British
Rapidplay Chess 1986- 2014
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 fell deeply in the red.
Elsewhere, a colleague and friend of Brent
Kitson, Bernard Hare of Leeds Chess Club, had suggested doing a congress at
Leeds University. This was a success. Then a group of us (Brent Kitson/Mike Dow
/Steve Burton) took up the challenge of
re-invigorating The British Rapidplay Chess Event.
Apart
from a short period, when Sylvine privately sponsored
the event in 1999 (due to the great support of Rupert Jones), the event has
been self-financing, although the BCF and now ECF have endorsed the event since
1986. The tournament finances have been in good order for 18 years, and its
reserves are poured back into the event wherever possible. Thousands of hours
of unpaid work are required to make it happen each year. Database maintenance,
mail shots, venue searching, negotiating, grading, wall charts, planning,
lighting, internet, charts, planning, lighting, internet, equipment hire,
accommodation for arbiters, bookings and much more all contribute to continue
the event, year in year out!
From
1995, the British Rapidplay saw a run of fine events
which saw it triumph several times at The Leeds Civic Hall and also witnessed
the dominance of Michael Adams. Mark Hebden and Peter
Wells came to the fore in the early 2000s, and David Howell holds the record of
three wins in a row.
Several
venues, such as Bradford City Football Club, the Leeds Civic Hall, The
Brunswick Building in Leeds and The North Bridge Leisure Centre Halifax have
hosted the event over time. Many people are responsible for making the event
happen. Special thanks go to arbiters Dave Welch, Pete Purland,
Geoff Jones(now retired), Neville Belinfante, Lara
Barnes, Alex McFarlane and Rob Hart (to name just a few) in recent years. The
organizers, such as Mike Dow, President of the BRC and Steve Burton, our long
time financial advisor and Treasurer, have contributed massively for more than
18 years. Carlos Velosa and his team again helped set
up this year's event. We now have a new grader and web controller in Stephen
Forbes of Leeds.
Other
folk from the past should be thanked, such as Stuart Johnson and Sam Nichols,
who gave so much in previous years. Ihor Lewyk continues to give an enormous amount of support to
the event, and Eric Davies helped set up the event in the early years,
continuing to play in the event now and again.
The
25th Anniversary year in 2011 saw a great event won by GM Gawain Jones. The
event was at L.M.U., and was a big success. Despite a promised £1000 support
not appearing (from the President of the ECF), the event managed to dig £900
out of its reserves to honour the prizes. The ECF has a new membership scheme
as of September 2012, which means that chess players will have to pay more for
their chess, and we’ll have to charge accordingly.
The
2012 event saw the event at the Leeds Metropolitan University for the second
time. The Open was won by Jonathan Hawkins IM, with Stephen Gordon GM as
runner-up. Many top players attended, plus we had the French ladies champion,
Sophie Milliet IM, playing in the event. Thanks to
Bruce Holland from the ECF who kindly helped award prizes.
The 2013
event saw a fine weekend at L.M.U
with Marc Hebden coming out on top with 9.5/11 .Marc
now holds the record for the most outright wins of The Open event, and is also
a twice joint winner . Thanks to Bruce
Holland from the ECF who kindly helped award prizes. Thanks though to all the
players who attended.
We would like to thank Rob Hart who is
standing down from arbiting after many years of
fantastic support to the event.
The modern day Rapidplay
owes much to the internet (thanks to David Clayton and now Stephen Forbes).
Live games, photographs, results, cross-tables and much more are available on
the website. Our thanks also go to Mark Crowther and
TWIC for its coverage of the event over the years on his website. Cross tables
are set up thanks to Jon Griffiths of Chessnuts. We
must also mention Andrew Butterworth’s Chess Direct, who has supported the
event for most of the last 19
years. His bookstall is a fantastic opportunity to study and
learn more about this great game.
The
Junior England under 11 Trial continues to be held in the tournament on
Saturdays, as well as the British Junior Rapidplay
Sunday events -. Thanks especially now to John Hipshon
and Cathy Bowler, who run all the junior events. My thanks to
Winston Williams and Nigel Hepworth who gave great support in the 2013 event,
and also to Carlos Velosa who manages the event
setting up.
Mike Dow
happily lives in the
South West, but is still our Honorary President. Stephen Burton is our
Treasurer and Brent Kitson the Secretary, whilst Stephen Forbes is overseeing
grading and managing our website. The event takes a massive amount of work from
these guys. Some photos of the event are on this website too, as well as
previous years (check the links!).
In
case I’ve forgotten anyone - sorry, but above all I’d like to thank you, the
chess players, who continue to support the event. The LMU and Kelly Allen of
Well Met Conferencing have
made the event stronger .It is provisionally set for November 22nd and 23rd , 2014 in Leeds at Leeds
Metropolitan University, Headingley.
See you next time!
B.Kitson(Secretary BRChess)
Galleries 2012 -One | Two | Three | Four
Home Tournament
Details 2013 Replay Live Games
2012 Reports Day One | Day Two Accommodation
BRCC at Wikipedia The
English Chess Federation English Chess Forums Scottish
Chess Forums
Crosstables
2012
British Rapidplay Open British Rapidplay Major British Rapidplay Intermediate British Rapidplay Minor
England U-11 Trial Qualifier Junior British Rapidplay U-16 Junior British Rapidplay U-12
Junior One-Day Rapidplay Saturday
Under16