Seaton Chess Club held its very first Rapidplay chess tournament in Axmouth, Devon on Sat 16th September 2023.
This was a remarkable milestone in the club's history and only made possible through the kind support of Ray Hunt, one the club's long-standing members who sadly passed away this year. A unique trophy for the event was commissioned in his memory following the Jurassic theme and adapted from Orthoceras fossils.
The event was held at the Axmouth Church Hall, which proved to be an excellent venue with an well-equipped kitchen and separate analysis room.
New also for the club also was a more contemporary approach to the organisation of the tournament with entries being accepted through an online booking and payments system and the round pairings being displayed via the chess-results.com service.
The arbiter for the event was IM Jack Rudd who very kindly travelled from North Devon to manage proceedings and the event went extremely smoothly and a real testament to the efforts of Jon Underwood and Steve Dean in the preparation and running of the event.
Each round was proceeded with a free raffle with prizes kindly donated by Steve Dean, so everyone had a chance to win a prize from the event!
There were 27 entries in total with FM Ian Thompson topping the bill with players coming from Devon, Dorset, Somerset and even Berkshire!
The time control was 25 minutes plus 10 second increment so there were a few close finishes as players became short of time - often attracting quite an audience!
By round 4 the event was wide open with Patryk Krzyzanowski, Jon Underwood and Allan Pleasants all on 3.5/4 but it was Patryk who triumphed in the end, taking both points from his two remaining games to win the tournament outright with 5.5/6.
It was by no means easy though, with a very tense final game against Freddie Sugden who had an excellent tournament going on to share the under 1885 grading prize with Kevin Thurlow.
Paul Hampton from Seaton Chess Club was 2nd with 5/6 and Ian Thompson from Crowthorne was 3rd with 4.5/6.
Conner Pinder won the 1620 grading prize and Caleb Caleshu and Jack Wills shared the Junior Prize.
Thanks to all those who helped organise and contributed to the event: Jon Underwood, Steve Dean, Paul Hampton and Gill Morgan. Thanks also to Jack for acting as arbiter and a final thanks also to all the players who were able to attend - many whom had travelled some distance - to make the event a great success and we look forward to seeing everyone (and maybe a few more!) next year!
You can see the results and final cross table on the chess-results website by clicking here.