Yorkshire Chess Association

Notices

30/09/2021

Cancellation of the British Rapidplay, 2021

The organisers of the popular British Rapidplay, run by, amongst others, Brent Kitson and Stephen Burton, had to cancel the 2019 event due to Covid, and have now felt it necessary also to cancel the 2021 event scheduled for 26th & 27th November, in Leeds.

The event website says:

With the rise in covid 19 numbers due to the delta variant, and the likelihood of other more vicious variants likely to appear in the near future, it has been decided to postpone the tournament for another year.

250 people in an enclosed environment is a mass spreading event, especially as we will be in close proximity and breathing on each other for most of the day.

Masks are not good enough in that situation.

I (SM) fear that sometimes organisational zeal tips the balance in favour of proceeding with an event when it is unclear that proceeding is wise. There are always players so starved of chess that they are happy to risk contracting covid, and indeed to risk passing it on to others, so the decision to cancel the British Rapidplay a second time seems to me perfectly sensible.

Covid Holiday in Dunoon

I myself would not go on coach holidays in the present situation, if it were solely up to me, but my other half is as eager to get away as many chess-players are to play over-the-board chess. Accordingly we went on a 5-day coach trip to Dunoon, Scotland, with trips to the Isle of Arran (which I visited about 56 years ago) and the Isle of Great Cumbrae (where I had not been before).

On day three, four members of the trip went into covid isolation, two of them having been sitting on the coach one row in front of me but across the aisle.

We did lateral flow tests before going, as at least one other couple had done, but many (most?) will not have done.

If I have picked up the virus then it is unlikely to manifest itself, as far as I can tell, until next week.

So, if this website goes silent, then it will be because the webmaster has covid!

Steve Mann