A British Tradition

Chess congress heralded a success
By Richard Morris

Organisers of the Hastings International Chess Congress have heralded this year’s event as a huge success.

More than 20 grandmasters from around the world took part in the main tournament and for the third year in a row Valerij Neverov finished in joint first place.

The Ukrainian was tied at the top with Vadim Malakhatko and Nidjat Mamedov and the three players will share the £5,000 prize money.

Six players finished in joint fourth place, including English players Gawain Jones, Nicholas Pert and Glenn Flear. These half dozen will split a prize pot of £2,400.

The highest placed female player was woman grandmaster Jovanka Houska while the best ranking non-grandmaster was Robert Eames.

Jack Rudd was given £100 and a trophy after scooping the brilliancy prize for his performance against the greek player Evangelos Kakkanas.

Martyn Goodger was also on top form, winning a trophy for best performance relative to FIDE ratings and best performance relative to FIDE rating under 2,200.

Elsewhere Robert Eames and Gavin Lock both qualified for the British Championships.

Congress Director Con Power congratulated all the players, saying the standard of play at this year’s tournament had been as high as ever.

He said: “The number of players was up on last year and the quality was high with more than 20 grandmasters on show.

Here is the full article.