2020 Chess 2016-17 Season!

Details of upcoming UK events, please provide working links if possible.
Peter Hornsby
Posts: 123
Joined: Sat Sep 10, 2016 12:32 am

2020 Chess 2016-17 Season!

Post by Peter Hornsby » Fri Dec 30, 2016 9:27 pm

There are three more qualifiers taking place at the beginning of 2017 so there's still time to enter! They are listed as follows:

York 21st January

Birmingham 28th January

Manchester 4th February

You can enter now be emailing [email protected] and visit our website www.2020chess.com

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Here is a brief report on the progress and history of these tournaments so far:

In June 2015 the outgoing Chess soc. President at Durham University attempted to arrange a casual friendly match against York University, however upon discovering that Leeds were also interested in playing, and with the help of some friends, the ‘Northern Universities Chess Championships’ was born (NUCC). Little did they know how successful NUCC would become; it attracted close to a hundred students the following November and a sister tournament was set up last February in the south matching this huge level of enthusiasm.

Such developments didn’t go unnoticed, sponsorship and publicity was provided by the British Chess Magazine, and Lord Lyndon Harrison gave his valuable support and endorsement after attending the prize giving ceremony in London.
This enabled a huge expansion for events to take place across the UK, kicking off in Edinburgh where several new university teams were created specifically to play in the tournament and which saw club sides enter for the first time, then in London gaining a record number of participants and most recently in Leeds to conclude the first half of the very successful 20/20 season. CHESS magazine supported these endeavours providing valuable equipment and prizes by taking up the sponsorship contract, along with ‘Chess Openings Wizard’, a software company based in Ohio in the United States.

The name change to ‘20/20’ reflects the exciting nature of the Chess games, each player in a team of four has 20 minutes to make their moves each round with the tournaments being a one-day event, and costing just £20 for a team of students making ‘20/20’ accessible and inclusive for everyone.

For the first time ‘20/20’ allowed clubs/mixed sides to enter along with students, this not only strengthened the competition but offered a wider variety of games for participants. There have been many titled players on show, and ‘20/20’ is unique in that it gives developing players a chance to battle against them as a team and play against others of their same ability on the same day.

From each tournament the top sides qualify for a ‘Super Final’ to crown the best ‘20/20’ team in the UK in June. So far Edinburgh qualified with ease having won all their games, along with ‘Wandering Dragons’ and debutants Glasgow University. The following week Oxford matched Edinburgh’s winning record, ahead of ‘Chess England All Stars’, UCL and Imperial who joined them in earning a place at the Super Final. The Leeds event had a thrilling conclusion where the hosts, Sheffield and Warwick were left on a three way tie, with Sheffield prevailing overall on board count, though the other two sides will be heartened at going through with them to the next stage.

We anticipate that these tournaments will continue to grow in strength based on what we’ve seen so far, and very much look forward to the second half of the 20/20 season! Many thanks to our sponsors, volunteers, participants and all who have helped make this possible.

Peter Hornsby 20/20 Chess Founder and Director

www.2020chess.com
Founder and Director of 2020 Chess
www.2020chess.com

Peter Hornsby
Posts: 123
Joined: Sat Sep 10, 2016 12:32 am

Re: 2020 Chess 2016-17 Season!

Post by Peter Hornsby » Thu Feb 16, 2017 6:32 pm

We've had some great tournaments recently in York and Birmingham:

http://2020chess.com/york.html
http://2020chess.com/birmingham.html

Which leaves us with the FINAL QUALIFIER in Manchester on the 4th March, enter now at www.2020chess.com or email [email protected]
Founder and Director of 2020 Chess
www.2020chess.com