This must be a first for the KCC blog - a double tournament report written by someone who wasn't present - let alone playing - at either of them. But thanks to the wonders of modern technology, it almost felt like I was actually there.
At least that's the case as far as the main event of this weekend - the British Rapidplay Championship at Peterborough - was concerned, as there were up to 93 boards transmitted live in each round. With so many KCC players in action, not to mention those from my 4NCL team, Warwickshire Select, it was almost impossible to keep up with everything that was happening. But when the chaos ended, after 11 rounds of 15 mins + 10 secs slugfests spread over 2 days, it was possible to take a deep breath and see how our six brave warriors/gluttons for punishment (delete as applicable!) had acquitted themselves. Pretty well, it's fair to say!
The KCC contingent was, in start rank order:-
37 Billy
82 Bruce B
109 Keatan
115 Andy W
And they finished like this, in a field of 217 players:-
44 Bruce 7 pts/TPR 2016
71 Jude 6 pts/TPR 2171
90 Ben 6 pts/TPR 1785
123 Keatan 5 pts/TPR 1820
The final scores hide the full drama, though, because - as the Tournament Performance Ratings reveal - Jude and Billy played many of their games on very high boards, while Bruce (to pluck a name at random!) spent much of his time grovelling on the mid/lower boards before producing a storming finish on Sunday, when he scored 4/5, culminating in a last round victory over Jude which massively affected the KCC mini-league table. In fact, Jude seemed to run out of steam completely at the end, losing the last three rounds having climbed to a very exciting 9th= after 8 rounds.
There were some titled scalps claimed by the KCC contingent along the way - Jude beating Italian FM Lorenzo Fava and pride of place going to Andy for a win over IM Neil Bradbury. Both Keatan (Round 1) and Billy (Round 3) got to play on top board against number 1 seed, GM Gawain Jones (just the 2797 RP rating!), while Jude faced off against GMs Gormally and Kovchan.
So no prizes or titles to be reported from Peterborough, but we do have a Kenilworth triumph to celebrate, as I've left the best news till last. Because in the rather calmer waters of the Warwick University Rapidplay on Saturday, Javier produced a storming performance to win the Open with 6.5/7 - conceding only a draw to top seed, Australian FM Sam Chow (rated 2483!) - who thankfully doesn't bother turning out for Warwick Uni in the Coventry League. Javi imperiously swept all other opposition aside to secure the £160 1st prize and post a massive TPR of 2452, virtually 300 points over his own rapidplay rating. After threatening to play in this event myself, I'm glad I decided to give it a miss and avoid being run over by a Spanish express train! On a weekend where there was "muchos rapidplay" played "muy rapido", Javi takes the prize for being "mas poderoso"!
And to round off this speed chess episode, let's play ourselves out with a suitably themed song!
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