English Chess Forum

159 players (including 27 female players) played in the Gatwick Congress

OPEN
Rank Name Score Fed. M/F Rating TPR W-We Prize
1st GM Vakhidov, Jahongir 5 UZB M 2568 3089 1.24 £500.00
2nd= GM Arkell, Keith C 4 ENG M 2457 2390 -0.18 £50.00
2nd= IM Sarakauskas, Gediminas 4 LTU M 2416 2511 0.66 £50.00
2nd= FM Merry, Alan B 4 ENG M 2380 2475 0.64 £50.00
2nd= FM Harvey, Marcus R 4 ENG M 2324 2414 0.63 £50.00
2nd= FM Sowray, Peter J 4 ENG M 2324 2331 0.1 £50.00
2050+ Asenov, Pavel 3.5 ENG M 2138 2376 1.5 £50.00
u2050 Klingher, Dominic 3 ENG M 1980 2289 1.96 £50.00

u1950
Rank Name Flags Score Fed. M/F Rating TPR W-We Prize
1st Pink, Joshua Stockport 5 ENG M 1923 2558 1.47 £500.00
2nd= Nettleton, Charlie B Uxbridge 4 ENG M 1928 2037 0.54 £83.33
2nd= Jackson, Paul G Coulsdon 4 ENG M 1878 1993 0.6 £83.33
2nd= Burrows, Nick Coley 4 ENG M 1839 2547 1.4 £83.33
1800+ Lanzer, Robert A Horsham 3.5 ENG M 1877 * 1909 0.5 £50.00
u1800 Somton, Anita West Nottingham 3.5 ENG F 1502 1828 1.11 £50.00

u1700
Rank Name Flags Score Fed. M/F Rating TPR W-We Prize
1st Ross, Stuart Neport 4.5 ENG M 1614 1912 1.54 £250.00
2nd= Hudson, Jeremy Hastings And St 4 ENG M 1646 1664 0.07 £35.00
2nd= Hadfield, Roy Leamington 4 ENG M 1603 1754 0.9 £35.00
2nd= Kularatnam, Kaushalya Streatham 4 SRI F 1592 * 1811 1.5 £35.00
2nd= Minshull, Grant 4 ENG M 1592 * 2168 0 £35.00
2nd= Share, Stan Rs Willesden & Bre 4 ENG M 1555 * 1774 1 £35.00
1500+ Spooner, Keith C Purbeck 3 ENG M 1500 1676 0.71 £30.00
u1500 Thatte, Nishchal Ealing 3 ENG M 1165 1728 2.61 £30.00

Congratulations to all prize winners, and thanks to all the players who made this such an enjoyable weekend. I hope to see you all again in May.

Sean Hewitt wrote:159 players ... played in the [e2e4] Gatwick Congress.

That is a tremendous achievement.

Conventional wisdom dictates that when a congress series has a break in continuity, for any reason, it struggles to regain its former numbers. The way that you have bucked this demonstrates the strength and popularity of the e2e4 brand.

When you announced the event, my prediction (which I prudently kept to myself) was that you would get about 50 entries.

For at least the tenth time since you started organising events, you have conclusively proved me wrong.

I've always thought it would be useful if you could have a kind of Tripadvisor app for chess tournaments. Reviews from me for this tournament would include:

1. A great hotel, nice spacious, comfortable, well heated rooms at decent prices;

2. Convenient location, both for foreign and domestic players;

3. Playing conditions, ie space, seating, a/c, lighting etc all good;

4. Playing schedule - one Friday, two Sat, two Sun was fine and of course you have an additional bye option (rounds 1-4) if you want it;

5. Large bar areas supplied by the hotel for analysing games afterwards rather than some poky little back room. Very sociable;

6. Very efficiently run by Sean.

I played the Birmingham 4ncl tournament a couple of weeks ago which was also excellent. It seems a template for success for players is to have an IHG Hotel, near an airport and decent organisers/arbiters. However, I don't know whether Sean or Mike T are at least breaking even. I hope so as they tick all the boxes for me.

Chris Rice wrote:I've always thought it would be useful if you could have a kind of Tripadvisor app for chess tournaments.

I think that's why this Forum is so useful

Chris Rice wrote:I played the Birmingham 4ncl tournament a couple of weeks ago which was also excellent. It seems a template for success for players is to have an IHG Hotel, near an airport and decent organisers/arbiters. However, I don't know whether Sean or Mike T are at least breaking even. I hope so as they tick all the boxes for me.

