Bradford Chesstival in the Park

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Andrew Bak
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Bradford Chesstival in the Park

Post by Andrew Bak » Fri Aug 09, 2013 2:45 pm

Bradford and District Chess Association in conjunction with Bradford Council are delighted to announce a new event, Bradford Chesstival in the Park, taking place on Saturday 14th September.

Chess players and non-players alike are invited to attend Bradford Chesstival, a new event for City Park, bringing together chess on a grand scale with artistic and cultural activities, including music, dancing and children’s activities. The main events will be 5 Grandmasters and International Masters each taking on 25 players in a simultaneous exhibition and a 125 board match, as well as giant chess sets and an opportunity to learn chess for beginners upwards.
This is a free event which has been organised in memory of the late Marsha Singh, MP for Bradford West and chess player.

Find out more details

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Jon Mahony
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Re: Bradford Chesstival in the Park

Post by Jon Mahony » Fri Aug 09, 2013 4:33 pm

Wow looks great, where do I sign up? :D

Will the 125 board match be graded Andy?
"When you see a good move, look for a better one!" - Lasker

Andrew Bak
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Re: Bradford Chesstival in the Park

Post by Andrew Bak » Fri Aug 09, 2013 6:28 pm

Jon Mahony wrote:Wow looks great, where do I sign up? :D

Will the 125 board match be graded Andy?
The idea of the event is for people to have fun and play some chess so anybody who wants to come down can turn up and will get a game and you don't even have to be an ECF member! (couldn't resist...)

I'll let you know as soon as the organisers have decided how they are going to allocate places for the simuls and the match - but I will say that local support will be needed and much appreciated!

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Jon Mahony
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Re: Bradford Chesstival in the Park

Post by Jon Mahony » Mon Aug 12, 2013 2:48 pm

I will circulate the event website to Leeds CC members Andy, I should imagine I can get at least 10 or so to turn up at a conservative guess - you tend to get a lot of “maybes” which turn to “no’s” later on with this type of thing sadly :roll:

I’ll be there - had to sweet talk the missus a little bit as it’s on our anniversary weekend, but lucky for me we are going away for it on the Sunday and Monday, otherwise I’d have been knackered - just haven’t told her Bradford Chess Congress is the following weekend yet!
:lol:
"When you see a good move, look for a better one!" - Lasker

Andrew Bak
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Re: Bradford Chesstival in the Park

Post by Andrew Bak » Fri Aug 30, 2013 4:29 pm

Just two weeks until the Bradford Chesstival in the Park takes place on Saturday 14th September. We can confirm the events that will be taking place:
  • - 125 board FREE simultaneous exhibition with GM Gawain Jones, IM Richard Palliser, WIM Sue Maroroa, IM Malcolm Pein and IM Andy Ledger.
    - 125 board match including a Yorkshire vs Lancashire match. Anyone that wants to play can take part in this match.
    - Visit from the Deputy Lord Mayor, the family of Marsha Singh MP and other guests.
    - Tony Gillam, author of "Bradford 1888 - International Chess Tournament" will be signing copies of his book which documents the first major chess event held outside London.
    - Musical entertainment from Aire Ensemble, Kala Sagam and others
    - Kids activities including chess lessons, face painting, balloons and other fun activities.
    - Giant chess sets for all to play on
    - Play chess on the computer against your friends and on the internet in our "Chess Online" section.
To sign up for the simul (places will fill up quickly!) and find out more information please visit the BDCA Official Website

If you would like to find out more information or assist with the event, please contact [email protected] or if you wish to telephone, you can contact Winston Williams on 07794 370973 or Wil Liburn-Quick on 07789 203383.

You can follow us on Twitter @chesstival or follow us on Facebook and join our Facebook event!

Andrew Bak
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Re: Bradford Chesstival in the Park

Post by Andrew Bak » Thu Sep 05, 2013 5:40 pm

A few people have asked about what will happen if it rains.

All the events will be under gazebos so you won't get wet whilst playing!

