Southend Easter Chess Festival 2025

SOUTHEND 2025 MAIN FEATURES

The Southend Easter Chess Festival 2025 comprises the 5th Southend FIDE Rapid on Thursday 17 April 2025 (“Rapid”) and the 67th Southend Easter Chess Congress from 18 April to 21 April 2025 (“Congress”).

Venue

Southend Adult Community College Ambleside Drive, Southend-on-Sea, SS1 2UN

Map link: Congress venue

Closing dates for entries
Rapid – 10.00 pm Wednesday 16 April 2025
Congress – 10.00 pm Thursday 17 April 2025

Schedule

• 5TH SOUTHEND FIDE RAPID
  • Thursday 17 April
  • 6 Rounds, G25+5;
  • Three sections – FIDE Open; FIDE and ECF U1700; ECF U1400;
  • Round 1 at 10.30 am, finish by 6 pm;
  • Closing date for entries to the Congress: 10.00 pm Wednesday 16 April 2025 – NO entries on the day.
• 67TH SOUTHEND EASTER CHESS CONGRESS
  • Friday 18 April to Monday 21 April 2024
    • Friday to Sunday (incl): Rounds at 11:00 am and 4:00 pm
    • Monday: last round at 11:00 am
  • All sections, 7 rounds, G90+30
  • Southend FIDE Open
  • ‘Leigh-on-Sea’ FIDE and ECF U1900
  • ‘Westcliff’ ECF U1600
  • ‘Thorpe Bay’ ECF U1300
  • Closing date for entries to the Congress: 10.00 pm Thursday 17 April 2025 – NO entries on the day.
  • All games take place at the venue given above

Online Entry

Online entry is available via the link below, for card payments via Stripe, BACS transfer or cheque.

There is a form for postal entries in the pdf Entry Form (further down this page).

Link: Online Entry

Live Games

We will have 30 boards broadcasting live games to the internet, on chess.com. These will cover all the games in Room 3 and the Hall (i.e. the Rapid and the Congress FIDE Open). If there are less than 60 entries in the Congress FIDE Open, the top boards in the U1900 will be covered. E.g. if the entries to the Congress FIDE Open are 50 (= 25 boards), the top five boards of the Congress U1900 will also be covered.

Pairings and Results

Chess-results.com | Live games (FIDE Open) in due course

The above chess results link takes you to the Congress Open, from which you will be able to navigate to each section of the Fesitval plus the Masters. Initially, however, you will need to click on ‘Show tournament details’ to bring it out of archive.

The Live games link will provide the top three boards in the FIDE Open.

The Essex Championship 2024-25

The title of Essex Champion will be awarded to the highest placed eligible player in the Southend FIDE Open.

The winner in 2024 was FM Bob Eames (Loughton CC).

The Essex Minor Championship 2024-25

The title Essex Minor Champion will be awarded to the highest placed eligible player in the Leigh on Sea U1900.

The winner in 2024 was Ryan Colclough (Wanstead CC)

Ratings all sections

Ratings for eligibility and pairings, all tournaments, will be those published at 1st April 2025. See further detail in the Ratings section below.

Other Features

• Bookstall by Chess & Bridge who kindly supply the equipment for the Congress;
• yElena’s Cafeteria, Thursday to Sunday – but NOT Monday 21 April (bring your own);
• Live Games – top three boards in the FIDE Open;

Entry Form

Click: Link or Download below for: Entry Form (pdf)

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PLAYING SCHEDULE – RAPID

Thursday 17 April

6 Rounds – 10.30 am Start – Finish by 6.00 pm
Rate of play G25+5
All moves in 25 minutes + 5 seconds per move.

NB Those who played in the Rapid in 2024 will be pleased to hear that the restricted access which applied to the Thursday at the 2024 event, will not apply in 2025.

