British Rapidplay Chess 1986-2012 - a little bit of history
Dear chess lovers - welcome back, and here we are in Leeds just after the 2012 British Rapidplay Chess Championships have concluded. Here is a bit of background for you ...
The country’s premier weekend chess rapidplay event started back in 1986. It was mainly set up through the work of Nick Nixon from Leeds, who continues to coach youngsters at chess. Tetley's Brewery and the Yorkshire Post sponsored the first event, which took place at The Queen’s Hotel, Leeds, donating a generous several thousand pounds.
The winner of that first event with 11/11 was Nigel Short. The event continued, and saw many fine winners including John Nunn, Murray Chandler, Nigel Davies, Mark Hebden and William Watson. Further sponsorship came from the National Westminster Bank, thanks to Bill Hartston. However, the event disappeared in 1993 along with all its sponsors. In 1994 the event returned to The Leeds Metropole, when I (Brent Kitson) first got involved. My colleague and friend, Bernard Hare of Leeds Chess Club, had encouraged me to do a congress at Leeds University, and I took up the challenge of a bigger event when the British Rapidplay tournament lost money in 1994. Since 1995 I’ve been at the helm, with Steve and Mike (whom I’ll mention shortly) ...
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