Event Report
The ECF ran a 24 hour charity online chess marathon from 1st to 2nd June in aid of the British Red Cross’s Emergency Ukraine Appeal. Once again, the marathon proved hugely popular, with over 300 players taking part from the ECF open club on Chess.com. This year’s event included many grandmasters and international masters, providing a rare opportunity for hundreds of players at all levels to play opponents of the highest standard, including British champions and titled players from England and overseas.
GM Danny Gormally took an early lead on Friday afternoon but was overtaken by FM David Haydon who led throughout the night and into Sunday to win the event with an amazing total of 765 points scored with 206 wins, 21 draws and only 13 losses out of 240 games played. David was followed throughout by previous years’ winner Keith Arkell who led the chasing pack, with a final score of 650 points which was highly impressive but not enough to catch David this year. Jude Shearsby came in third on 455 points, followed closely by Like Lau in fourth on 421 points and Charlie Storey in fifth on 420 points.
The top 30 finishers were as follows:
| Number | Fed | Title | Name | Rating | Score |
| 1 | GBR | FM | David Haydon | 2645 | 765 |
| 2 | GBR | GM | Keith Arkell | 2392 | 650 |
| 3 | GBR | Jude Shearsby | 2255 | 455 | |
| 4 | HKG | Luke (Lut Yin) Lau | 2456 | 421 | |
| 5 | GBR | FM | Charles Storey | 2481 | 420 |
| 6 | GBR | IM | Matthew Wadsworth | 2607 | 361 |
| 7 | GBR | CM | Jan Murawski | 2264 | 329 |
| 8 | GBR | IM | Richard Pert | 2675 | 317 |
| 9 | SGP | CM | Junior Tay | 2264 | 307 |
| 10 | GBR | IM | Richard Bates | 2365 | 299 |
| 11 | GBR | NottheBishopSacrifice | 2343 | 297 | |
| 12 | GBR | Robert Starley | 2157 | 294 | |
| 13 | UKR | Andrii Cherepaniak | 2150 | 278 | |
| 14 | GBR | AIM Richard L Bowman | 1743 | 275 | |
| 15 | GBR | WFM | gobbles19 | 2248 | 228 |
| 16 | GBR | WFM | GEMdzq | 2268 | 228 |
| 17 | NOR | upoe610 | 2162 | 223 | |
| 18 | UKR | Vladimir Tushinsky | 2281 | 216 | |
| 19 | GBR | CarmelJane | 2024 | 214 | |
| 20 | GBR | FM | Grzegorz Toczek | 2436 | 201 |
| 21 | GBR | Tiger Tank | 2189 | 200 | |
| 22 | GBR | nasir rizvi | 2072 | 194 | |
| 23 | GBR | Andrew Brett | 2140 | 192 | |
| 24 | UKR | Tatarinov_Maxim | 2271 | 189 | |
| 25 | GBR | Andrew Grillage | 1874 | 179 | |
| 26 | GBR | Andrew McGettigan | 2069 | 174 | |
| 27 | FRA | Vincent S | 1990 | 166 | |
| 28 | GBR | Neil Druggan | 1708 | 164 | |
| 29 | UKR | GM | Mikhail Golubev | 2493 | 163 |
| 30 | GBR | Gary Fischer | 1753 | 157 |
You can find full details of the event at the link here:
https://www.chess.com/tournament/live/arena/ecf-charity-marathon-for-ukraine-3420293
There were over 6600 games played over the 24 hours, with a pgn download from the event at the link here:
The event was streamed live over the 24 hours and can be played back at https://www.twitch.tv/WIM_natasharegan – the stream was organised by WIM Natasha Regan and featured a top class commentary team.
Event Details
The English Chess Federation will once again be holding a 24-hour chess marathon in support of the British Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal.
Chess.com will host the online marathon from 5.00pm on Saturday 1st June to 5.00pm on Sunday 2nd June UK time (BST). You can register for the online marathon here – https://britchess.wufoo.com/forms/ecf-charity-marathon-for-ukraine-2024/.