PLAYING SCHEDULE – CONGRESS ALL SECTIONS

Round 1: Friday 18th April, 11:00 am
Round 2: Friday 18th April, 4:00 pm
Round 3: Saturday 19th April, 11:00 am
Round 4: Saturday 19th April, 4:00 pm
Round 5: Sunday 20th April, 11:00 am
Round 6: Sunday 20th April, 4:00 pm
Round 7: Monday 21st April, 11:00 am

Rate of Play, Congress ALL sections – G90+30
All moves in 90 minutes + 30 seconds per move.
Players please note: in accordance with the FIDE Laws of Chess, when the increment per move is 30 seconds or more, all moves have to be recorded, even if your remaining time dips under 5 minutes.

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RATINGS

The Rating lists for eligibility in the rating-limited sections will be the April 2025 lists published by FIDE and the ECF.

All sections will be submitted for ECF rating. The Rapid FIDE Open and the Rapid FIDE and ECF U1700, the Congress FIDE Open and the FIDE and ECF U1900 results will be submitted for FIDE rating.

ECF Ratings | FIDE ratings

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PRIZES

The Prize Fund for the Congress is a guaranteed minimum of £2,700. This guaranteed minimum may be increased as finances allow.

Where ties occur, prize money will be shared. Ties for the Essex trophies will be resolved by the Sum of Progressive Scores and, if necessary, the Sum of Opponents’ Scores.

Prizes per section

Rapid – all sections

FIDE Open, FIDE and ECF U1700, ECF U1400
Minimum prizes each section: 1st £80; 2nd £40; 3rd £20

Congress – all sections

FIDE Open
Minimum prizes: 1st £450; 2nd £250; 3rd £150; Rating £110

FIDE and ECF U1900
Minimum prizes: 1st £300; 2nd £200; 3rd £100; Rating £70

ECF U1600 and ECF U1300
Minimum prizes each section: 1st £145; 2nd £100; 3rd £50; Rating £30

No player may win more than one prize (other than “Additional prizes”, below). If a player qualifies in two categories (e.g. a place prize and a Rating Prize) the larger prize will be paid.

NB These minima may be increased as finances allow.

Additional prizes

The following prizes are additional to the main prize fund.

David Wood Junior Prize

In addition to other prizes the sum of £75 will be awarded by the David Wood Memorial Trust, for the best performances by Essex Juniors (Under 18 on 31 Aug 2024). The sum awarded will usually be split three ways (£25 each) subject to there being three deserving performances.

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ENTRY FEES

Rapid – All sections

Entry Fee: £32

Congress – All sections

Entry Fee: £48

Online Entry

You can enter online and pay by card via Stripe, of by BACS or by cheque. Details for each payment method are included in the online form, link below.

Link: Online Entry

Discount coupons

The following coupons for 5% discount on Entry Fees will be available with entry:

se25early = Enter by 5 January 2025 (inclusive) Coupon expired.

se25u16 = Junior (U16 at 31 Aug 2024)

se2560+ = Senior (60+ at 17 Apr 2025)

Enter the above code during online entry, or quote it in the postal entry form.

Where an entrant qualifies for more than one discount category, only one coupon may be applied per entry fee. However, if an entrant enters a Congress section and the Rapid, the one coupon may be applied to each entry.

Coupons do NOT apply to Donations nor ECF ‘Pay-to-Play’.

Donations

Expenses continue to rise: we have had to absorb another increase in the cost of the venue and the Chessable sponsorship has finished. So donations are welcome, to help cover expenses and maintain standards.

Sponsors and donors

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Southend Masters

In addition to the Festival there was also taking place in the College, two Southend Masters title norms tournaments, each a 10 player all-play-all i) GMs; ii) IMs.

You can find the results on chess-results.com

The picture of our venue, on the home page of the website, is by Brendan O’Gorman, whose Gallery of the 2022 Congress you can find linked from the 2022 page (main menu above). We are grateful to Brendan for use of this splendid image, readily granted without restriction.