British Rapidplay Chess Championships

The British Rapidplay Chess Championships was a rapid play chess congress held in the UK annually since 1986 (with the exception of 1993)until. Dec 20th 2022.It was under the auspices of the English Chess Federation. but never was funded underwritten nor sponsored by the ECF . The UK's premier weekend rapidplay congress included The British Rapidplay Championship which was open to all players, and several grading restricted and junior tournaments. The tournament took place over two days and consisted of 11 rounds of chess . There were Open, Major, Intermediate, Minor and Junior categories with arbiters for each section.The event has been held in Leeds, Bradford and Halifax over the years.

• The Open winner in 2010 was Grandmaster (GM) David Howell, scoring 10½/11.
• The 25th anniversary event took place at Leeds Metropolitan University, Headingley, Leeds on 19 and 20 November 2011. The Open winner was GM Gawain Jones scoring 10½/11 points.
• The 2012 event took place again at the L.M.U. on 24 and 25 November. The winner was Jonathan Hawkins IM with 9/11.
• The 2013 event was played on 23 and 24 November at Leeds Metropolitan University, Headingley[1] and was won by GM Mark Hebden with 9.5/11.
• The 2014 event took place on 1 and 2 November and saw Jonathan Hawkins G.M. win with 10.5/11. Leeds Beckett University was the venue and saw a good turnout in all the main events. The event saw its 20th consecutive year under the British Rapidplay Chess Organization - Secretary B.Kitson, Treasurer S.Burton, Website S.Forbes, Honorary President M.Dow.
• The 2015 event took place at Leeds Beckett University on 31 October and 1 November.

The Joint Winners were G.M. Mark Hebden and I.M. Ameet Ghasi .

• The 2016 event took place on 12 and 13 November 2016 at Temple Moor High School,Leeds

The Joint Winners of the thirtieth anniversary event were I.M. Lorin D'Costa and I.M. Richard A Bates on 9/11 .

• The 2017 event took place on 18 and 19 November at The Craiglands Hotel, Ilkley .

The winner of The Open was the Spanish G.M. Daniel Alsina Leal with 8/10....

• The 2018 event took place on 24 and 25 November at The Craiglands, Ilkley The winner was I.M.Gediminas Sarakauskas with 9.5/11
• The 2019 event took place in Pudsey Civic Hall on 23 and 24 November 2019 .The Joint Winners on 8.5/11 were Stephen J Gordon GM and David J Egglestone I.M.
• The 2020/21 event has been moved to Nov 26th-Nov 27th 2022 due to COVID-19 and was due to take place at..Trinity University Horsforth. It was however

postponed in 2022 due to illness and ongoing COVID possibilities.The website below is no longer being maintained as the ECF have taken back the auspices and have demanded that the title British Rapidplay is no longer used ..The event is now under the ECF 4NCL BICC whose CEO is Mike Truran .It is now underwritten by the ECF.The organizers have met and have retitled the event which is completely open to all players The Yorkshire Open Chess Rapidplay.Y.O.R.C..The new event is open to all UK players.It will take place on

Sunday 26 November 2023...It will be initially be a one-day six round event ..the old event website below is defunct.It provides historical data still.

The new website is currently being formulated on yorc.uk