Congress 2025 - Details

Date 

Friday 24th to Sunday 26th October 2025

Venue

The Ocean Room, Scarborough Spa Complex, South Bay, Scarborough. YO11 2HD

Details

5 round Swiss tournament for all playing abilities.

6 sections - all ECF rated, Open & Challengers FIDE rated.

Over £7000 in the total prize fund, £1000 first place prize in the Open.

GM's and WGM's given a free entry.

Leaflet to download is here.

On line entry form can be found here.

All Open games will be using smart boards and will be broadcast live over the Internet.

Timetable

Note that BST ends on Saturday 25th October 2025.

Games are defaulted 30 minutes after the start time.

Time Control

All moves to be played in 110 minutes with a 10 second increment after each move.

All moves must be recorded on provided score sheets until your time goes under 5 minutes remaining after which this is optional and remains so even if time remaing goes back over 5 minutes.

Sections

There will be £100 rating prizes in each section subject to entries.

The July ECF and FIDE's published rating lists will determine which section you can enter. In the Open & Challengers the highest ECF/FIDE rating will be used. The October published rating lists will be used for pairing at the event. In the event that your October rating means you are no longer eligible to enter the section requested you may be automatically be moved into the higher section - there would be no additional fee payable if this is the case. If your October rating allows you to enter a lower section, you must request this transfer, again the entry fee will remain at the original value.

You can only win one prize - if you are eligible to win a rating prize as well as a main prize then you will be awarded with which ever has the highest payout.

Prize money will be shared if there is a tie.

Entry fees

All players must be ECF Gold members or above at the time of the event otherwise the Pay to Play fee is payable (£15 adults, £6 juniors). Note that Bronze ECF members would be upgraded to Gold after paying the fee.

In the Open & Challengers sections, non ENG players must have a FIN.

Open - £45

Challengers / Major / Intermediate / Minor - £40

Foundation - £35

£5 discount for Juniors under 18 on 1st September 2025 and seniors aged over 65 on 1st September 2025.

We'll accept late entries but any received after Wednesday 22nd October 2025 will incur a £10 late entry fee.

All fees must be paid in full to confirm your entry before the event.

Withdrawals

If for some reason you are unable to attend a refund will be made. 

For early entries received before 1st July 2025, a full refund will be given, all others may be subject to a £5 administration fee. Withdrawals after Wednesday 22nd October 2025 may not be eligible for a refund.

Pairings

Swiss Manager will be used to pair the rounds using Octobers published ratings.

Pairings/results will be published on chess-results website.

Our Team

Director/Organiser - Nigel Hepworth

Chief Arbiter - Lara Barnes

Arbiters - Matthew Carr, Nigel Hepworth, Peter Ackley, Jim Burnett, Neil Lowther