The change of venue from Ilkley, where the event was held in the previous two years, did not have the hoped-for effect of increasing entries. The Open was down by about 25% on last year’s entries, and the Major was about 50% down. The Intermediate and Minor received the same support as last year.

A factor in the reduced entry was probably a reduction in prize money, occasioned seemingly by a reduction in entries in recent years. Prizes in the Open in 2018 and 2019 were as follows:

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
2018	£400	£200	£100	£55
2019	£300	£150	£75	£38

GM Stephen Gordon and IM David Eggleston finished joint first in the Open, with 8½/11. These two shared first place, without a tie-break applying. The event website shows a photograph of David Eggleston as Open winner. (Mitchell Burke’s father, Alan, advises that unfortunately Stephen Gordon had to leave as soon as his final game ended, and before the presentations, due to a family illness: hence no photograph of the other joint winner.)

Stephen Gordon

(photo courtesy of Alan Burke)

David Eggleston with trophy

(photo stolen from Br Rapidplay website)

The top four boards in each round of the Open were broadcast live at

http://view.livechesscloud.com/54726c02-f44b-4f65-b0a0-550e24b7b226.

In the last three rounds of the Open, Robert Starley scored 2½ out of 3 against the players finishing in the top three places. Peter Shaw and Jim Burnett also managed draws against one or other of the top two players. The following games have been included in the Games section of this website, and can be played through by clicking on “play” in the end column of the following table:

Round	White	Result	Black
4	Jim Burnett	½-½	David J Eggleston	play
6	Stephen J Gordon	½-½	Peter Shaw	play
9	Robert Starley	1-0	Laurence E Webb	play
10	Stephen J Gordon	0-1	Robert Starley	play
11	David J Eggleston	½*½	Robert Starley	play

* This one was a 4-move “grandmaster draw” of a kind.

The 5-round Sunday Open was not well supported, as last year. On the event webpage, it was listed under “Junior Events” (it should have said “Other Events”), which may have misled some who would otherwise have entered. It was won with 5 out of 5 by Leo Keely. Last year’s main Open winner, Gediminas Sarakauskas, fared surprisingly poorly, though it seems he may have arrived too late for the first round, and so defaulted.

Once again an England U-11 Trial Qualifier was run again alongside the event, and was won by Eugenia Karas of North London Collegiate School, with 4½ out of 5.

Paul Gelder helped by acting as a filler to give a (graded) game to players receiving a bye on Saturday, then joined the Sunday Open, to even up the numbers there.