UK Open Blitz Championship 2018

All the news, results and pictures from the finals here

QUALIFIERS for the Finals
Qualifier     Open Final         Women’s Final      
Belfast POL   Kamil Marchlewicz 2068 13            
  IRL   Michael Waters 2102 12½            
Birmingham ENG GM David Howell 2649 15 ITA   Samia Sheikh 1515  
  ENG IM Lawrence Cooper 2298 12 ITA   Syema Sheikh 1502  
Bristol ENG GM Nicholas Pert 2600 14½ LUX WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni 2047  
  CZE   Krystof Sneiberg 2004 12½ SCO   Alice Lampard 1736 7  
Cardiff ENG FM Marcus Harvey 2269 14½ WLS   Madeleine Smith 1176 8  
  POL FM Grzegorz Toczek 2241 11½            
Edinburgh SCO CM Andrew Green 2123 14 SVK WFM Svetlana Sucikova 2030 10½  
  SVK WFM Svetlana Sucikova 2030 10½ WLS WFM Suzy Cooke 1940 9  
London ENG IM Thomas Rendle 2427 13 FRA IM Sophie Milliet 2282 10½  
  ENG FM David Haydon 2348 12½ LAT   Madara Orlovska 2108 10  
Manchester ENG FM Joseph McPhillips 2242 13½ ENG WIM Natasha Regan 1968 8  
  LTU IM Gediminas Sarakauskas 2371 12 ENG WIM Zivile Sarakauskiene 2116  
Newcastle ENG GM Daniel Gormally 2503 15 ENG   Rayelynn Posadas   7  
  ENG IM James Adair 2307 13½ ENG   Agnieszka Milewska 1793  
Others           CHN   Yuting Fu 1856 9 2061
            ENG   Naomi Wei 1759 9 2006
            ENG WFM Sarah Longson 2023 2023

Note: If Sucikova elects to play in the Open Final, her Women’s Final place will go to –
LTU | WFM | Rasa Norinkeviciute | 1996 | 8½ | 1933

For a full report from the qualifiers with pictures – click here

RESULTS in full —

Belfast http://chess-results.com/tnr376198.aspx?lan=1&art=1&flag=30
Birmingham http://chess-results.com/tnr376199.aspx?lan=1&art=1&flag=30
Bristol http://chess-results.com/tnr376200.aspx?lan=1&art=1&flag=30
Cardiff http://chess-results.com/tnr376201.aspx?lan=1&art=1&flag=30
Edinburgh http://chess-results.com/tnr376202.aspx?lan=1&art=1&flag=30
London http://chess-results.com/tnr376203.aspx?lan=1&art=1&flag=30
Manchester http://chess-results.com/tnr376204.aspx?lan=1&art=1&flag=30
Newcastle http://chess-results.com/tnr376205.aspx?lan=1&art=1&flag=30

Category Prizewinners

Qualifier G Fed. Title Player Rating Points
Belfast A IRL   John Cairns 2015 11½
Birmingham A ENG IM Ameet Ghasi 2593 11½
  B ENG FM Michael Fernandez 1990
  C ENG   Shahab Quraishi 1638
  D ENG   Gheorghe Albu  
Bristol A ENG   Steven Jones 2012 12
  B ENG   Michael Ashworth 1904 9
  C ENG   Chirag Hosdurga 1561 8
Cardiff A WLS   Alex Bullen 2070 11½
  B WLS   Duncan MacDonald 1713 9
Edinburgh A ESP   David Escofet Martin 2195 10
  B SCO   Stewart Good 1473 8
London A VIE   Nghia Dong Bao 2421 12
  B ENG   Roman Mitra 2184 10½
  C ESP   Luis Ortiz Sanchez 1914
  D ENG   Oscar Pollock 1831
  E ENG   Naomi Wei 1759 9
  F ENG   Alexander Jamieson 1671
  G ENG   Alex Leslie 1576 8
  H ENG   Lucian Cox 1243 7
Manchester A ENG CM Alan Walton 2165 11
  B ENG   Robert Starley 1940 10
  C ENG   Kevin Ye 1634
Newcastle A ENG IM David Eggleston 2324 12
  B NED   Yichen Han 1860 9

There will be eight 15-round qualifying Swiss tournaments played in different cities around the United Kingdom on Saturday, 8th September. Eligible players will be able to enter one qualifying tournament of their choice. The top two players in each qualifier will qualify for the Final on 1st December 2018, played at a date and venue to be announced. The top two female players in each qualifier will qualify for a Women’s Final, held concurrently. Both Finals and the qualifiers combined will have a total prize fund in excess of £5,000

The qualifying venues are —

Belfast – The Pavilion, Stormont Stormont Estate, Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast BT4 3TA 
Birmingham – Quinborne Community Centre, Ridgacre Road, Quinton, Birmingham B32 2TW
Bristol – Bristol Grammar School, University Roadd, Bristol BS8 1SR
Cardiff – Radisson Park Inn Hotel, Cardiff North, Circle Way East, Llanederyn, Cardiff CF23 9XF
Edinburgh – Broughton High School, 29 East Fettes Avenue, Edinburgh EH4 1EG
London – The Rugby Portobello, 221 Walmer Road, London W11 4EY
Manchester – Ukrainian Social Club, 99 Castle St, Bolton BL2 1JP
Newcastle – The Royal Grammar School, Eskdale Terrace, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4DX

ENTRIES ARE NOW CLOSED …

PLEASE NOTE — Online entries for the 2018 UK Open Blitz will close at 4:30pm on Friday, 7th September. It will still be possible to enter in person on the day of the tournament, so long as you arrive before 10:30am, and subject to paying a £10 late entry surcharge.

Rules

Eligibility
There is no geographic or citizenship restriction on entry to this tournament.

