e2e4 Brighton Congress : 12-14 November 2010

[Sean Hewitt]

The Brighton Congress will take place over the weekend of Friday 12th to Sunday 14th November 2010.

The event will be held at the excellent Barceló Brighton Old Ship Hotel, Kings Road, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 1NR which is on the sea front, 200 yards from the pier and less than a mile from Brighton railway station.

We have three sections which cater for all standards of player. The Open is FIDE rated (and ECF graded) as is the Major (open to players rated below 2000 or unrated players graded below 165) and the Minor (U135) will be ECF graded.

The Open is a British Championship Qualifier.

There is a hefty discounted entry for those players staying at the venie and with a healthy prize fund on offer and discounted accommodation for chess players of £48 B&B per night for single occupancy or £31 pppn double occupancy there should be something for all players.

To book a room email [email protected].

To view a list of the current entrants click here.

To enter online now click here.

This is going to be the last e2e4 event and with our capacity limited to 110-120 players we expect to turn late entrants away. Consequently, if you want to experience the best chess congress in the UK, we suggest you enter now.

[John Upham]

This is going to be the last e2e4 event

I hope this is not true : these are the best tournaments in England!

[Peter Shaw]

This is going to be the last e2e4 event

I hope this is not true : these are the best tournaments in England!

Seconded.

[Tristan Clayton]

Noooooooooo!!!!! Say it ain't so!

Someone tell me it's April 1st, please...

[robert rough]

This is going to be the last e2e4 event

I hope this is not true : these are the best tournaments in England!

I played my first e2-e4 last August, coming from Inverness, I found it an amazing event as do other Scots, I hope something can be done to prevent the loss of these brilliantly organized events.

[David Sedgwick]

I played my first e2-e4 last August, coming from Inverness, I found it an amazing event as do other Scots, I hope something can be done to prevent the loss of these brilliantly organized events.

So do I.

Whatever the outcome in England, have you asked Sean whether he'd be willing to organise e2e4 events in Scotland?

[Sean Hewitt]

As you know, this will not now be the last e2e4 event. I am pleased to say that entries are very healthy and I expect that we will fill all the playing space that we have by 5th November (if not before).

So if you want to play you need to get your entry in asap. When we're full we're full and we will be turning subsequent entries away.

[Sean Hewitt]

The hotel is now fully booked and entry for the event is looking extremely healthy. Of course, there is plenty of alternative accommodation in and around Brighton.

Good news is that we have been able to secure an additional playing room so we should be able to accommodate everyone who wants to play - if they enter in advance of course!

[Colin Gardiner]

hi Sean i understand you select colours for the first round on events.Anything fortcoming yet for Brighton?

[Sean Hewitt]

Colin - you beat me to it!

The colours for Brighton will be determined using the Everton v Bolton football match this evening.

Should the game yield 3 goals or more, then the top seed in each section will be white in round 1.
If the game has less than 3 goals then the top seed will be black in round 1

[Tristan Clayton]

Sean, if this had been a few weeks ago, would you have considered using the FIDE Presidential election result as a fair and plausibly random way of deciding colours?

[Richard Bates]

Exceedingly impressive performance by Ravi Haria to say the least. Just hope he doesn't get too attached to the French defence...

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Exceedingly impressive performance by Ravi Haria to say the least. Just hope he doesn't get too attached to the French defence...

I was watching his game in the last round against Keith Arkell, and he looked slightly worse when the draw was agreed (but don't take my word for that!). But yes, a very impressive performance. Though I fear that my performance (a section lower down) suffered from spending too much time watching other people's games rather than concentrating on my games.

This is not quite the same as not sleeping after a game, but it does suggest that I need to find ways to lengthen my attention span. Possibly I subconsciously realise that if I spend 60+ minutes concentrating hard, I will get tired and blunder, so maybe it is related to amounts of sleep after all.

Or maybe I just enjoy watching games more than playing them?

PS. Nice event, Sean. Hotel had character and was like a maze in places!

[Sean Hewitt]

Ravi certainly played well. I thought, if anything, he might have had a slight edge against Keith at the end, but Keith tells me the position was level. He also said that if either player avoided the repetition then they would stand worse.

The hotel was a bit of a maze, but I guess that's to be expected in a buidling that is over 300 years old although at least no-one got permanantly lost in there!

We will have two large playing halls next time we go to Brighton which should help matters. Watch out for further announcements of this and another fantastic new venue coming very soon.