35th Nottingham Rapidplay Report

We welcomed a slightly reduced field of 169 players to the 35th Nottingham Rapidplay, held as usual at Nottingham High School, with a new layout. As per last year this was an ECF and FIDE rated event. Entries were much slower than usual compared to last year; but picked up in the last week.

We are extremely grateful and fortunate that the Nottinghamshire Chess Foundation provided the finance to pay for prizes for an Improvers’ section. This attracted 44 players, many new to over-the-board chess. The challenge to the Nottinghamshire chess community is to maintain this interest.

Thanks are due to: the players who turned up early and helped us to set up and those who stayed behind after the last round and helped to put away the equipment. The control team of Hambel Willow, Phill Beckett, Simon Scott and Stephen Humphreys. NCA Treasurer, Stuart Humphreys, whose various administrative tasks include the not inconsiderable job of paying the prize-winners after the event. We must also thank the parents who staffed the provision of hot drinks – Mr and Mrs Gunarathne, Mr Kumar and Mr Grainger – enabling £110 to be raised for Ukraine humanitarian relief. Special thanks also to John Swain who stepped down from the organisation committee last year.

The results were:

(PDF report including links to cross tables can be found here )

Open – 19 Players

1^st= GM Mark Hebden, Nigel Birtwistle, Matthew Inglis
Rating prize: Daniel Broughton
Slow starters: Peter Hepworth, Drag Sudar, Frank Richmond

Major (under 1900) – 30 Players

1st: Arav Ajaykumar
2nd= Matthew Connor, Senith Gunarathne, Benjamin Humphreys, Adam Stevenson
Rating Prize: Ian Ip
Slow starter: Jules Brown

Intermediate (under 1700) – 39 Players

1st: Nicholas Rojas
2^nd= Brian Morris, Julius Vasiliauskas, Shane Bhayat, Henry Lin, Usama Pervaiz
Rating Prize: Paul Wileman

Slow starters: Abuda Khaminkaew, Stephanie Gelder, Phil Watkinson, Jonah Tomsett, Rob Jarvis

Minor (under 1500) – 37 Players

1st: Ives Lau
2nd: Vincent Naan
3rd= David Mercer, Ambrose Lam*
Slow starter: Gavin Dow, Joe Sharratt, Kim Singh, Mark Lilley-Tams, Samyuktha Vijayendra, Ducan White, Swetark Verma

*both players on 4.5 points, Ambrose eligible for rating prize so pot shared.

Improvers (under 1300) – 44 players

1st: Taylor Morrison
2nd= Elizabeth de Bono, Alex Chan, Ethan Lim
Rating Prize: Priyansh Deshmane
Slow starter: Shaheer Khorrum