FAREHAM CHESS CUB hosted its 2nd 1-day ECF rated Open Rapidplay, at its playing venue, ‘The Duke of Connaught’s Own Club’ on Saturday the 6th June. Our thanks to the Duke of the Connaught. The tournament was once again run with the aim of donating a proportion of the entry fees received to the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.
Many local players entered, including 15 members of the Fareham Chess Club. Added to this, many players who travelled to Fareham on a wet and windy day. The field included 5 youngsters below the age of 12, who will no doubt improve rapidly in the coming years. Not quite a full house of 50 players, but very close. Thank you all for your participation.
In the event, first place saw a tie between titled players IM Peter Large and FM Roland Bezuidenhout on 5/6. Peter and Roland met in round 4 with a drawn result. This enabled Bill McDougall, who beat Matthew Deacon to take sole lead. These three players all scored ½ point in round 5, which meant that Bill was still in sole lead going in to the final round. Some hard-fought games on the top boards saw victories for Roland over Bill and Peter over Sam Gorsuch, moving both to 5/6. A draw on board 3 between Oliver Williamson and Stephen O’Toole, and a win for Jaimie Wilson over Daniel Goodlad on board 4 meant that no other player reached 5 points.
The final cross-table – see below.
Place prices:
Tied 1st with 5/6 IM Peter Large (Kingston) £100 & FM Roland Bezuidenhout (Fareham) £100
Tied 3rd with 4.5pts: Bill McDougall, Jaimie Wilson, David Pye, Stephen O’Toole £26.25 each
Rating prizes:
1. Under-1900: Oliver Williamson 4.5pts: £44
2. Under-1700: Rashad Rahimli 4pts: £43
3. Under-1500: Tim Cutter 3.5pts: £42
4. Junior Prize: Jack McBurnie 4pts: £41
I would like to thank those gents who helped get things set up in the morning and put away at the end of the day. My thanks to my go-to-contact Martin Simons for his wise counsel dealing with any queries that arose in the days before the tournament. I would especially like to thank Dave Cordner who gave up his Saturday at short notice to help me run the event.
There were some additional charitable contributions received, which enabled us to make an overall donation of £500 to the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.
Tony Corkett (Fareham Chess Club)
HIOWAA comment: Thank you to each player who took part in the most recent Fareham tournament. Because of you, a seriously sick or injured local person will be treated by our advanced Critical Care Team, making the difference that enables their survival.
Crucially, we can now reach Fareham patients in half the previous time. This is because in early June, supporters like you achieved the £3.6M fundraising target to relocate our airbase to just outside Southampton Airport. The crew have settled in, and they are delighted to confirm patients have already survived incidents that would have proved fatal when responding from Thruxton Airport.
A special thanks to the Fareham Chess Club for both their hard work and thoughtful decision to help save lives.
For more information, see the website:https://www.hiowaa.org/
Fareham Chess Club 