Qualifying
There will be 8 qualifying tournaments held in different locations in the United Kingdom —

Qualifier Venue
Belfast The Pavilion, Stormont Stormont Estate, Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast BT4 3TA 
Birmingham Quinborne Community Centre, Ridgacre Road, Quinton, Birmingham B32 2TW
Bristol Bristol Grammar School, University Road, Bristol BS8 1SR
Cardiff Radisson Park Inn Hotel, Cardiff North, Circle Way East, Llanederyn, Cardiff CF23 9XF
Edinburgh Broughton High School, 29 East Fettes Avenue, Edinburgh EH4 1EG
London The Rugby Portobello, 221 Walmer Road, London W11 4EY
Manchester Ukrainian Social Club, 99 Castle St, Bolton BL2 1JP
Newcastle The Royal Grammar School, Eskdale Terrace, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4DX

The Newcastle venue will be in the centre of the city, and will be published in due course.
The entry fee is £20. Players may choose to play in any one of these qualifying tournaments.
All qualifiers will be played on Saturday, 8th September, 2018

Each qualifier will be a 15-round FIDE-rated Swiss tournament, with the following schedule —

Round Time Round Time Round Time
Round 1 11.00 Round 6 13.30 Round 11 16.00
Round 2 11.25 Round 7 13.55 Round 12 16.25
Round 3 11.50 Round 8 14.20 Round 13 16.50
Round 4 12.15 Round 9 14.45 Round 14 17.15
Round 5 12.40 Round 10 15.10 Round 15 17.40

In the event of a tie, the tie-breaks will be as follows —

1. Direct Encounter (if possible)
2. Median-Buchholz 2
3. Median-Buchholz
4. Buchholz
5. Tournament Performance Rating
6. Drawing of Lots

The top 2 players in each qualifier will qualify for the Final. The two highest-placed female players will qualify for the Women’s Final. If a female player finishes in the top 2 places, then she may choose whether to play in the Final or the Women’s Final.

If fewer than 2 women enter a qualifying event, then the highest-scoring female player(s) in any of the eight qualifiers who did not qualify will be invited to play in the Women’s Final. In the event of this being tied, then the player with the highest Tournament Performance Rating on that score will qualify. Players who do not participate in a qualifier will not be invited to play in the Final.

If fewer than 24 players enter a qualifying tournament, the ECF reserves the right to choose an alternative format for the tournament, and some of the above rules may be overridden as a result. If this happens, this will be communicated to all entrants to that particular qualifier.

Each qualifying tournament will be played as one Swiss system tournament. In addition to this, the players will be allocated a category of 16 players or part thereof based on their initial seeding. For example, if there are 48 entries to a qualifying tournament, then there will be three categories of 16, with players 1 to 16 in Category A, 17 to 32 in Category B and 33 to 48 in Category C. Where the number of entries is not a multiple of 16, the categories will have fewer than 16 players, and the higher categories will be larger. For example, if there were 50 entries to a qualifying tournament, then there will be four categories, and Category A and B will have 13 players, and Category C and D will have 12 players. The Organiser may vary from the above rules on categories only to prevent players of the same rating being assigned to different categories. At each qualifier, a list of players in each category shall be published as soon as practicable, but in all cases not later than the start of Round 6. A category prize of £50 will be awarded to the highest-scoring player in the group. In the event of a tie, the lower-rated player will win the prize. If more than one player has the same rating, then the prize money will be shared.

If a qualifier fails to confirm their place in a Final by a deadline specified by the Organiser, then that player will lose their qualifying place, and the next player in the ranking of that qualifier will be invited to replace them.

A player’s initial seeding will be determined in the following order —

1. FIDE Blitz Rating (September 2018)
2. FIDE Rapidplay Rating (September 2018)
3. FIDE Rating (September 2018)
4. Other Rating Assigned by the Organiser. This will normally be a player’s national rating. The rating assigned with this process will also be used to calculate a player’s Tournament Performance Rating as per the tie-breaks above.

The time limit will be all moves in 3 minutes plus 2 seconds per move.

Final & Women’s Final
The Finals will be played on Saturday, 1st December, 2018
The time limit will be all moves in 3 minutes plus 2 seconds per move.

The Finals will be a 16-player FIDE-rated Round Robin tournament, with the following schedule —

Round Time Round Time Round Time
Round 1 12.00 Round 6 14.15 Round 11 16.30
Round 2 12.20 Round 7 14.35 Round 12 16.50
Round 3 12.40 Round 8 14.55 Round 13 17.10
Round 4 13.00 Round 9 15.15 Round 14 17.30
Round 5 13.20 Round 10 15.35 Round 15 17.50

The pairings for the Finals will be drawn randomly in advance of the tournament.

In the event of a tie, the tie-breaks will be as follows —
1. Direct Encounter
2. Sonnenborn-Berger
3. Koya System
4. Tournament Performance Rating, calculated using the players’ ratings in the following order –

1. FIDE Blitz Rating (November 2018)
2. FIDE Rapidplay Rating (November 2018)
3. FIDE Rating (November 2018)
4. Other Rating Assigned by the Organiser. This will normally be a player’s national rating.
5. The tie will remain unbroken, and any prize money for the tied positions will be shared

The prize money will be as follows —

Position Final Women’s Final
1st £1000.00 £500.00
2nd £600.00 £300.00
3rd £400.00 £200.00
4th £300.00 £150.00
5-8th £200.00 £100.00
9-16th £100.00 £50.00

Explanation of Tie-Breaks Used
Please see the explanation of the tie-breaks as described in the FIDE Handbook here —
http://fide.com/fide/handbook.html?id=187&view=article

With regard to Buchholz tie-breaks, players may wish to also read Section F in the above link, regarding the handling of Unplayed Games.