The 25th Teignmouth Rapidplay Congress has been held at Trinity School. Teignmouth deputy mayor Cllr David Weekes and the president of Teignmouth Chess Club, John Simons, officially opened the competition, regarded as the best rapidplay congress in the west country. The president thanked Cllr Weekes and Teignmouth Town Council for continuing support for the congress. He thanked Trinity School for providing an excellent venue and said that the school continued to improve its support facilities and the playing areas. The event was extremely successful, with 25 players in the Open, 37 players in the graded section and 49 in the Junior section. With the return of international chess master James Sherwin (Bristol) in a bid to win his third successive title, he was the outstanding favourite. However it was Graham Bolt (Exeter) who took the only win from James Sherwin, in the third round, by an early winning exchange of Sherwin's' rook for Bolts' bishop. This caused problems for Sherwin and he needed more analysis time, which eventually put him under time pressure and he finally conceded the loss. Bolt had two difficult matches against Robin Kneebone and his 15-year-old son Jeremy, from Penwith, Cornwall, in the fourth and fifth rounds, where he only managed two draws. A win against either would have secured him the title outright. Open Joint winners James T Sherwin 212R (Bath) 5/6; Graham Bolt 175S (Exeter). winners of Walker Cup Grading prizes: U-150 Joint Winners Brain Gosling 149S (Sidmouth/Exmouth) 4/6 William Ingham 142S (Teignmouth C. C.). U-140 Joint winners Steve Dean 129R (Sidmouth) 3/Chris McKinney 135R (Sedgemore, Taunton) Wayne Batt 120R (Umberleigh, North Devon) Major: (players Under 120 Grade) 1= John Morris 96R (Okehampton, North Devon) 5/6 Robert Thompson 97R (St Marychurch C.C., Torquay), Gavin Whelan 106S (Totnes C.C.). Joint winners of Major Cup * Grading Prizes: U-90 Joint winners Raymond Hood 87S (Exeter) 4/6 John George 79R (Wimborne, Dorset) U-75: Joint winners Ronald Green 70R (Brixham), Michael Ward 100S (Met. Office, Exeter).
Other Prizes U-16 winner Jeremy Kneebone (Penwith, Cornwall) U-14. Joint winners Callumn Picken (Torquay Boys' G.S.), Timothy Seah (Torquay Boys' G.S.). Team Prize: Cornwall beat Exmouth on progressive count back tie-brake.10 teams competed. Winning team consisted of Robin Kneebone, Jeremy Kneebone and Simon Bartlett. Score 12/18. The junior section included a number of graded juniors, which is an indication that more, younger juniors are playing English Chess Federation graded games. The eventual winner was decided in the final round, sixth game, between Nicola Sillifant and Teignmouths' Laurens Stegink. It was an excellent game with Nicola winning to take the title. Nicola is the first girl to have won the Junior Section. She started with a draw against Jordan Ricketts but did not drop a game after. Jordan dropped his third round game against Bradley White from Whiltshire, which took him out of contention. Nathaniel Cleland, from Dorset, under nine years of age, scored a splendid result of four wins from six games. U-12 winner Nicola Sillifant (Broadclyst) 5.5/6, joint second George Darling (Churston Chess Club) 5/6, Charlie Blake (Broadclyst) Laurens Stegink (Teignmouth). U-11 winner Charlie Blake (Broadclyst) 5/6. U-9 winner Nathaniel Cleland (Sturminster Newton, Dorset) 4/6 Best girl Nicola Sillifant (Broadclyst) Team prize: winners Broadclyst Scoring 1318. Winning team consisted of Nicola Sillifant, Jordan Rickets and Poppy Facer. Second place was also a Broadclyst team scoring 12.5/18 comprising Marc Sillifant, Charlie Blake and Jack Langdon.