UK Open Blitz Finals

The finals for the UK Open Blitz Championships 2023 will be held at the Woodland Grange, Leamington Spa on 2nd December. The Championships will include an Open and a Women’s final, each event having 16 players with 15 rounds of blitz games in an all play all format. The winners will become UK Open and Women’s Blitz Champions for 2023.

Qualifying players are currently as shown below for the two finals —

Hotel Bookings
Players wishing to book accommodation at the Woodland Hotel for the nights of 1st and/or 2nd December should contact Reservations/Woodland Grange Tel: 01926 336621. Please let the hotel know that you will be staying in order to take part in the ECF chess championship so that you are provided with the preferential rate.

Format
The finals will be a 16-player FIDE-rated Round Robin tournament. The time limit will be all moves in 3 minutes plus 2 seconds per move 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.

Tie-breaks
In the event of a tie after round 15, 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. Higher of FIDE or ECF Blitz Rating (December 2023)
2. Higher of FIDE or ECF Rapidplay Rating (December 2023)
3. Higher of FIDE or ECF Standardplay Rating (December 2023)
4. Other Rating assigned by the Organiser. This will normally be a player’s national rating.

5. The tie will remain unbroken, and any awards or prize money for the tied positions will be shared

Prizes
The prize money for the finals will be as follows —

Position	Open Final	Women’s Final
1st	£800	£400
2nd	£400	£200
3rd	£300	£150
4th	£200	£100
5th – 8th	£150 (x4)	£75 (x4)
9th – 16th	£100 (x8)	£50 (x8)
Total	£3,100	£1,550

Total prize fund – £4650

Where to follow the games
Pairings and results for the Championships will be available at these links —
Open Championship – https://chess-results.com/tnr851244.aspx?lan=1
Women’s Championship – https://chess-results.com/tnr851246.aspx?lan=1&art=1&flag=30

All games will be played on live boards and broadcast via the DGT cloud and online providers as follows —

DGT Livechess Cloud
Open Blitz 2023 (UK Blitz Championship Open Final 2023) – https://view.livechesscloud.com#78a3fabc-c75c-41fc-ade4-87908542c7ee
Women Blitz 2023 (UK Blitz Championship Women Final 2023) – https://view.livechesscloud.com#d63a360b-ac5b-4d72-a1ae-cb6e5568f6a4

Lichess
Open – https://lichess.org/broadcast/uk-blitz-championship-open-final-2023/round-1/IVIdHrg5
Women – https://lichess.org/broadcast/uk-blitz-championship-women-final-2023/round-1/GEw8Nckx

Chess.com
https://www.chess.com/events/info/2023-uk-blitz-championship-final

Commentary

WIM Natasha Regan will be providing commentary on the live board broadcasts from the finals on her Twitch channel – https://www.twitch.tv/WIM_natasharegan – starting with Round 2 at 12.20pm on Saturday and running until the end of Round 15 at about 6.30pm. Natasha will be joined by a top level commentary team with the detailed schedule as follows —

12.20pm – 2.00pm – Rounds 2-5 – Stanley Badacsonyi and WIM Natasha Regan
2.15pm – 4.15pm – Rounds 6-10 – GM Matthew Sadler and WIM Natasha Regan
4.30pm – finish (around 6.30 pm) – Rounds 11-15 –  GM Peter Wells and WIM Natasha Regan

Do tune in to join Natasha and colleagues so that you can follow the action as the event progresses during the afternoon.