Played at All Saints Church, Kingston, 30 March 2025
Peter Large won the 12th edition of the All Saints Blitz with a perfect score of 5/5. He has won the event each of the five times he has entered. There were 16 entrants spanning a range of expertise from beginner to international master.
Peter is at the peak of his career, having been a key member of the England over-65 team which this season won both the World and the European titles. He enjoys playing chess and it is a credit to the All Saints Blitz that he is participating.
For the first time, we played not in silence but to the accompaniment of the organ where we were treated to a practice session of church music written by the blind French composer Jean Langlais. Some players were able to screen out the music, others found it uplifting, whilst a minority found it interfered with their concentration. One person compared it favourably with the Irish folk music at the Willoughby Arms.
Peter Large said that none of the games was easy. Even in the first round, when his opponent turned up late, Peter was happy to be paired with FM Julian Way, who had turned up to observe the first round and departed for his volunteering duties at Oxfam afterwards.
If this were a rated event, then Peter’s rating would have jumped from the modest ECF 2053 to a still underrated ECF 2080. Top players usually play in Fide-rated tournaments and do not pay much attention to their ECF rating, especially for rapid and blitz. In Peter’s case, his Fide rapid rating is 2250, which is more realistic. It is a pity that the ECF does not try to achieve a better alignment between their domestic ratings and the international ratings. The forthcoming SCCU London Team Championships is based on ECF rapid ratings and team selection takes advantage of this discrepancy.
Alan Hayward from the Pimlico club came second on 4/5, with a fine kingside attack in the final round against IM John Hawksworth. Had there been a sixth round, Peter and Alan would have played each other. Five rounds is usually enough to generate a winner and there is no plan to change the current format, which allows the participants to have a chat between rounds and patronise the café.
Alan Scrimgour played all three titled players IM Peter Large, IM John Hawksworth and CM Chris Briscoe and ended with a creditable 3/5. (The other titled player, FM Julian Way, only played the first round as a filler.) The most improved player was John Hawes, who scored 0/5 in the last blitz and jumped to 3/5 this time, far outstripping his estimated rating of ECF 1200.
Results
1st IM Peter Large 5/5
2nd Alan Hayward 4/5
3rd Robin Haldane 3½/5
4th-8th IM John Hawksworth, Alan Scrimgour, John Hawes, Peter Roche, Genc Tasbasi 3/5
9th-13th Stephen Moss, CM Chris Briscoe, Robin Kerremans, John Cattermole, David Shalom 2/5
14th Kevin Bowyer 1½/5
Past winners
Tony Hughes (Wimbledon) January 2024
Tony Hughes (Wimbledon) February 2024
David Rowson (Kingston) March 2024
Tony Hughes (Wimbledon) April 2024
Robin Haldane (Streatham) May 2024
Alan Hayward (Pimlico) September 2024
Peter Large (Kingston) October 2024
Peter Large (Kingston) November 2024
Peter Large (Kingston) January 2025
John Hawksworth (Kingston) February 2025
Peter Large (Kingston) March 2025
