August 21, 2022
The ECF are holding another UK Blitz championship in December. The last one was in 2019. The North East qualifier tournament will be held at The Parks Leisure Centre, Howdon Road, North Shields NE29 6TL on 11th September with the first round due to start at 11 am. It will be a 15 round Swiss tournament with 3 minutes plus a 2 second increment per game. Entry fee is £24. Mick Riding is organising.
The top two finishers will qualify for the finals. Cash prizes are modest. The winner gets £50, then every top player in each group of 16 players also gets £50 as a sort of grading prize. So, if there are 50 entries then the highest finishers in positions 17 to 32, 33 to 48 and 49 to 50 will each receive £50.
More details on the ECF website – UK Blitz Championships 2022 – English Chess Federation. Entry form – UK Open Blitz 2022 (wufoo.com).
In 2019, the last time the ECF ran this tournament, I held a warm-up event on the Thursday before at South Shields chess club. I plan to do the same this year. As last time, the warm up event will be 9 rounds, no entry fee, no prizes and FIDE rated. More details once I’ve registered it with FIDE and the ECF