first place Geneva Open 1988: second place Tel Aviv 1988: first place Kecskemét 1988 and first place Dos Hermanas 1989. At San Bernardino 1989, he finished first on tie-break, ahead of strong grandmasters Kiril Georgiev and Ivan Sokolov. A frequent visitor to Spain's Seville Open, he shared first place in 1986 and 1988. At the Philadelphia World Open of 1990, he was runner-up behind Igor Glek.

In domestic competition, Hodgson competed regularly at the British Chess Championship, winning the Champion's title on four occasions (1991, 1992, 1999, and 2000). By 2000, he was so at home with the event that he even brought his own executive chair with him, wheeling it from board to board for maximum comfort. On those occasions that he did not play, his live commentary sessions and evening lectures were well received by amateurs and competing masters alike.

Julian

Julian is a common male given name in Austria, Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, France (as Julien), Italy (as Giuliano), Spain, Latin America (as Julián in Spanish and Juliano or Julião in Portuguese) and elsewhere.

The name literally means, in Latin, "belonging to Julius", hence its use for the Julian calendar introduced by Julius Caesar. Some families have taken it as a female name, possibly due to the influence of the French feminine form, Julienne. Juliana is the feminine form of this name in the Portuguese and the Spanish languages, and Giuliana is its Italian version.

Variations

Some variations of the name are:

People

Notable people named Julian/Julien include:

Antiquity

Hodgson

Hodgson is a surname. In Britain, the Hodgson surname was the 173rd most common (766 per million) in 1881 and the 206th most common (650 per million) in 1998. In the United States of America, Hodgson was the 3753rd most popular surname (30 per million) in the 1990 census.

Origin and meaning

The surname authority P. H. Reaney (1958, p. 166) states that Hodgson is derived from "son of Hodge" and that Hodge, in turn, is a "pet-form of Roger". This view has been repeated by several others, and Reaney (1967) himself.

Roger is a Norman French name. In which case one would expect it to be more common in the South of England, which was first and more heavily settled by the Normans. An alternative explanation that Hodgson is of Anglo-Saxon origin would suggest that Hodgson would be more common in Anglo-Saxon areas, particularly in the South of England or east of the Pennines.

By contrast the Hodgsons are most numerous in Yorkshire in England, which was settled by the Norse Vikings in the tenth century. Hodgson could thus be derived from the Norse name Oddgeir, as suggested by earlier surname authorities. Alternatively, it could derive from the less frequent Norse name Hrodgeir (from which, as it happens, the name Roger has evolved).

British Championship

The British Championship is the most prestigious ice hockey cup competition in the United Kingdom, and also the longest established ice hockey competition. It has been run under various formats and titles since 1930 and contested annually since 1966. It was originally known as the Patton Cup, then the Icy Smith Cup, the Heineken Championship and latterly as the Sekonda Playoff Championship. Some contests were only recognised as representing the Championship retroactively.

In its current format, the eight highest placed teams in the Elite Ice Hockey League contest quarter finals, the winners going on to semi finals and then the deciding one-leg final.

Champions

Greg Shahade

Gregory Shahade (born December 22, 1978) is an International Master of chess. He founded the New York Masters and the U.S. Chess League. He is a former member of the Executive Board of the United States Chess Federation, to which his younger sister Jennifer Shahade was hired as the executive editor-in-chief of the website. Greg had a distinguished scholastic career, highlighted by three national championships: tying for first in the 1993 National Junior High School Championship and the 1996 National High School Championship, and winning the 1996 United States Junior Open outright. He was the leading scorer for Julia R. Masterman School in 1996, when they won their first of four National High School Chess Championships. He won the prestigious Samford Fellowship, awarded by the U.S. Chess Trust to the top U.S. prospect under the age of 25, in 1999. The fellowship granted Shahade approximately $25,000 to train for and play in top tournaments. He was also renewed for it in 2000 and subsequently scored his first (and so far only) Grandmaster norm at the Bermuda Closed in January, 2001. Since 2006, he has held 30 sessions of the US Chess School, where the nation's top young chess talents are invited to train under the instruction of various Grandmasters. More recently, he is the founder and Commissioner of the U.S. Chess League.