Andrew Bak
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Re: Bradford Chesstival in the Park

Post by Andrew Bak » Fri Sep 06, 2013 11:26 am

Feature in the local Telegraph and Argus:

Making the right move with 'Chesstival' event

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Jon Mahony
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Re: Bradford Chesstival in the Park

Post by Jon Mahony » Fri Sep 06, 2013 11:59 am

Hi Andy,

I’m not a huge fan of simul’s so don’t think I’ll bother with that, but how do you sign up for just the normal match? The Yorks Vs Lancs sounds interesting, but I can’t seem to see anything about it on the website.

Interest from Leeds CC was pretty positive, I’ll give them a little reminder on Wednesday, you should get a fair few of our lot down.

Glad you answered the rain question - it did cross my mind with today’s weather! Was imagining the opening scene from “Searching for Bobby Fischer” :roll:
"When you see a good move, look for a better one!" - Lasker

Andrew Bak
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Re: Bradford Chesstival in the Park

Post by Andrew Bak » Sun Sep 08, 2013 11:09 am

Consider yourself signed up Jon!

I will ask the organisers to get in touch with you.

Andrew Bak
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Re: Bradford Chesstival in the Park

Post by Andrew Bak » Tue Sep 10, 2013 12:05 pm

The Bradford Chesstival team are now LIVE on BCB radio!

http://www.bcbradio.co.uk/player/

PeterTurland
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Re: Bradford Chesstival in the Park

Post by PeterTurland » Tue Sep 10, 2013 12:47 pm

Andrew Bak wrote:The Bradford Chesstival team are now LIVE on BCB radio!

http://www.bcbradio.co.uk/player/
Thanks Andrew, it has made me giggle, 'The Bradford attack' played against 'The French defence', the mind boggles!

Andrew Bak
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Re: Bradford Chesstival in the Park

Post by Andrew Bak » Tue Sep 10, 2013 11:38 pm

If you missed the original broadcast, you can listen to it in it's entirety when you wish!

http://podcasts.canstream.co.uk/bcb/index.php?page=3

It's called "Our Top Ten Tuesday 10 September"

Andrew Wainwright
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Re: Bradford Chesstival in the Park

Post by Andrew Wainwright » Thu Sep 12, 2013 6:23 pm

Andy B - listened to this last night on play back, shame it was not more widely circulated in advance that this interview was happening.

I thought Sam did a good job and made an enthusiastic "sell" to the general public.

Not sure if wasting 15mins on historical references to things like historic Fischer matches, soviet era chess etc etc was the way to go in order to promote chess as a relevant activity that is attractive to the youth of today.

I would have been more than happy to provide those taking part with some useful information on the Bradford Knights Chess Academy, but as with most things when it comes to the Chesstival it seems that my input was not wanted.

That said I hope that it goes well and I applaude those who have pulled this event together including yourself.

Nick Burrows
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Re: Bradford Chesstival in the Park

Post by Nick Burrows » Thu Sep 12, 2013 11:40 pm

Hi Andy,

I just wanted to commend you on the energy and creativity you are putting into chess right now! It is a breath of fresh air and greatly needed. Keep up the good work!

Andrew Bak
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Re: Bradford Chesstival in the Park

Post by Andrew Bak » Sun Sep 15, 2013 3:53 pm

I'm delighted to report that the Chesstival proved to be very popular and was a great success! Fortunately the rain stayed away and we were even basking in the sunshine for a large proportion of the event!

There will be a full report of the event on the Yorkshire website to come. Suffice it to say for now that the prospect of playing against one of 5 masters attracted people from all over the country to come and participate, while many locals who were not chess players were also very keen to try their hand at the many activities we had taking place!

After the simultaneous exhibitions, a match between Bradford and the Rest of the World took place, with the ROW narrowly winning 20.5-17.5. Jon Nelson was presented with the Marsha Singh memorial trophy by Marsha's brothers, Nermil and Balwir.

There were many other events taking place, which I will write about in the more detailed report!

Many thanks to Gawain Jones, Sue Maroroa, Malcolm Pein, Richard Palliser and Andy Ledger for being very engaging with the public and being good sports!

My thanks also go to the many volunteers who helped out throughout the course of the day, who made the event run very smoothly!

We hope to run a similar event once again next year, watch this space!