Saturday
31st October / Sunday 1st November 2015
Great Hall, James Graham
Building,
Leeds Beckett University,
Beckett’s Park Campus,
Headingley LS6 3QS [map]
An English Chess
Federation supported Grand Prix event | Entries - Steve Burton (0113)
2568157
Tournament Secretary - Brent Kitson kitson453@btinternet.com
For more detailed maps of the venue - click HERE and HERE
British
Rapidplay Chess 1986- 2015
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 Mark Hebden coming out on top with 9.5/11
.Mark 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 also to Nigel Hepworth who gave great
support in the 2013/14/15 events,
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
2014 event saw Jonathan Hawkins G.M. win the event with
10.5/11 .
The 2015
event saw Mark Hebden G.M. and Ameet
Ghasi I.M. as joint winners on 9/11
.
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 LBU Well
Met Conferencing have made the event
stronger .
It is set for November 26/27th ,
2016 at Leeds Beckett University, Headingley.
See you next time!
B.Kitson(Secretary
BRChess)