London Chess Classic Super Rapidplay

[Roger de Coverly]

I'm more interested in the number of players that took part.

The chess-results site has everyone that was input as expecting to take part in the event. That includes a number of no-shows. You can adjust for these by checking the individual records to see if they played any games at all. You might also need to review the players scoring half a point or a whole point in case these were awarded as a bye. Each round has a list of players "not paired". This is a mix of those taking half point byes, no shows and withdrawals.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Thanks, Roger. I also tacked a bit on the end about players from 48 federations taking part. Would you or anyone know of tournaments with players from more federations than that (excluding Olympiads and international championships)? I suspect something like the World Open or the recent 'pay $1000 to enter' tournament. I am having trouble locating those on the chess-results server, which seems to have a useless search function (and also won't have all tournaments).

[Roger de Coverly]

Would you or anyone know of tournaments with players from more federations than that (excluding Olympiads and international championships)?

For sheer number of players, have a look at Cappelle Le Grand
http://www.cappelle-chess.fr/en2/default.php
http://www.cappelle-chess.fr/open2014/d ... 2014Ga.htm

It's Dunkirk, so at the end of a ferry route in its own right, or a short drive from the end of the Channel Tunnel or ferry to Calais.

604 players last year. As to how many Federations represented, that's left as an exercise for anyone prepared to download and paste the data to a spreadsheet for analysis.

[Chris Rice]

Talking about sheer size and numbers take a look at the entries for the European Rapid & Blitz championships due to take place in Wroclaw (Poland) 19-21 December. With a couple of days till the official deadline for entry so far we have:
Blitz 657 players (60 GMs - top seed so far, Ukrainian, Anton Korobov 2752) Prize Fund: €7,650 Entry fee: €15-20
Rapid 807 (63 GMs - top seed, Latvian, Igor Kovalenko 2741) Prize Fund: €16,250 Entry fee: €20-25

Strangely enough there never seems to be much British interest in this competition.
http://ecc.wroclaw.pl/?page_id=41

[LawrenceCooper]

Talking about sheer size and numbers take a look at the entries for the European Rapid & Blitz championships due to take place in Wroclaw (Poland) 19-21 December. With a couple of days till the official deadline for entry so far we have:
Blitz 657 players (60 GMs - top seed so far, Ukrainian, Anton Korobov 2752) Prize Fund: €7,650 Entry fee: €15-20
Rapid 807 (63 GMs - top seed, Latvian, Igor Kovalenko 2741) Prize Fund: €16,250 Entry fee: €20-25

Strangely enough there never seems to be much British interest in this competition.
http://ecc.wroclaw.pl/?page_id=41

I played in the event a couple of years ago along with about five other English players. It was a very enjoyable event albeit the dates aren't ideal and I'd prefer it to move around different countries than return to the same one each year. I realise that no one else may bid for it though and the organisation in Warsaw was very good.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Nice reports from John Saunders:

http://www.londonchessclassic.com/report.super_rp1.htm
http://www.londonchessclassic.com/report.super_rp2.htm

[Richard Bates]

Didn't realise there's an elite blitz tonight. Starts at 7pm should be good!

[Ian Thompson]

Strangely enough there never seems to be much British interest in this competition.
http://ecc.wroclaw.pl/?page_id=41

Perhaps not so strange if you look at flight prices to Poland at this time of year.

[Chris Rice]

Strangely enough there never seems to be much British interest in this competition.
http://ecc.wroclaw.pl/?page_id=41

Perhaps not so strange if you look at flight prices to Poland at this time of year.

I suspect that's probably not the only thing putting the Brits off.

I checked an Easyjet flight from Gatwick to Kracow leaving on 17/12 and coming back 23/12 costing £194.98. From Kracow its a hop and a skip to Wroclaw of 144 miles. Average temperature in Poland at this time of year is -2C but has been as low as -22C. Time of year doesn't really help either ie just before Christmas. Though if you do go and don't care about the cold it looks an amazingly pretty city steeped in loads of history. Of course for a lot of the rest of Europe, particularly Eastern Europe Poland is perfectly situated for cheap as chips travel and accomodation hence the high numbers.

I did wonder after Lawrence's comments whether it might be possible for England to mount a bid to stage the European rapid and blitz though staging it in London or Birmingham might be too expensive. Given that Wroclaw is Poland's fourth largest city I guess the equivalent would be something like Leeds/Sheffield/Manchester/Newcastle/Liverpool?

