The 1st English Women’s Rapidplay was held on Saturday 2nd July 2011 at St. Paul’s Girls’ School in Hammersmith, London. This was the first event of its kind, but we hope that it is the start of many to come.
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| St. Paul's Girls' School |
This year, we decided to clash the tournament with the National Girls’ Chess Championships Final, which seemed counterproductive but the idea was to enable the younger girls to be inspired by the great players at the top. The younger girls were so honoured to be playing on a stage next to our strongest women and so i think the idea worked. Next year, they will get the chance to take part in the tournament themselves.
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| View from the balcony of the top boards |
Due to the short notice and announcements of the tournament, we did not expect the numbers for the event to be too high but I was still pleased with the turnout. Nineteen women of various strengths came together to battle it out in the fine venue that was St. Paul’s Girls’ School for the title of English Women’s Rapidplay Champion.
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| EWR and the NGCC |
The top seed was my fellow co-manager of women’s chess, Jovanka Houska with a rapidplay grade of 221 and our most active board 1 for the England Ladies Team. Other very strong competitiors were fellow England Ladies Teammates Dagne Ciuksyte, Meri Grigoryan, Natasha Regan and Kanwal Bhatia. To add to that we had WIM Sue Maroroa, fiancée of England No. 5 GM Gawain Jones and WFM Rasa Norinkevicuite, representing Lithiuania also playing, not in contention for the title, but for the prize money! This line-up felt stronger than our women’s Olympiad team!!
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| WFM Meri Grigoryan vs WGM/IM Dagne Ciuksyte |
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| WGM/IM Jovanka Houska vs WFM Kanwal Bhatia |
The first round saw two female prodigies – Maria and Anna Wang on the top two boards against our former England board one and board two. It was great to see two of our most talented players hold their own for a while against our country’s finest. Most of the results went according to grade, despite a few near upsets with just WIM Natasha Regan denying Jovanka from the full point in round 2 and showing fine endgame technique to draw with black.
Round four saw the big match ups on the top boards with our teammates all playing each other. This round saw WFM Meri Grigoryan conquer WGM/IM Dagne Ciuksyte and land on board 1 against Jovanka for round 5.
Credit has to be given to Zoe Varney, from Cumnor Chess Club, who, despite being the youngest and lowest graded player in the tournament gave WFM Kanwal Bhatia a scare in the first round. This made Zoe a girl to watch for the tournament and spectators looked on at her following games to see this girl in action. Another familiar name was Alicia Mason, a Wey Valley girl who made her name through Mike Basman’s tournaments and did well at his UK Chess Challenge.
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| Zoe Varney sporting her UKCC attire |
On the other end of the spectrum, we had the more experienced women who were very familiar with the chess scene and were back to support women’s chess. Lana Boztas, a regular at rapidplay tournaments and the mother of one of my former England Junior Teammates, Kenan Boztas was playing as well as Ayse Karel from Surbiton, another one from Mike Basman’s side of town. One lady was extremely happy to be playing in this tournament, not only because she could watch proudly as her daughter, Harriet, gave the extremely well received coaching for the day, but because she was a Paulina and used to go to the school many years ago! Caro Hunt was very overwhelmed being back in her old school and very much enjoyed being part of the tournament.
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| Caro Hunt - former Paulina and mother of Harriet and Adam |
The last two rounds were very tense at the top and going into round 5, Meri Grigoryan was the sole leader of the tournament and it was time to face Jovanka. Meanwhile, Anna Wang had just won three in a row to be on a board high enough to face Tash Regan. Whilst Jovanka got the better of Meri, Tash was surprised that such a small girl could play such good chess and gave Anna a good scalp! This left Jovanka on 4.5/5 and Meri, Sue, Anna and Dagne going into the last round.
The tournament was fantastic to watch and I wish I had got a chance to play, but I was busy running the National Girls’ Final. I know that our current top female Harriet Hunt would have loved to have played if she wasn’t coaching, so hopefully we can get her in it next year. Other spectators such as Mike Basman stayed throughout and was fully supportive of women’s chess.
I had a fab time just hanging out with the girls as it has been such a long time since there has been this many at one tournament!
The prizewinners for the event were as follows:
1st place and English Women’s Rapidplay Champion:
Jovanka Houska 5.5/6 (£200 + Crystal Trophy and Championship Trophy)
2nd place: Meri Grigoryan 5/6 (£120)
3rd place: Dagne Ciuksyte 4/6 (£20)
Zivilie Sarakauskiene 4/6 (£20)
Sue Maroroa 4/6 (£20)
Kanwal Bhatia 4/6 (£20)
Alice Tissot 4/6 (£20)
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| Zivile, Dagne and Alice collecting their prizes |
Best Junior: Anna Wang 4/6 (£50)
(and 3rd =)
Best Sport: Zoe Varney (Best Sport Trophy)
I would like to thank everyone for coming to support this tournament. In particular, those of the top players who actually PAID to enter this tournament. Most of them will not be used to doing this as they get invited everywhere, but it was much appreciated. We hope that if we can get sponsorship for the event, then the top players can get invited!
Thank you so much to WGM/IM Harriet Hunt who provided everyone with free coaching for the day and provided a lecture in the beautiful singing hall. St. Paul’s Girls’ School were fantastic hosts and we were really privileged for being in such a prestigious venue. We were even honoured enough to have the High Mistress, Claudia Farr and Deputy Head, Kate Clanchy to make the closing announcements and present the prizes.
I would also like to thank Sainbayar Tserendorj who was the arbiter for the day and ran the event extremely smoothly and there were no disputes or problems throughout the day! Must be a first!
Thank you to IM Adam Hunt for his assistant arbiting throughout the day and also to my parents who supported me and helped do the catering for the event.
A final big thanks to Jovanka Houska to has helped me plan and run this event and even more for winning it! Jovanka made the kindest gesture I have ever seen in women’s chess and she donated half of her prize money back to women’s chess to help this and the National Girls’ Chess Championships run again next year. I am so lucky to have a co-manager with this generosity.
Many thanks again to all those who came and I hope to see more of you next year when it won’t clash with the National Girls’ Chess Championships!
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