Saturday 23rd
& Sunday 24th November 2019
Pudsey
Civic Centre
Dawson’s
Corner
LS28
5TA
An English Chess Federation
supported Grand Prix event | Entries - Steve Burton (0113)
2568157
Tournament Secretary - Brent Kitson kitson453@btinternet.com
British Rapidplay Chess
(BRC) History 1986- 2019
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 ChessClub,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 24 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 previous arbiters
Dave Welch, Geoff Jones, Neville Belinfante,Lara
Barnes, Alex McFarlane and Rob Hart (to name just a few) .
Other folk from the past should be thanked,
such as Stuart Johnson and Sam Nichols;Carlos
Velosa who gave so much in previous years.Ihor Lewyk (YCA) has given 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 put out 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 .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.
The 2013 event
saw a fine weekend at L.M.U with Mark Hebden
coming out on top with 9.5/11 .
Mark Hebden 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 in 2016. Thanks though to all the players who attend
our event regularly.
We would like to thank Rob Hart who had supported the event
many years We thank Dave Welch who for many years was our chief arbiter.
Also Lara Barnes and Alec McFarlane for many
years of support.We welcome arbiters Bob Tinton and Glynis Purland as of 2017.
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. Thanks to Jon
Griffiths of Chessnuts for his support.
We must also mention Andrew Butterworth’s
Chess Direct, who has supported the event for most of the last 22 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.
Thanks especially to John Hipshon and Cathy Bowler,
who’d previously ran all the junior events.
My thanks also go to Nigel Hepworth who
continues to give
great support in the 2013/14/15/16/17/18/19 events.Mike
Dow our honorary President happily
lives in the South West.
As
of 2019 our KEY People are as follows
Stephen Burton –Treasurer BRC ,Brent Kitson
–Secretary BRC, Ruth Kitson –Auditor BRC , Stephen Forbes – Grading, Website,IT Manager BRC
Pete Purland –
Chief Arbiter ,David Clayton –Open Arbiter plus
Internet Boards
Glynis Purland – Arbiter , Robert Tinton – Arbiter Nigel Hepworth-Arbiter
Some
more recent
results ..
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 and saw Lorin D’Costa I.M. and Richard Bates I.M. as joint winners on 9/11
The 2017 event moved to Ilkley and saw
Daniel Alsina Leal GM win .
The 2018 event was held again at Ilkley and saw
Sarakauskas Gediminas I.M.
win with 9.5/11.
The event has been partially FIDE rated
since 2015 , but the ECF membership Levels and grading
can affect what we can do.
We have paid game fee for many years now and
are totally self funded .We do not
have any sponsors unfortunately , but we still try to find them!.
Venues are getting dearer and costs rise year on year.Our
prize money has to reflect our budget and we only have a small emergency reserve now of £500 .
The event was won in 2019 by Stephen J
Gordon and David J Egglestone at Pudsey
Civic Hall..
So
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.
Anyone who would like to get involved in the
BRC is always welcome. Or knows of potential sponsors !
B.Kitson(Secretary BRChess) July 2019.
