The 92nd Tradewise Hastings International Chess Congress ended on Thursday 5th January 2017 with a prize giving ceremony attended by Cllr. Judy Rogers, Mayor of Hastings, Mr Wayne Bradshaw, Marketing Director of Tradewise Insurance Services and Dominic Lawson, President of the English Chess Federation. The prizegiving was preceded by a reception hosted by the Trustees of Horntye Park Sports Complex.
The entries were on a par with last year despite the travel disruption on some days. 26 countries were represented with 11 GM’s 12 IM’s, 1 WGM and 3 IM’s participating. GM Chris Ward held a junior coaching session which proved popular and his daily commentary was well received as ever. GM Matthew Sadler came down and joined Chris in the commentary room where he also took time to talk about his new book Chess for Life co-written with Natasha Regan. Hastings was blessed with dry and sunny weather on all days but one which always makes it a more pleasant experience and those accompanying the players were able to spend time outside the venue and seeing something of Hastings.
After several round of drawn, but exciting games and a host of players having the same number of points, Indian Grandmaster Deep Sengupta was the clear winner with 7/9 points. He was presented with the Golombek Trophy and first prize of £2,000. His name already appears on the trophy from when he tied with Arghyadip Das for first prize in 2010/11 but won on tie-break.
Second equal with 6½ points from 9 were the following, who shared 2nd prize of £1,200 —
IM Miklos Galyas (HUN), IM R Praggnanandhaa (IND), GM Bogdan Lalic (ENG), IM Arghyadi Das (IND) FM Ravi Haria (ENG)
Seventh equal with 6 points were —
GM SP Sethuraman (IND), GM Aleksandr Fier (BRA), GM Ben Gledura (HUN), GM Murali Karthikeyan (IND), GM Allan Stig Rasmussen (DEN) and IM Justin Tan (AUS) – they shared the £750 3rd prize.
IM Norms were achieved by FM Ravi Haria and Danish FM Mads Hansen …
More details to follow …