The 12-player all-play-all Caplin Hastings On-Line (Rapidplay) Tournament, held on Saturday 9thJanuary (rounds 1 to 6) and Sunday 10th January 2021 (rounds 7 to 11), was run as a replacement for the annual Hastings International Congress. It differed from the latter in that it was not played at Hastings, was not really International (okay, Turner is “Scottish” – and I’m a Dutchman; maybe Flear still lives in France), and was hardly a Congress in that the players remained at a distance rather than congregating at a single location as the etymology of “congress” would require. Whilst this was not the “normal” Hastings event, it was a worthy stand-in. The time control was 15 minutes per players for the game, with a 10-second increment per move from move 1.

This event was in fact more in the nature of a British On-Line Rapidlay Championship, in that it featured 7 of England’s top 10 FIDE rapidplay-rated players, in particular Yorkshire’s Gawain Jones, whereas the ECF Rapidplay On-Line Championship held on 02/01/2021 (played at the faster 10 minutes per game with 5-second increments) contained only one of the participants in this event, namely Turner. Matthew Sadler’s was a notable absence here, grade-wise. The final result table was as follows:

Place	Name	Total	Opponent
Place	Name	Total	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
1	David W L Howell	9	X	1	1	½	½	½	½	1	1	1	1	1
2	Luke J McShane	7½	0	X	½	1	½	½	1	½	1	½	1	1
3	Michael Adams	7	0	½	X	½	0	1	1	½	1	1	½	1
4	Gawain C B Jones	6½	½	0	½	X	½	½	1	1	½	1	1	0
5	Daniel W Gormally	6	½	½	1	½	X	1	½	½	½	0	0	1
6	Matthew J Turner	5½	½	½	0	½	0	X	½	½	½	1	½	1
7	Matthew J Wadsworth	5	½	0	0	0	½	½	X	½	0	1	1	1
8	Keith C Arkell	5	0	½	½	0	½	½	½	X	½	1	0	1
9	Nicholas Pert	4½	0	0	0	½	½	½	1	½	X	½	½	½
10	Mark L Hebden	3½	0	½	0	0	1	0	0	0	½	X	1	½
11	Ameet K Ghasi	3½	0	0	½	0	1	½	0	1	½	0	X	0
12	Glenn C Flear	3	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	½	½	1	X

All players were GMs except for IMs Wadsworth and Ghasi. The top 4 placings accorded with FIDE rapidplay ratings, except that Howell is rated third of the top four, but jumped over Adams and McShane to win this event. Yorkshire’s Gawain Jones damaged his chances of winning by losing in round 8 to long-since British (standard rate) Champion Glenn Flear, while losing to Luke McShane in the final round was unhelpful though understandable.