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sungate.co.uk

sungate.co.uk

Ramblings about stuff

Northwick Park Chess Congress 2024 (tournament success!) and Kidlington Chess Congress 2025 (scraped a grading prize)

December 2024

Haven’t blogged for a bit, thought I should at least write about some over-the-board success!

I played my first ever FIDE-rated (internationally-rated) chess congress in December: this was the Northwick Park Chess Congress, although the venue had been moved to Marylebone Road, just opposite Madame Tussauds. In fact, when playing with the Black pieces, it was possible to look out of the window and see the Planetarium and the Madame Tussauds queue!

Like the other congresses I’ve played, this was a 5-round event, played over Saturday and Sunday. After a very early start, I took the train to London to play. I nearly had a bit of a false start in the First Round, where I miscalculated in an attempt to be rather too clever: fortunately, I was still able to outplay my less experienced opponent and win. And in the Second Round, a good solid game led to a second win. All this combined with a draw in the Third Round meant that I was very happy with the first day: 2.5 out of 3.

After a night at a nearby hotel (which was eye-wateringly expensive, given this was London the weekend before Christmas!), a good solid Premier Inn breakfast set me up for the second day. The Fourth Round went well too, with another win and took me to 3.5 out of 4. Now things were getting interesting. The Fifth Round game set me against the current tournament leader who had a perfect 4 out of 4 score: but if I could win, I’d be guaranteed at least a share of 1st place. It was a great game, with some interesting tactics at times, but I was always pressing for the win: finally a couple of good moves and it was all over. I had finished with a score of 4.5 out of 5. My opponent said that it was one of the best games he’d ever had, which was very gracious since he was on the losing side, but it’s hard to argue with him: especially with the tournament outcome hanging in the balance. There was another game being played between two others on 3.5 out of 4, but that game ended drawn which meant I was clear first. My first tournament victory since 1988! Quite literally stunned and over the moon, I was. On the train coming home, people must have been wondering what I was grinning so much about! The prize money just about paid for my hotel.

Games and analysis available here

This tournament meant that I got my first ever FIDE rating: 1970, which is somewhat inflated because it was based on such a bundle of wins. But I can live with that for now! In an effort to make this even more impressive, and just for a bit of fun, I searched the FIDE rating database in increasingly narrow ways until I found the results in the image. This is the January 2025 FIDE ranking for English-registered men aged between 53 and 54(!!) and I’m ranked alongside some much more impressive names.

FIDE rating list, January 2025 males aged 53-54

February 2025

And then as usual for the first weekend in February, it was the Kidlington Chess Congress: I managed to continue my good streak on the first day: a solid draw, followed by two good wins, although both were very long games. My favourite was Third Round on Saturday evening against a strong opponent, where the game finished in a rook & pawn endgame time scramble and I managed to hold my nerve to win. So once again I was on 2.5 out of 3 overnight.

On Sunday morning, Round Four was when my luck finally ran out. I missed a tactic which led to a straightforward win for my opponent. This, combined with an uninspiring draw in the final round, led to a final total of 3 out of 5. This was, technically, joint 6th place in my section.

To my surprise, a couple of days after the tournament finished, I had an email from the organisers to say that I’d actually won a prize: a share of a rating prize – totally unexpected, but a nice consolation given a less than impressive second day.

Games and analysis are here.

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