Saturday 18th
& Sunday 19th November 2017
The
Craiglands Hotel
Cowpasture Rd,
Ilkley LS29 8RQ
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)
