Viktor Stoyanov, our increasingly-powerful junior prospect, triumphed in the Autumn Rapids last night to win a place in the Four Seasons final.

Sixteen-year-old Viktor stormed through to win one point clear of second-placed Luca Buanne, another promising junior.

Luca’s performance was just as impressive as he finished a point clear of Battersea’s first-team captain Tommaso Penna.

Well done Viktor and Luca particularly. There were also grade-busting performances from Arnold Hunt and our veteran of veterans, Peter Yusoff.

Battersea Autumn Rapids event
Battersea Autumn Rapids event

The Autumn Rapids was the last stage of our Four Seasons rapid-play tournament, following our Chessmas event last year and the Spring and Summer Rapid events.

It means our finalists are:

  • Duncan Kerr (Chessmas Rapids)
  • Jonny Pein (Spring Rapids)
  • Midhun Unnikrishnan (Summer Rapids)
  • Viktor Stoyanov (Autumn Rapids)

A date for the final has yet to be announced but the format for the final will be the same time controls: 10 minutes with a 10 second delay.

The finalists will play a six-game double round-robin. The winner to be crowd Rapid Champion of 2019.

Next year the Four Season will return.

The Winter Rapids will take place first in January or February, Spring (Mar-May), Summer (June-Aug), Autumn (Sept-Nov).