Battersea Chess Club has a fine silver Handicap Cup presented by Lieut. S. F. Brittain-Smith on 16 September 1914, who, it is believed, subsequently died in the First World War.
It was competed for regularly up to and after the Second World War until 1998.
However, the competition ceased to be run except for 2013 and 2014 when it was won both years by our now club chairman, Alan Palmer. You can find the full list of recorded winners here.
Now, after a gap of nine years, the event is back.
The last time the Handicap Cup was held handicaps were decided by the gap between the ECF gradings for each player, with estimates being used for any ungraded competitor.
It is proposed to restart the competition as a knockout tournament with the original grading differences used under the old ECF gradings translated to approximate ELO equivalents.
The handicaps are determined as follows:
Time control
25-minute rapidplay with an increment of 5 seconds per move. This will allow two rounds to be played on a single evening.
Participants
Participants will need to be paid-up members of the club. There will be a limit on entries of 32. If a participant fails to turn up for game, a walk-over will be awarded to the opponent.
Gradings
These will be the slowplay gradings published by the ECF at the beginning of January 2023. Estimates will be required for ungraded players.
Games in this handicap tournament will not be submitted for grading.
Playing Sessions
Tue 24 January
- 19.15 – Draw for Round 1 (NB: no seeding required)
- 19.30 – Round of 32
- 20.45 – Round of 16
Tue 14 February
- 19.30 – Quarter-final
- 20.45 – Semi-final
Tue 28 February
- 18.30 – Final
- 20.45 – Presentation of trophy
Entries
Applications to enter the tournament should be sent by email to Arnold Hunt (arnold3@tiscali.co.uk) by no later than Saturday 21 January.
