The South West Chess Festival, featuring the Open and Rapid tournaments took place on the weekend of 14/15 September. Once again, the down south tournament attracted many players with 40 in total taking part. The newly intoduced Rapid was a great success with several local kids and unrated adults taking the opporturnity to take part in a chess tournament for the first time. Such was the enthusiaim that maybe an Allegro will be considered next year! With most lower rated players opting for the Rapid, the Open was quite a strong tournament with many closely matched games. Tim Hare held of the challengers to take his first South West Open since winning the first reboot event of 2021. Congratulations to all of the following: Tim Hare - Winner of the South West Open 2024 with a score of 5.5/6 Michael Molenaar and Allan Miller - joint WA Country Champions Seamus Maclaughlin - Winner of the South West Rapid 2024 with a perfect score of 6.0/6 Special mention to Florentyna Rithauddin who played well above her rating and finished on 3.5/6 Report kindly provided by the SW Open Organiser Ian McAteer. |