Juniors and veterans shine at North East rapidplay

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(Newcastle Chronicle, 21 June 2024)

The annual Northumberland and Durham Rapidplay Championships attracted a strong field last Saturday, with players of all ages and strengths taking part.

The championships, held at the Forest Hall Social Club in Palmersville, included separate tournaments for adult and junior players, and resulted in wins for Charlie Storey (Morpeth) and Lev Drobiazko (Gosforth), respectively.

The Open Championship was won by Storey with 6/6, ahead of David Walker (Leam Lane) on 5. In joint third place were Bill Wilson (Hartlepool), Fedir Dyshliuk and Ian Chester (Gosforth), John Marsh (Leam Lane), Hanif Zaman and Raj Mohindra (Forest Hall) on 4 points.

The Major Championship was shared four ways between Chester, Marsh, Zaman and Mohindra, while the Minor Championship was shared by James Flint (Newcastle University), Long Phan (Newcastle), Heorhii Polonskyi (Gosforth) and Michael Smalley (Newcastle) on 3 points.

In the Junior (Under 18) competition, all four top places were occupied by Gosforth players: Drobiazko (8 points out of 10), Jiatong Wu (7.5) and brothers Gautham and Sanjay Sathishkumar (both 7.5).

The Rapidplay Championships are one of many events going on in the North East this summer. The fourth round of the Northumberland Summer Cup takes place in the next few days, with six matches at Gosforth Empire Club on Monday 24 June, and three more matches at The Old George, Newcastle on Wednesday 26 June.

The Northumberland County Team will play at Newark, Nottinghamshire, in the National Open Counties Final on Saturday June 29, where they take on Surrey. Northumberland will be trying to emulate their previous title win in the competition in 2022.

The Northumberland and Durham Blitz Championships will take place at The Word in South Shields on Sunday 7th July. Entries are being accepted by Eddie Czestochowski at: eddie@southshieldschessclub.com.

North East juniors will also be in action in the EJCOA National Youth Championships in Nottingham over the weekend of 5-7 July, and the following Sunday, July 14, Gosforth Junior Chess Club is hosting a junior tournament open to all players under 18 at St Mary’s Catholic School, Longbenton. For more details, contact: mickriding@hotmail.co.uk.

The big event at the end of summer is the Northumbria Masters, which this year is being held at the Dolphin Centre, Darlington, from August 22-26. There are three different FIDE rated tournaments for North East players to enter, and entries are being taken at: https://northumbriamasters.com.

PUZZLES

Puzzle A: White to play and win

Puzzle B: Black to play and win

Puzzle C: White to play and win

Puzzle D: Black to play and win

ANSWERS:

A: 1 Qxf6+! Kxf6 2 Nd7+.
B: 1…Rd2! 2 Qxd2 Nxf3+.
C: 1 Rxh6! gxh6 2 Qg6+ Kf8 3 Nh7 checkmate.
D: 1…Nb3+! 2 axb3 Rfc8+ 3 Bc3 Rxc3+! 4 bxc3 Ba3 checkmate.