Scarborough's 49th Congress

We had a lot of drama at the start of this years congress due to the storm that hit Scarborough during Friday afternoon. We must have had a cloud burst as the Spa Complex was totally overwhelmed by the rain and many areas got flooded as a consequence raising a lot of safety concerns. Thankfully we coped and the rest of the weekends weather was reasonably good but several participants had to move hotels because of the floods and roads in were also flooded. So an eventful run up to the start. The main talking point this year was AidaChess who were our main sponsor. It was a big change from the norm for everyone and many had their doubts coming into the congress but AidaChess were actually there throughout our congress to address any concerns but it all went very smoothly and it helped us tremendously with regards running of the event. Since deciding to go with them we have worked very closely with them to ensure we had all the features we needed and they have provided exceptional support all the way. And by the end I think everyone was happy with the experience especially the ability to get notifications of the pairings when they were published.

So this year was another record attending year for us with just over 470 - we didn't quite reach our 500 goal but still very pleasing and we thank everyone who came along. The extra numbers resulted in a slightly different layout in our main hall which seemed to work well. We once again held our Club championship which attracted 23 clubs and involved nearly half of our attendance. Hull had the highest number of people but Ilkley retained the title of Club Champions. Our Club Championship menu has full details and a summary is below. We once again had 6 sections with a top prize of £1000 in the Open which was pretty strong despite there being only 2 GM's neither of whom managed to win anything - Rajat Makkar had returned and he was the winner with 4.5 points. Other outstanding performances came from Simon Hickey in the Intermediate, Steven Clark in the Minor and Aman Kumar in the Foundation - all of whom won all their games. Our full list of winners are listed below but please note that until AidaChess implement a prize giving system we have to do payments by bank transfer so we'll need everyone's bank details.

So thanks go to AidaChess for providing an excellent system to run the congress with, Chess Essentials for their bookstall and for sponsoring our Club Championship. ChessPick for sponsoring the best performing in each section and OokChess for the best game in each section. Note that if you want your game to be considered for this and you haven't registered it then just let us know.

Next years congress will be from 29th-31st October 2027 at the Spa Complex - full details will be released in the new year but it's likely to be very similar although it will be our 50th so expect something extra.

Thanks again for your interest and support.

Main prize winners

Below are our main prize winners for each section

Performance Winners

Performance is calculated on how people have performed relative to their rating compared to their opponents. The winners listed below will receive credits from ChessPick.

Note that this information has been copied in from AidaChess so the links have carried through for each player if you wish to see who they played against.

Club Championship

Ilkley Chess Centre retain their title of Club Champions with a total score of 59. Banbury & Darlington came second with 50, followed by Hull on 49.

In total we 23 Clubs and 200 players participating. The championship was determined by awarding 3 points for a black win, 2 points for a white win and 1 point for a draw. Only the top 6 players in each club contributed to towards the Club's score. Below shows the top 6 from Ilkley.