Project 50

Project 30 recently concluded and has now been replaced by Project 50, which promises to shine even more brightly.

Project 30, which was created as a celebration of my first 30 years of teaching chess in schools, brought five years of hugely enjoyable chess events, featuring players from novice juniors to Grandmasters. We even switched to online events during the lockdown years.

The mathematicians amongst us may have expected Project 30 to be replaced by Project 35.

In fact, the new project name marks 50 years since I received my first chess set. This was on Christmas morning, 1972. Shops had plenty of chess sets back then, as they riding on the wave of publicity created by the big World Chess Championship match between the reigning champion, Boris Spassky, and his challenger, Bobby Fischer.

Fischer's eccentricities, indulged by most of the world who just wanted to see him play, together with the context of USSR versus the USA, guaranteed big chess headlines throughout 1972.

I still consider Bobby Fischer to be the greatest of all chess players (so far), despite 50 years having flown by since he finally achieved his goal of becoming World Chess Champion.

There will be many events over the course of the year. Indeed, we have already had the inaugural Women's Invitation Tournament, which was a great success.

We have three main events which will run throughout the year and the 10 players have been confirmed.

David Baillie

Sean Cassidy

John Garnett

Peter Harker

Richard Harris

Matt Jackman

Sean Marsh

Stephen Ollis

Royce Parker

Kevin Waterman (Blitz and Rapidplay; not Classical)

Here are basics.

Rapidplay Tournament (All-play-all; two games against each opponent with 30 minutes on each clock. A 1-1 result does not require a tiebreaker. The champion will be the player with the most points.)

Blitz Event (All-play-all; 10 games against each opponent with five minutes on each clock. NO increments. Three points per match win; two points each if 5-5; one point per match defeat. All 10 games do not need to be played in a single sitting. The champion will be the player with the most match points, with 'goal difference' used as the tiebreaker - so please play all 10 games, even if the match has already been decided before then.)

Full-length games (36 moves in 90 minutes and then 15 extra minutes each for the remainder of the game. All-play-all; random draw for colours immediately prior to the game. Drawn games do not require a replay. The champion will be the player with the most points.)

All games will be unrated, so we can focus on the games themselves and enjoy chess without inhibitions.

Please arrange your games with each opponent (I won't do a formal round-by-round draw). Start as soon as you like.

The venue can be anywhere you like. Face-to-face chess is the default setting, but online encounters are OK if both players agree.

All three tournaments have a deadline of the end of May 2023.

Results Update

Rapidplay Tournament 

David Baillie 2-0 Royce Parker

Blitz Event

David Baillie 10-0 Royce Parker