2 November 2014
Two Limewood members took part in the British Rapidplay Chess Championships which were held in Leeds over the first 2 days of November.
The event is not the exclusive elitist event you might think. True there are a lot of topnotch players competing in the top sections. But the lower sections are wide open to entries from “ordinary” players with little experience of organised chess. In fact it is a good event for players who have never played in a congress before.
Eleven rounds were played over the two days. In each game each player had 30 minutes to make all their moves.
Part of the attraction of Rapidplay events is that even experienced players make blunders. So the possibilities for a lowly player pulling off a surprise win against a “stronger” opponent are quite good. The other attraction is that games follow on with only a short break after the previous round: no hanging around for hours between rounds if your game finishes quickly.
And how did your two clubmates fare?
Paul May started very promisingly by winning his first 3 games in the Intermediate. Alas, things went rather pear-shaped after that and he ended with just 5 points out of 11, ranking 28th out of 53.