Highest prize in a weekend congress

[Joey Stewart]

Probably off topic but I also played in a congress where the prizes were £500 1st, £300 2nd, £200 3rd and £100 4th (or something close to this) with book prizes after this. Being in a four-way split for 2nd I was expecting to get £150 (and part of a book), especially as no tie-break had been communicated in advance.

After the prize giving I was surprised to have a cheque for £300 - what tie breaker had they used? The answer was alphabetical order.

With my rent being £300pcm I booked a few hours off work the following morning and was in the queue at the bank at 0830. Just in case.

If I had been the player getting a book because of that "tiebreak" I'd have burned the organisers house down

[MJMcCready]

This thread makes it seem like there never has been much money in chess in England.

[Matt Mackenzie]

With the exception of a relatively brief period post-Fischer boom, that has pretty much been the case yes.