Kings Place Chess Festival 15 June 2013

[Adam Raoof]

Dear Friends,

Please find attached the pgn files of the top board games from yesterday's Kings Place Chess Festival, the top section of which was won by GM Gawain Jones with 5.5/6 - he won the £1000 top prize, followed by GM David Howell and GM Alexandre Dgebuadze with 5/6 winning £250 each followed by GM Mark Hebden, IM Alexey Slavin and IM Tom Rendle with 4.5/6. 67 played in the Open. A full crosstable will be available soon for all sections.

Thanks to Brendan O'Gorman for these photos - http://tinyurl.com/King-sPlace2013 and to John Upham of the British Chess Magazine for his coverage.

The Major was won by Tom Middleton, Joao Santos and Natasha Regan with 5/6 and £50 each; 43 played

The Minor by Freddie Hand with 5.5/6 (£100) followed by Dipak Shah, Genga Selvarattinam and Erika Orsagova with 4.5/6 (£17 each); 36 played

The Amateur by Harunobu Oyama with 5.5/6 (£100) followed by David Bluestone and Paul Fischer with 5/6 (£25 each); 41 played

187 people played in the event, and we think this is the largest and strongest [edit: one-day] event in London for decades and which also led to a last minute panic - thanks to Malcolm Pein of Chess in Schools and Communities for lending us more clocks at the very last minute.

Thanks to Geoff Gammon, Matthew Carr and Tim Dickinson for their superb arbiting throughout the day, and Dave Clayton for the live games coverage, and Julian Hodgson and Lawrence Trent for their entertaining commentary. Thanks to Kings Place for hosting us, and Stephen Carpenter and Peter Millican for the hospitality. Thanks to the English Chess Federation for the loan of the equipment.

If you would like to be invited to the next event, please visit http://www.chessengland.com/ and join our mailing list!

[Roger de Coverly]

we think this is the largest and strongest event in London for decades

Don't you mean since the London Chess Classic of December 2012?

[John Upham]

we think this is the largest and strongest event in London for decades

Don't you mean since the London Chess Classic of December 2012?

I believe Adam is comparing one day rapidplay events.

Otherwise, I believe there was quite a strong event in March 2013 in London.

[Roger de Coverly]

I believe Adam is comparing one day rapidplay events.

The quote should say rapid play then.

I doubt if 187 is that much of a record. Surely Kings Head, Richmond or even Golders Green have boasted similar numbers in the not too distant past?

[Richard Bates]

I believe Adam is comparing one day rapidplay events.

The quote should say rapid play then.

I doubt if 187 is that much of a record. Surely Kings Head, Richmond or even Golders Green have boasted similar numbers in the not too distant past?

Doubt it. I suspect Richmond and Golders Green couldn't accommodate 187 entries, and Kings Head you'd probably have to go back, well, decades!

Seems a reasonable (and qualified!) claim to me so to try and rubbish it on no obvious basis looks rather picky.

[Jonathan Bryant]

Adam would know better than me about Golders Green numbers but I don't think he'd be able to get much more than 120 in there without setting up some boards on the roof.

[Amnon Cohen]

It was an enjoyable and well attended event in a great venue.
Thanks to the organisers!

[Sean Hewitt]

Seems a reasonable (and qualified!) claim to me so to try and rubbish it on no obvious basis looks rather picky.

I agree with this entirely. Picking fault for the sake of it which is entirely uncalled for.

Congratulations to Adam and team for what was clearly a superb event. More of the same please!

[John Upham]

My gallery of 124 images from the event is available here

if you can ID any "?"s then please PM me!

A most enjoyable event and very much hope it will become a calendar regular!

[Roger de Coverly]

It goes to show just how much chess in England has declined when an attendance of under 200 for a rapid play is one of the biggest events of that type in the London area in years. It wasn't quite the biggest in Britain as the British Rapidplay still attracts over 200.

[Sean Hewitt]

It goes to show just how much chess in England has declined when an attendance of under 200 for a rapid play is one of the biggest events of that type in the London area in years. It wasn't quite the biggest in Britain as the British Rapidplay still attracts over 200.

Why must you always be negative about everything? Someone does something to improve the state of the game and you're still critical. I almost feel sorry for you.

[Roger de Coverly]

Someone does something to improve the state of the game and you're still critical.

The weakness in British chess is the shortage of people playing. Running restricted member only events does little to change this.

[Sean Hewitt]

Someone does something to improve the state of the game and you're still critical.

The weakness in British chess is the shortage of people playing. Running restricted member only events does little to change this.

Got it. The decline in chess playing numbers is the fault of the ECF compulsory membership scheme.

[John Upham]

The weakness in British chess is the shortage of people playing. Running restricted member only events does little to change this.

Have you considered entering a balloon debate in which you are one of the passengers in the basket?

[Roger de Coverly]

Got it. The decline in chess playing numbers is the fault of the ECF compulsory membership scheme

No, because you've only just introduced it. It's not going to help reverse the decline to make it more difficult to run events aimed at attracting new players. You could try listening to junior and other organisers when they tell you this.