I hope so too, even though I won't play in these myself, I think they are a great example of dragging English chess into the 21st century - well done to all

Agreed Mick. As it happens I just glanced at New in Chess and saw this website which does grade some international tournaments http://www.travelforchess.com though it will cost you 10 quid to read the detailed comments which is rather disappointing.

Chris Rice wrote:I've always thought it would be useful if you could have a kind of Tripadvisor app for chess tournaments.

There used to be one on the ECF website but I think it was discontinued after the change of International director in 2012. It was only introduced towards the end of the outgoing director's reign at the request of someone wishing to submit a review of a tournament he'd recently played in.

Chris Rice wrote:Reviews from me for this tournament would include:

1. A great hotel, nice spacious, comfortable, well heated rooms at decent prices;

2. Convenient location, both for foreign and domestic players;

3. Playing conditions, ie space, seating, a/c, lighting etc all good;

4. Playing schedule - one Friday, two Sat, two Sun was fine and of course you have an additional bye option (rounds 1-4) if you want it;

5. Large bar areas supplied by the hotel for analysing games afterwards rather than some poky little back room. Very sociable;

6. Very efficiently run by Sean.

Thanks for the comments Chris. It's always a pleasure to run these events because the vast majority of players really do help to make the event run smoothly.

Chris Rice wrote:I don't know whether Sean or Mike T are at least breaking even. I hope so as they tick all the boxes for me.

e2e4 has always run on a break even basis. Some events make a bit and some lose a bit but overall, it washes its face. The principle of being self financing has always been important to me so that e2e4 doesn't just rely on philanthropic financing.

Same here with the 4NCL, although because we don't have e2e4's track record and numbers we've made a cumulative loss so far - but not too significant in the greater scheme of things.

Interestingly, we got 130+ for our first congress, with numbers tailing off thereafter into the 80-100 range. I'm guessing here, but that may be due not to any particular dissatisfaction with the product (we have always had excellent feedback), but more to people picking and choosing their events once they realised that it wasn't going to be a one-off congress. So it will be interesting to see how the e2e4 numbers pan out in future as and when the e2e4 congresses settle back into a regular routine. There's also the geographical aspect - our numbers (and I believe e2e4's numbers as well) vary quite significantly depending on where they are held, so there is that side of things to consider too.

Anyway, it's great to see the e2e4 congresses back and proving so successful. It's been too long!

Nice to have choices of high quality events and additional FIDE rated events for people to play in.

Paul

I'm seriously tempted to overlook my aversion to G/90 and play in the next one, even though the last time I did that it cost almost 40 rating points.

Was one of the best tournaments I've played in. The hotel was very good.

Chris Rice wrote:1. A great hotel, nice spacious, comfortable, well heated rooms at decent prices;

I played the Birmingham 4ncl tournament a couple of weeks ago which was also excellent.

You think the Holiday Inn Birmingham Airport matches that description?

Ian Thompson wrote:

Chris Rice wrote:1. A great hotel, nice spacious, comfortable, well heated rooms at decent prices;

I played the Birmingham 4ncl tournament a couple of weeks ago which was also excellent.

You think the Holiday Inn Birmingham Airport matches that description?

I joined the IHG Rewards scheme and didn't take the block booking rooms that were cheaper at Birmingham. The executive rooms are much better but you have to pay a little more. The block booking rooms though are practical and you get a discount. In addition I think the food (Marco Pierre White restaurant and the bar food) is slightly better than the Gatwick hotel.

Could I ask why you were so shocked though? I stayed in the single standard rooms at the Holiday Inn when the 4ncl team rapid was on last October. Didn't think they were that bad but if you did that's my point above ie its the sort of feedback the players and organisers would like/need to see.

Chris Rice wrote:

Ian Thompson wrote:

Chris Rice wrote:1. A great hotel, nice spacious, comfortable, well heated rooms at decent prices;

I played the Birmingham 4ncl tournament a couple of weeks ago which was also excellent.

You think the Holiday Inn Birmingham Airport matches that description?

Could I ask why you were so shocked though? I stayed in the single standard rooms at the Holiday Inn when the 4ncl team rapid was on last October. Didn't think they were that bad but if you did that's my point above ie its the sort of feedback the players and organisers would like/need to see.

The symbol was for the suggestion that the hotel is great, with spacious, comfortable and well heated rooms. I'd describe the room I had as small, with basic facilities. It was, at least, quiet at night (provided you turned the noisy air conditioning off), which was a relief because I see quite a few Trip Advisor reviews comment on aircraft and traffic noise and that the hotel offers free ear plugs.