Largs Congress

[Gary McPheator]

I am happy to announce the return of the Largs Congress after a 15 year hiatus. Part of the Viking Chess Festival, we are hoping that the congress will once again be a regular tournament on the Scottish circuit.

Venue

Vikingar, Greenock Road, Largs, KA30 8QL

Dates

Friday 13th - Sunday 15th September 2013

Tournaments

Open
Major (1850 and under)
Minor (1450 and under)

Time Control

4 hour sessions, 2 hours per player for all moves.

Playing Sessions

Round 1 - 6:45pm to 10:45pm
Round 2 - 11:15pm to 3:15pm
Round 3 - 4:15pm to 8:15pm
Round 4 - 11:15pm to 3:15pm
Round 5 - 4:15pm to 8.15pm

Entry Fees

£25 for all tournaments.

Family discount of £5 per each additional family member eg. 3 family entrants - £25 +£20 + £15 = £60

Entry fees to be paid at registration before Rounds 1 and 2.

Prizes

1st -£150
2nd - 5th - £50
2 x Grading - £25

Prizes will not be split and a tiebreak will be used to seperate those on the same score.

Prizes will be given out at the end of play in Round 5.

Entries to Gary McPheator

By email - <!-- e --><a href="mailto:gmcp3@hotmail.com">gmcp3@hotmail.com</a><!-- e -->
By phone - 07411196422 between the hours of 10am to 10pm each day

information required will be name, tournament, pnum, grade, contact details and whether or not a 1/2 point bye is required which is on offer in any round except the last.

Closing date for entries is Wednesday 11th of September 2013

Arbiters

We are very pleased to have Alex McFarlane, John McNicoll and David Deary as arbiters at this year's congress.

Facilities

There will be an analysis room set up in the Winter Garden Cafe where refreshments and snacks will be available. While there will be no meals on offer, the venue is happy for entrants to bring their own food (even takeaway) and eat in this area. Alternatively, there are plenty of eating venues close by.

There is a swimming pool available for those feeling like some exercise, ask at reception for details

The building has been designed to ensure that all facilities are fully accessible for wheelchair users.

Conditions

The organiser reserves the right to:

Increase or decrease prize money or number of prizes
Transfer entrants between tournaments
Split or merge events depending on numbers entered
Withold prizes from ungraded players if they play in a tournament below their known strength
Take any other mesure deemed necessary to ensure the smooth running of the congress.

We look forward to welcoming you all to Largs!

[Gary McPheator]

ENTRIES DEADLINE EXTENSION

I will be taking entries for the Largs Congress up until 5pm on Friday 13th September by email and by telephone, so there is still time to take part!

[Gary McPheator]

Largs Viking Festival Junior Prize

I am pleased to announce that the Largs Viking Festival have donated a replica Lewis Chessmen set. This will be awarded to the best performing junior at this year's congress. All players classed as juniors by Chess Scotland shall be eligible and the winner will be decided by their performance against their live grade at the start of the tournament.

[robin moore]

Every so often you have a brammer of a game that is a total pleasure to be involved in. Today was one of them in my round 3 game at the Largs congress v Phil Thomas. A terrific game where Phil completely outplayed me until I managed to surround his king with my remaining bits but, short of time, couldn't finish him off. We lost track of the possible combinations in our quick analysis. Phil hopefully can update us.

[Phil Thomas]

Totally agree with Robin here. Enough chess in this game to last for half a tournament or more.
I have not studied the game properly yet but I have fed it to a silicon monster (Sorry Mr Chandler you are right but I have 2 more games today and time is limited). The machine tells us that Robin was ahead between 29 .... Kg7? and 39 Kg3. Most of the time by much less than half a pawn.
Between moves 30 and 36 I was expecting to lose.
Strangely the one clear win for Robin was at move 39 (Rg7+)

[Gary McPheator]

I am sure Geoff will be fine with using your computer Phil, just like he is with the words Lewis and chessmen appearing next to each other. There will be no steam coming out of ears or blood boiling at all!

[andyburnett]

Geoff will likely be annoyed well before reaching the 'engine' stage - his first peeve will be that you're discussing a game that none of us can see. Post the game please!

[RFRASER]

Well done to Gary and his team it was a good congress and I enjoyed myself. The venue was great and not too hot, cold or cramped. The time control seemed easier to manage, there is something to be said for keeping things simple. I heard a couple of grumbles about the tiebreaks but I thought the system was fine. It was a nice touch getting the Isle of Lewis set for a Junior prize. I spoke to Caitlin after the event and she really appreciated it, I think in a lot of ways these sort of prizes mean more than the money and I would like to see more of them. My fear for this congress assuming it is still in the same room is that when the numbers go up in future years the playing area will lose the spacious feel we enjoyed this year. Finally thanks to Phil Thomas for giving us a lift to the station on the Sunday you got us to our train in the nick of time.

[William Hulme]

Have to concur with Roland - great venue (when the lights came up!!) and very relaxed & enjoyable to play in. Unfortunately, this means I need to come up with some other excuse for me playing like mince all weekend! I can't even say it's my age as a very youthful and competitive Jim MacRae puts us all to shame!

The junior prize was indeed a great idea and very well deserved fantastic performance by Caitlin!
Thanks to Gary, Alex and the team running Largs - I'll be back next year.

[robin moore]

A great venue, spacious, comfortable and right on the sea front. I would guesstimate that 100 players could be accommodated without any issues. As has been mentioned, a nice touch by the organisers for the junior prize, thoroughly deserved by Caitlin. Special mention for Mike Mitchell and William Clinton who had fantastic results. Congratulations to the organisers for a very enjoyable event.