And the Club Champion is… After 142 games over 12 months, the Battersea Grand Prix finally came to a close last week.
Our marathon competition attracted a record number of 76 players wanting to compete for the ultimate accolade of 2019 Battersea Chess Club Champion.
This is an illustrious trophy that goes back to 1885. And the latest person to add himself to that list is… our 2019 Club Champion: Paul Stokes.
Paul, a stalwart of the club for many years, has now won it 10 times, the first in 1980 and the last 21 years ago.
In this year’s competition, Paul played with a mix of grit and determination: he started with a win against Daniel Press on January 8, but then didn’t win again until May 21, after which he scored 4.5/6 to take the title with a win in his final match.
Congratulations to Paul. Alistair Hill was second and Aldo Camiller third.
In the Barrow competition, Tom Butterworth is our new winner: pictured above with the trophy.
Even though he won the competition with a round to spare, his journey was similar to Paul’s: he was 0/2 and 2/5 before going on a streak of 6.5/7 to lift the trophy ahead of Darius Zutautas and Stephen Welch.
Congratulations to all the winners. For the full table and results, click here.
