It’s that time of the season when all swashbuckling chess players’ thoughts turn to… Rapidplay!
Whether you’ve got ‘Chess Fever’ (see the classic 1925 film here, featuring Jose Raul Capablanca!) or just would like to hang out with all the cool players, next Sunday (November 26) the place to be is… Forest Hall Ex-Servicemen’s Institute (the Forest Hall Chess Club venue), from 11:00am-5:30pm.
The Rapidplay Champs promise to be a fantastic competition yet again, with everyone playing in the same section – and many prizes for different grading bands, for Open, Major, Minor, juniors, seniors and everyone in between!
(If you’re not a member of a chess club affiliated to Northumberland Chess Association, don’t worry – you can still enter and be eligible for cash prizes! The Open, Major and Minor titles & trophies are the only things exclusive to NCA-affiliated players.)
The time limit is a fast ‘n’ furious 10 minutes plus 5 seconds per move, meaning there will be plenty of thrills and spills throughout the day. There’s a total of nine rounds, so you will easily be able to find opponents of similar strength as the Swiss tournament progresses.
To enter the Rapidplay Champs, it’s really easy:
a) Simply fill in the online payment form here; OR
b) Download the entry form from the ECF calendar here, and send a cheque (made payable to ‘Forest Hall Chess Club’) to: Tim Wall, 7 Nixon Terrace, Blyth, Northumberland NE24 3EE; OR
c) Email timpeterwall [at] gmail [dot] com, and pay on the day in cash.
The in-form rapidplay player to beat could be Yichen Han, Forest Hall’s 10-year-old Dutch wunderkind, who on November 18-19 played in the British Rapidplay Open in Leeds, drawing with Grandmaster Nigel Davies!
Here is Yichen in action at this month’s 4NCL Weekend Congress in Coventry, where he beat a player rated 2215 (that’s 202 ECF) in a nice endgame….
White: Pavel Asenov (2215)
Black: Yichen Han
King’s Indian Defence
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Faced with inevitable material loss or checkmate, Pavel Asenov ‘has enough’ and resigns.
Entries received so far:
1 GM Daniel Gormally (251)
2 FM David Walker (220)
3 FM Charlie Storey (211)
4 FM Tim Wall (209)
5 James Moreby (junior) (200)
6 Paul Dargan (199)
7 Matthew Grattage (188)
8 David Henderson (183)
9 Max Turner (junior) (181)
10 Alan Harvey (180)
11 Yichen Han (junior) (180)
12 John Wheeler (177)
13 Richard Symonds (175)
14 Mick Riding (170)
15 Kyrill Gara (170)
16 Ed Dodds (166)
17 John Turnock (163)
18 Martin Seeber (159)
19 Brian Towers (158)
20 Stephen Ormerod (156)
21 John Marsh (154)
22 Manoj Arora (150)
23 Mike Smith (144)
24 Peter Harker (138)
25 Kevin Rowden (129)
26 Eddie Czestochowski (126)
27 William Noble (125)
28 Graham Matthews (125)
29 Carl Stephens (123)
30 Bob Heyman (117)
31 Ian Rook (117)
32 Peter Wells (109)
33 Sai Kumaar (junior) (105)
34 David Watson (102)
35 David Lowcock (92)
36 Dave Parlour (91)
37 Stan Johnson (89)
38 Fred Stobbart (84)
39 Varnu Boora (junior) (81)
40 Tanvi Manchineni (junior) (74)
41 Isaac Mills (junior) (70)
42 Tony Gao (junior) (54)
43 Prachi Arora (junior) (43)
44 Morgan French (Ungraded)
45 Ciaran McDonald (Ungraded)
46 Asa Bayram (Ungraded)
47 Ryan Duff (Ungraded)
48 Toby James (Ungraded)