When it became known that Chess Direct was winding down, and would not be involved in running the Scarborough Congress in 2022, there was some concern that the event might drop off the congress calendar completely. However, Nigel Hepworth, hitherto better known as a congress organiser primarily in the context of Huddersfield, stepped forward and took up the reins, for which congress-goers are greatly indebted.

The 2020 congress was of course cancelled due to Covid. When the event resumed in 2021, entrants shrank in number to below 300 for the first time since 2006. Nevertheless, a further year on has seen participants rise back to “normal” levels. To the right are numbers of entrants or participants (not necessarily quite the same!), as near as can be identified, and this year’s figure of 341 has been exceeded seemingly only twice in the previous 20 years.

Live coverage of the top 8 boards of the Open was provided at https://www.scarboroughchess.uk/. There appeared to have been a hiccup in round 1, as Joe Varley v Jonathan Arnott was shown as a win for Black after only 10 moves, when the position was reasonably even, suggesting most of the game got truncated. The full game had been recorded by the following day. Then, in round 2, Roger de Coverly v Paul Townsend was presented as a 13-move win for Black. (Maybe somehow players accidentally catch a game termination button on the DGT board while making their move.)

The numbering of this event as the 47th is intriguing; it appears the cancelled 2020 event is retaining its label as 45th.

There were the usual 5 sections:

	Open	Major	Intermediate	Minor	Foundation
Rating limit	(none)	U-2050	U-1850	U-1700	U-1550
Entrants	70	49	83	74	67
Participants *	69	49	82	72	65
For results click on	result table	result table	result table	result table	result table
(* entrants less “no shows”)

Year	No.
2022	337
2021	271
2020	0
2019	318
2018	308
2017	337
2016	349
2015	330
2014	359
2013	340
2012	304
2011	332
2010	339
2009	326
2008	311
2007	322
2006	283
2005	268
2004	277
2003	???
2002	264

14-year-old Lorenzo Fava of Cambridgeshire Juniors, and originally Italy, moved into sole lead in the Open after three rounds, on 3 out of 3, hotly pursued by 13 players on 2½ out of 3. His current ECF rating is 1933 (grade 164), though he seems stronger than that.

His first-round win was over a 2012-rated player. In his second-round win over 2087-rated Martin Burrows, after Lorenzo’s wake-up rook sacrifice at h7, his opponent seemed to make a few injudicious decisions in difficult positions, and the win might have been easier than it should have been.

To play through that second-round game click here: Lorenzo Fava 1-0 Martin Burrows.

In round three, Lorenzo faced FM Tim Wall, rated 2349, who has the audacity to sacrifice material to open up Lorenzo’s king! Cucumber coolness on the younger player’s part won through, and the (relatively) old man of Forest Hall resigned when faced with inescapable mate next move. That made it three out of three for Lorenzo. To play through that third-round game click here: Tim Wall 0-1 Lorenzo Fava.

Round 4 saw the youngster paired against ECF Finance Director and FIDE Master, Adam Ashton - a recent import to Chessable White Rose A in the 4NCL. Would Adam “Adamant” Ashton live? (You need to remember a certain 1960s TV series to understand the pun.) The answer was “yes”, in fact Ashton had the better game in terms of space and the option as to if and when a pawn break (or even a sacrifice) was made, but the game was long destined to be a draw. That left Lorenzo as only one of six in the joint lead on 3½ out of 4 going into the final round, one other of the six being Yorkshire’s Jim Burnett, who had drawn in round 1 but won his next 3 games. To play through the 63-move draw click here: Lorenzo-Fava ½-½ Adam G Ashton.

Round 5 saw the youngster paired with Black against seasoned congress player Ali Jaunooby of Greater Manchester with White, and the game commenced 1. d4 f5 2. g4 (as in the Sunday Times game S. J. Mann (King Edwards, Sheffield) v A. J. Miles (King Edwards, Birmingham) in a previous century. This system for White bears the name “Krejcik Gambit”, named after the Austrian Josef Emil Krejcik (22/01/1885-04/01/1957). In this game White blundered I time trouble and lost. This earnt the Cambridgeshire Junior 1st-2nd equal final placing with 15-year-0ld Makkar Rajat of France. To play through this final-round game click here: Ali Reza Jaunooby 0-1 Lozenzo Fava.