Saturday 12th
& Sunday 13th November 2016
Temple
Moor High School
Field End Grove
Selby Road
Leeds LS15 0PT
An English Chess Federation
supported Grand Prix event | Entries - Steve Burton (0113)
2568157
Tournament Secretary - Brent Kitson kitson453@btinternet.com
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 .
My thanks also to Nigel Hepworth who gave great
support in the 2013/14/15/16 events, and
continues to do so.
Mike Dow now 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 .
The 2016 event moved to Temple Moor High School
Leeds , as Beckett University no longer allows chess events.
The 2016
event saw Lorin D’Costa
I.M. and Richard Bates 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.
.
See you next time!
B.Kitson(Secretary BRChess)