Seaton Chess Club held its second Rapidplay chess tournament in Axmouth, Devon on Sat 16th December 2024.
As last year, the event was held at the Axmouth Church Hall, which proved once again to be an excellent venue with a well-equipped kitchen and separate analysis room.
Our contemporary approach to the organisation of the tournament also continued with entries being accepted through online booking and payments system and the round pairings being displayed via the chess-results.com service. This made for a very smooth process for the preparation and running of the event so thanks to all participants for their support.
The arbiter for the event was again IM Jack Rudd who very kindly travelled from North Devon to manage proceedings and the event went extremely smoothly. There were 18 entries in total, which made for a very comfortable and relaxed playing environment.
The time control was 20 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 Jon Underwood had crept ahead by 1/2 point with 4/4 but wins for both juniors Zander Booth and Rami Talab in round 5 saw them pitted against each other for the title in the last round.
11-year-old Rami eventually won the match to win the tournament outright with 5.5/6. Jon Underwood from Seaton Chess Club was 2nd with 5/6 and junior Zander Booth was 3rd with 4/6.
Terje Lundin and Lucas Swaine won the grading prizes.
Thanks to all those who helped organise and contributed to the event: Jon Underwood, Steve Dean and Paul Hampton.
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.