Central London Chess Congress 4-6/November 2011

[John Sargent]

Imperial College are pleased to announce the first long-play chess congress they've hosted in over a decade from the 4th to the 6th of November, 2011 (and a British Championship qualifier to boot). Situated in central London in zone 1, this gives a unique opportunity for London based players to commute to a tournament from the comfort of their own home, and provides a multitude of accommodation and entertainment to people travelling from out of London.

DATE: 04/Nov/2011 (Fri.) to 06/Nov/2011 (Sun.)
VENUE: Imperial College Union (1st Floor), Beit Quadrangle, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2BB
CLOSEST TUBE: South Kensington / Gloucester Road / High Street Kensington, Zone 1
EVENT FORMAT: 5 Round Swiss
TIME CONTROL: 90 minutes per player for all moves plus 30 seconds per moev from move one. Default / repairing time 30 minutes.
SECTIONS: Open, Major (U170 ECF / U2000 FIDE), Minor (U140 ECF). Open and Major sections will be FIDE rated, all three sections will be ECF rated. Players in the Open and Major must be members of their national federation (i.e. English players must be ECF members etc.).
BYE: Players may request a half-point bye in advance (on the entry form) for Rounds 1 through 4.
COST: £35 (Open), £31 (Major), £27 (Minor). A £3 discount is available for players who enter before 14/Oct/2011.
PRIZES: Guaranteed £200/£150/£100 (Open), £150/£100/£70 (Major), £120/£80/£50 (Minor). Pending sufficient entries, prize pool may be increased and/or additional prizes may be awarded (grading prize in each section).

The highest placed eligible player in the Open, not already qualified, can qualify for entry to the British Championships 2012.

Many thanks to our resident arbiter Adam Raoof for helping out with organisation of this tournament.

Read more about the tournament here (http://union.ic.ac.uk/rcc/chess/imperia ... -congress/)

Enter online here (http://union.ic.ac.uk/rcc/chess/enter-t ... -congress/)

[David Sedgwick]

Unless I'm missing something, you don't have the four hour playing session necessary for FIDE Rating of the Open section.

Edit: this has now been promptly rectified.

[Ben Purton]

I am about 10% likely to enter this for sure. and 50/50 on the other 90% ! , on the grounds that if my better half does not get A*(which she will) then I will 110% play as it will be her backup uni.

Ben

[John Sargent]

Note that due to a recent development (involving the usage of DGT2010 clocks courtesy of the ECF, many thanks!) the time control for this event has been swapped to 90min + 30sec per move, with playing sessions remaining at 4 hours.

[John Sargent]

Dear all,

Please note that the deadline for discounted early entry is the 14th of October - please get your entries paid by this date to take advantage.

Many thanks, and hope to see some of you at the congress!

All the best,
John

[Jonathan Bryant]

John, do you have me registered for the Open? I registered online on Friday and got a message saying I would be contacted regarding how to pay but I haven't heard anything back.


regards,

J

[John Sargent]

Hi Jon,

No worries. I was caught up all weekend at EGL4 at the Emirates so have only gotten back to my computer to process entries now and I have about 60 e-mails to get through! You'll get an e-mail from me some time this evening confirming entry.

PLEASE NOTE THE MAXIMUM CAPACITY FOR THIS TOURNAMENT IS 100 (maybe 110) TOTAL PLAYERS. IF WE REACH THIS NUMBER OF REGISTRATIONS WE NEED TO START TURNING PEOPLE AWAY. KINDLY GET YOUR ENTRIES IN EARLY AS THE EVENT IS PROVING VERY POPULAR!

[Jonathan Bryant]

Thanks John.

Glad I got in just in time.

[John Sargent]

Kindly note that after several hours of wrangling...

[Alex Holowczak]

This has brought a smile to the face of the person who had volunteered to ECF-grade and FIDE-rate the event.

(NB Swiss Master generates FIDE-rating files, and is generating the files online. This makes my life much easier...)

[Jonathan Bryant]

I also liked the sign that read, "Some people are tired, get over it".


Thanks to John and Adam for organising. I enjoyed the event much more than my score would suggest(!)

[Tristan Clayton]

Absolutely. Many thanks to the organisers for one of the most entertaining tournaments I've played in.

My results were pretty dire, having to rely on a cheap trap to score my only win (against a child - shame on me...)

Is it going to be a regular fixture on the calendar?

Although the venue was noisy at times, it was still an enjolyable weekend. Perhaps in future it could be moved to the big round building next door? I've heard the acoustics in there aren't too bad

[John Sargent]

Report can be found on ECF forum at: Clicky
Original report URL at: Clicky

Thanks everyone! Fantastic success

[John Sargent]

PGNs (sorry for the delay) are now available for the Open and Major sections at:

http://union.ic.ac.uk/rcc/chess/downloa ... 2011-pgns/

You may also download individual round PGNs by going to the results page and selecting them there.

Additionally (BONUS TIME! YIPPEE!) there will also be PGNs for the Minor as well (le gasp!) but please bear with us until a week or two after the London Classic as most of the people involved with the ICCC are also involved at the LCC and the powers that be refuse to extend days to include more than 24 hours!

All the best,
John