Usually an over-the-board event, Hastings International Chess Congress has been forced by Covid to go online for the second year running. Here from the 2018/19 event.

Covid forces Hastings chess tournament to go online again

Hastings International Chess Congress, normally held over the New Year, was cancelled due to Covid but an online event is to be arranged for April. Nick Terdre reports.

Hastings International Chess Congress (HICC), first held in 1895 and traditionally scheduled over New Year, had to be cancelled this year due to uncertainties over the Covid situation, but the organiser, backed by Hastings Borough Council and chief sponsor Caplin Systems, has announced that an online event will be held on the weekend of 9 and 10 April.

The Masters event will be open to grandmasters and international masters who have played at Hastings or have some connection to the tournament. The organiser is looking to sign up 28-36 participants.

The competition will use the usual Swiss system, with winners matched against other winners and losers against losers. But with 11 rounds to be crammed into two days, it will be a rapid play event, with each player having an initial 15 minutes plus a 10-second increment on making each move.

A prize of £1,500 will be awarded to the winner and £1,000 to the runner-up. Third placed to eighth placed players will also get a cash prize, dropping by £100 a place from £700 down to £200. All the other players will receive £100. A prize of £750 will go to the best placed female player.

An online event will enable HICC to put to good use the sponsorship money put up by Caplin before the over-the-board arrangement had to be cancelled, chairman Marc Bryant told HOT. But he is looking forward to reverting to over-the-board for the 2022/23 event.

There had been some discussion about whether the next competition should be moved to Easter, but in the end the traditional schedule prevailed, beginning just after Christmas and ending in the New Year. In addition to the Masters for top players, Hastings holds various other tournaments in parallel which regularly attract several hundred players, including many from overseas.

The first Hastings online tournament took place last year, again because Covid made an over-the-board competition impossible, and was won by leading English GM David Howell. Twelve players took part.

Also in: Sport