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29/12/2022 British Individual Rapidplay 2023
The British Individual Rapidplay has not been held since 23th & 24th November 2019, when it was held at Pudsey Civic Centre, Dawson’s Corner, LS28 5TA (see here).
The British Individual Rapidplay was launched in Leeds in 1986 as the Joshua Tetley British Open Quickplay Chess Championships on 14th-15th June, at The Queen’s Hotel, Leeds. Thereafter it ran annually but then the event was not held in 1993, and made a loss in 1994.
The YCA once extended to the privately run event a “non-repayable loan”, which it was hoped by the YCA would be repaid, but which it would not insist be repaid if things went wrong. (Whether this related to the initial 1986 event or perhaps more probably the 1994 event is difficult to establish retrospectively.) The event made a loss. Legally, the creditors had the right to pursue the organisers X and Y either “jointly or severally”. They opted to target Y as an individual (the “severally” option). Thus, Y paid the debts out of his own pocket, since X refused to stump up and parted company with the event. Despite the “non-returnable” aspect of the loan from the YCA, Y very honourably, in time, repaid the loan. I guess that following years made a profit which made this repayment possible.
Brent Kitson took over as secretary in 1995, and things ran thereafter on an even keel, with Stephen Burton as treasurer. The event was held mainly in the Leeds/Bradford area, but also ventured as far away as Halifax. Things seemed to run smoothly enough on an annual basis until Covid prevented the event being held in 2020, and the organisers felt obliged not to go ahead in 2021 or 2022. Health problems of the organisers were a factor, and it seems, though see below, that Brent Kitson and his team have now decided to call it a day - or a quarter-century! (See list of winners below.)
The event had been endorsed by the ECF which has now announced that it will be supporting the 4NCL in organising the 2023 edition of the British Rapidplay Championship, which is to be held on 15th & 16th April, 2023, at the Mercure Bradford, Bankfield Hotel, Bradford Road, Bingley, BD16 1TU.
Details can be found at https://www.4ncl.co.uk/rp/2023/information.htm,
and on-line entry can be found at https://form.jotform.com/223443869862367.
(It has been suggested there was an inappropriate lack of consultation by the ECF with Brent Kitson and associates, who may yet have been planning a 2023 event. That said, however possibly clumsily handled, endorsement by the ECF is a matter for the ECF.)
Winners of the event in its first 39 years were as follows:
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