This weekened just gone was the East Devon Congress, held in Exeter. I had to cancel any plans to go and play/ watch owing to work and a cold (yes, I'm a wimp!), so I'm writing this based on the report on the excellent ChessDevon website. From what I can tell there was a pretty reasonable turnout (36 entrants in the open), and the winners of the open were Graham Bolt, Paul Helbig, Dominic Gibbs, and David Sully, all of whom scored 4/5.
I know it's very much the case that I'm in a glass house throwing bricks here, but it's a little disappointing that there weren't more entries from Somerset players. As far as I can tell only Gerry Jepps was representing Somerset in the open, and there were far more people that travelled down from Bristol for the weekend to play. Maybe it's the case that it wasn't well advertised amongst clubs in Somerset, maybe a lot of the top players were busy/ had work commitments, or maybe it's the case that there were more entrants from Somerset entered lower sections. Anyways, grumble over, the guys who organise this deserve a lot of thanks.
The next tournament is the long Easter- weekend tournament held in Exmouth (Friday 2nd April- Mon 5th). I'll say from personal experience it's quite a tough schedule with 7 rounds over 4 days, but it nearly always has beautiful weather, and is walking distance from the beach, bars, and restaurants, so if you fancy a short holiday combined with some chess, I'd highly recommend it.
Entry form
Chess in Art Postscript: Raglafart in Retrospect
3 years ago
I'm an East Somerset (league) player and this is the first I've heard of the tournament. But it's not surprising given that I'd be looking at a 160 mile round-trip. Still, it should have been listed on the Somerset Chess website.
ReplyDeleteI had a very busy weekend and would have been unable to play even if I had known that the event was on. I've played it before and, had it have been at a different time then I would have made a good effort to play - it's a good event and tournaments in this area are so few and far between (as compared to almost all other areas of the country). I was most surprised to learn that the event was on and that I had no prior knowledge of it - I am keen to play as much chess as I can at the moment. Some targetted advertising in Somerset would, perhaps, have been better.
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