[Sean Hewitt]

Super Rapidplay Prize List

1st Nakamura Hikaru £8,000
2nd Giri Anish £5,000
3rd = Caruana Fabiano £900
3rd = Anand Viswanathan £900
3rd = Kramnik Vladimir £900
3rd = Short Nigel D £900
3rd = Lenderman Aleksandr £900
3rd = Hansen Eric £900
3rd = Naroditsky Daniel £900
3rd = Pert Nicholas £900
3rd = Greenfeld Alon £900
3rd = Williams Simon K £900

Women’s Prizes

1st Milliet, Sophie £500
2nd =Zepeda, Lorena £58
2nd =De Rosa, Mariagrazia £58
2nd =Hegarty, Sarah N £58
2nd =Norinkeviciute, Rasa £58
2nd =Sucikova, Svetlana £58
2nd =Shepherd, Katherine M £58

Junior Prizes

1st = Bluebaum Matthias £375
1st = Salomon Johan £375
3rd = McPhillips Joseph £50
3rd = Claridge-Hansen William £50

Grading Prizes

1st Best W-We by rated 2201-2300 Dale Ari 2204 3.21 £250
2nd Best W-We by rated 2201-2300 Basman Michael J 2208 2.41 £150
3rd Best W-We by rated 2201-2300 Haria Ravi 2208 2.18 £100
1st Best W-We by rated 2101-2200 Zujev Oleg 2198 2.54 £250
2nd Best W-We by rated 2101-2200 Wadsworth Matthew J 2148 2.07 £150
3rd Best W-We by rated 2101-2200 Aravind Subramanian 2104 1.45 £100
1st Best W-We by rated 2001-2100 Archer-Lock Christopher J 2020 2.52 £250
2nd Best W-We by rated 2001-2100 Tambini Jasper 2073 1.18 £150
3rd Best W-We by rated 2001-2100 Regan Natasha K 2095 1.13 £100
1st Best W-We by rated 1901-2000 Lobersli Henrik Oie 1915 1.87 £250
2nd Best W-We by rated 1901-2000 Zhu Richard 1975 1.54 £150
3rd Best W-We by rated 1901-2000 Niccoli Tony 1960 1.53 £100
1st Best W-We by rated 1801-1900 Akshay V Halagannavar 1823 3.43 £250
2nd Best W-We by rated 1801-1900 Rygg Snorre 1840 3.17 £150
3rd Best W-We by rated 1801-1900 Bin-Suhayl Ieysaa 1870 2.98 £100
1st Best W-We by rated 1701-1800 Boey Jin Huey 1742 2.43 £250
2nd Best W-We by rated 1701-1800 Denninger Guilhem 1751 2.26 £150
3rd Best W-We by rated 1701-1800 Mazza Stephano 1754 2.21 £100
1st Best W-We by rated U1700 Choo Zhenghao Daniel 1330 3 £250
2nd Best W-We by rated U1700 Robson Caroline J 1458 2.24 £150
3rd Best W-We by rated U1700 Jamieson Alexander 1683 2.16 £100

[JustinHadi]

What happened to the rating prizes advertised on the entry form?

Grading Prizes
2201-2300 £250, £150, £75
2101-2200 £250, £150, £75
2001-2100 £250, £150, £75
1901-2000 £250, £150, £75
1801-1900 £100, £50
1701-1800 £250, £150, £75
< 1700 £100, £50
U-120 £250, £150, £75
Junior Prizes £500, £250, £100
Women’s Prizes £500, £250, £100

[Mike Truran]

Probably not paid because of insufficient entries. No doubt the organisers thought they would get away with it they stayed stumm.

[Ian Thompson]

What happened to the rating prizes advertised on the entry form?

Grading Prizes
2201-2300 £250, £150, £75
2101-2200 £250, £150, £75
2001-2100 £250, £150, £75

You must have a different entry form from me. I thought it was a very poor prize list for those rated over 2000, but less than about 2500 (i.e. those ineligible for grading prizes, but very unlikely to win a place prize).

[Roger de Coverly]

[ I thought it was a very poor prize list for those rated over 2000, but less than about 2500 (i.e. those ineligible for grading prizes, but very unlikely to win a place prize).

The U2300 etc. prizes are those for the FIDE Open. For the Rapidplay, there were no prizes after eighth place until you got down to U2000.

(edit) That was according to the entry form sent out with copies of "Chess". The entry form on the website has the higher level of grading prizes, but place prizes only down to fifth.
http://www.londonchessclassic.com/downl ... y_Form.pdf
That's still got the bizarre reduction that the 1901-2000 and 1701-1800 prizes are higher than those between 1801 and 1900. That seems to have been ignored in the actual distribution. (/edit)


What ratings were used? According to the entry form they used the sequence

converted ECF rapid
converted ECF standard
FIDE rapid
FIDE standard
other national

Nakamura already had a massive ECF rapid grade from his performance last year.

[JustinHadi]

Glad to be of service, it seems all the grading prizes on the entry form have been paid out I believe ECF rapid ratings were converted where available, otherwise FIDE rapid ratings used. Possibly because of higher than expected entries, the prizes have been improved.