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Yorkshire Chess Association Year Book 2017-2018 |
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Contents |
Calendar of Events – Results/Reports |
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Castle Harrogate Congress 2018
The 2018 Castle Harrogate congress was held from Friday 11/05/2018 to Sunday 13/05/2018 at The Old Swan Hotel, Swan Road, Harrogate, HG1 2SR, which is the same venue as was used by the 4NCL event in February. Like the Huddersfield Congress it has 6 rounds, with a number of people taking 2 half-point byes, mainly in rounds 1 and 4.
Although results have yet to appear on the congress website (as late as 01/07/2018), they have been partially retrieved from the ECF grading website which doesn’t show byes, these having been omitted by the grader. Assuming missing results before round 6 were half-point byes, it appears the final table in the Open was as follows, showing the event to have been a significant success for local young player Mate Ther, who was clear winner ahead of some notable also-rans.
York’s John Cawston won the Major with 5 out of 6. Alan Riddle of Limewood was one of 4 who shared 1st place in the Minor.
The 2018 Castle Harrogate congress was held from Friday 11/05/2018 to Sunday 13/05/2018 at The Old Swan Hotel, Swan Road, Harrogate, HG1 2SR, which is the same venue as was used by the 4NCL event in February. Like the Huddersfield Congress it has 6 rounds, with a number of people taking 2 half-point byes, mainly in rounds 1 and 4.
The venue is splendid, located near to the Valley Gardens (through which one can walk and then continue on to the RHS gardens at Harlow Carr). Despite this, there were only 40 participants, significantly less than the 136 participants at the 4NCL event.
Co-organisers of Castle Chess are Tony and Barbara Corfe; the former was to be found behind a computer, the latter entering things on the wallcharts (which lay flat on a table – but the Old Swan is not the sort of place to encourage Blu tack!).
The Harrogate league is the smallest in Yorkshire, and it does not rise to running its own congress. Gone are the days of the former Harrogate Congress held in the Baths, under the title “Yorkshire Chess Congress” as it was the former peripatetic Yorkshire Congress which had become fixed in Harrogate. York Woodhouse player and former top Sheffield junior Jim Nicholson remembers playing at the Baths in his days as a junior (c. early 1980s).
Nevertheless, Harrogate currently hosts three congresses per year, all run by external organisers: 4NCL, Castle Chess, and Noel Boustred.
The financial viability of these congresses seems questionable. However, the Castle Chess website mentioned anonymous sponsorship to keep it running in Harrogate for two years. Whether that meant 2018 and 2019, or 2019 and 2020 wasn’t clear.
Results are expected to appear eventually on the Castle Chess website at http://www.castlechess.co.uk/Events/?ID=81.
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