Registration is free but only donors and fundraisers of £5.00 or more will be eligible for prizes. Place prizes will be awarded either over the internet (for licences and e-prizes) or dispatched anywhere in the UK (for physical/book prizes). Players will need to be a member of the ECF Open Club on Chess.com – https://www.chess.com/club/english-chess-federation. Join now for free to be kept posted on further tournament details and prizes.
The marathon will be a 24 hour Chess.com Arena tournament starting at 5.00pm UK time on Saturday 1st June at https://www.chess.com/play/arena/3420293 and running until 5.00pm on Sunday 2nd June.
You can join from 4.00pm onwards at the link above. As with all Chess.com Arena tournaments, you can play as much or as little as you like. You can even join late and/or leave and rejoin at any point for the duration of the event. The games are 5 minutes a side.
Everyone can donate with their entry as above or via the Red Cross Tiltify page here – https://tiltify.com/british-red-cross/english-chess-federation-marathon-2024. As well as accepting donations, the Tiltify page will allow you to fundraise via a personal event page as you take part in the tournament should you wish to provide additional support. All donations and funds raised will be paid direct to the British Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal to support their life saving response to the crisis.
Live Streaming
WIM Natasha Regan will host the first of four commentary streams across the 24 hours with a detailed schedule of additional hosts and guest to be provided shortly. We will have live coverage of the tournament at https://www.twitch.tv/wim_natasharegan
Streaming Schedule
| Time (UK) | Commentator 1 | Commentator 2 | Commentator 3 |
| 17:00 | GM Mickey Adams | WFM Kanwal Bhatia | |
| 18:00 | WGM Lan Yao | IM Harry Grieve | |
| 19:00 | Alexander Matlak | Oleksandr Prokhorov | Emil Filtenborg |
| 20:00 | IM Shreyas Royal | GM John Emms | WFM Sarah Longson |
| 21:00 | GM Danny Gormally | WFM Zoe Varney | |
| 22:00 | GM Gawain Jones | IM Tom Rendle | GM Peter Wells |
| 23:00 | CM Stanley Badacsonyi | CM Frankie Badacsonyi | Kenneth Hobson |
| 00:00 | FM Simon Bibby | Mike Harris | WIM Natasha Regan |
| 01:00 | BREAK | ||
| 02:00 | BREAK | ||
| 03:00 | BREAK | ||
| 04:00 | BREAK | ||
| 05:00 | BREAK | ||
| 06:00 | BREAK | ||
| 07:00 | WIM Natasha Regan | NI Matt Ball | Sean Marsh |
| 08:00 | FM Jonathan Blackburn | Eddie Ko | |
| 09:00 | GM Matthew Sadler | WIM Natasha Regan | |
| 10:00 | GM Matthew Sadler | Kamila Hryshchenko | Ana Williams |
| 11:00 | GM Jon Speelman | GM Jonathan Mestel | |
| 12:00 | GM Daniel King | GM Julian Hodgson | |
| 13:00 | IM Rich Pert | IM Matthew Wadsworth | |
| 14:00 | WIM Akshaya Kalaiyalahan | FM Jonathan Blackburn | |
| 15:00 | GM Eldar Gasanov | FM Freddy Gordon | WIM Natasha Regan |
| 16:00 | WFM Bodhana Sivanandan | GM David Norwood | IM Ali Mortazavi |
Additional Streams
(following the marathon separately from the main stream on Natasha Regan’s Twitch channel as above)
https://www.twitch.tv/booktrunk
Prizes
Prizes will be awarded to the highest placed players in the marathon based on points accumulated across the 24 hours. Players are eligible for a place prize where they have donated £5.00 or more in advance. Places will be as shown on the Chess.com tournament page for eligible players at the end of the tournament. As well as the main place prizes there will be a separate prize for highest placed junior ECF member/supporter and highest placed female ECF member/supporter.
We would like to thank our growing list of prize donors for their generous support, including —
Chess.com – https://www.chess.com – who are hosting the event and matching up to $1000 of donations.
Chessable – https://www.chessable.com/ – who are providing Chessable Pro Memberships and Course vouchers as place prizes.
Elk and Ruby – https://www.elkandruby.com – who are supplying various book prizes.
Chess and Bridge – https://chess.co.uk/ – who are providing e-gift voucher prizes for merchandise from the Chess and Bridge store.