Prestwick Congress 2013 is moving to Ayr

[David G Congalton]

The initial allocation of special rate rooms has been filled.

However the Mercure Ayr have kindly allocated a further 10 single rooms and 10 twin/double rooms each night at the special rates found elsewhere in this thread. Any rooms not booked before the 07.04.13 will be released.

Any rooms required after this date this will be subject to availability.

[Linda McCusker]

For information, I have been in touch with the Mercure Hotel Ayr and received the following price for a family room. For the two adults sharing the charge is £74 for double occupancy. Andrew and Kirsty are being charged £10 each per day for breakfast giving a grand total of £94 per night. Given the standard of the hotel I thought this was quite a good price though I will be making sure that Andrew and Kirsty eat a massive breakfast to get my £10 worth!!! =)

[David G Congalton]

Only a few days until the Ayr Congress and the introduction of incremental time controls to the sleepy waters of Scottish Weekend Congress Chess. Hopefully, the live boards will be working too.

Assuming I survive the cold I'm currently laid low with (pause for sympathy), I will be accepting entries by telephone up until 10pm on Thursday night. If you haven't entered by then or your name does not appear on the congress entrants lists, you'll need to get to Ayr early on the Friday afternoon to have any chance of playing.

E-mail is probably the best bet for entries up to early Friday morning. I'll do a final e-mail check about 11am and update the entrants lists.

If your name is not on the list just now then I haven't received your entry and you may want to drop me an e-mail.

Time for some medicine and sleep I think.

[David G Congalton]

The control team for this weekend will be Andy Howie, John McNicoll, Paul MacDonald and myself.

The board one colours for each section will be determined by the results of the first round of the FIDE Grand Prix series in Thessaloniki, Greece. The first round is scheduled for Wednesday, the 22nd of May.

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If the number of drawn games is an odd number then the higher ranked player will have white on board one of the Ayr Congress Open, Major and Minor sections. If the number of drawn games is an even number (including zero) then the lower graded player will have white.

[David G Congalton]

Looks like we're not the only show in town this coming weekend.

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[David Deary]

Something for everyone there... Fortunately, the football season is over as Ayr have been dross this season.

Seriously though, good Luck to everyone who is playing. I'm gutted that I'll be missing it. Also, congrats to David on what looks set to be another fantastic Congress.

I'll be keeping my eyes peeled from Englandshire for the results and live boards.

[David G Congalton]

Huge thanks to David D for his help and support in the two previous years and in the run up to this year. I'd have given up after the first one if it wasn't for the assistance and support of others.

Fingers crossed for live boards.

Will try to update scores on a regular basis throughout the weekend.

[David G Congalton]

Three games were drawn in the first round of the FIDE Grand Prix series in Thessaloniki, Greece, so the higher ranked player will be white on board one in the Ayr Congress Open, Major and Minor sections, with the rest of the section draws being made accordingly, i.e the higher ranked player on board two will have the black pieces in the first round.

[David G Congalton]

New pages added to the website for each tournament section.

Deadline for entries -

Telephone - No later than 10pm on Thursday, May 23rd.

E-Mail - No later than 10am on Friday, May 24th.

Post - Think it will be too late now to post entries.

To allow for the smooth organisation of the event, no entries will be accepted after 10am on Friday, May 24th.

[David G Congalton]

Parking - there are a limited number of hotel car park spaces.

There are plenty of other parking options. The multi-storey car park next to the hotel is normally 50p an hour but does close at 7pm on Friday and Saturday and at 5.30pm on the Sunday.

For those who don't mind a 5 to 10 minute walk I would suggest the free car parks near Cromwell Road.

A full list of Ayr Car Parks with opening times and prices can be found at <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk/parking/carpark_prices.aspx">http://www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk/parkin ... rices.aspx</a><!-- m -->

An interactive map of parking in Ayr can be found here - <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk/parking/parking_maps.aspx">http://www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk/parkin ... _maps.aspx</a><!-- m -->

Ayr will be busy at the weekend, so please plan your journey to give you plenty time to park and enjoy the short walk to the venue. The forecast for the weekend is sunny. =)