Following its successful debut in 2023, the Ribbands Rapidplay ran again over the summer of 2024, starting on 28 May and finishing on 20 August. 30 players played a total of 107 games, ECF rapid ratings went up and down, and (I’m told) great fun was had by all. Congratulations go to Linhao Sha who topped the field with an average score of 7.2 per game. Second place went to Vikram Banerjee and third place to Ethan Wood.
Format: Players are welcome to join the event at any time – there is no need to register in advance or to play in all of the rounds. Just turn up on any Tuesday in time for a 19.30 start (doors open at 19.15). There will be two rounds per evening (or one on evenings featuring some other Summer Programme event), with expected finish around 21.30 (players are also free to leave after one round, for an expected finish time around 20.30).
Games will be played at a time limit of 25 minutes with an increment of 10 seconds per move, and will be ECF-rated. Although the games are played on an even basis, the tournament is scored as a handicap tournament in the sense explained below (see tournament scoring).
Tournament scoring: each player is assigned a starting rating based on their ECF rapidplay (or standard play if no rapidplay rating available) rating at the time they first join the event. Based on the starting ratings, we use the ECF K-ratings table to indicate the number of points each player earns or loses against each other player for a win, loss, or draw. Players at equal starting ratings will gain 10 points for a win, lose 10 points for a loss, and score 0 points for drawing against each other. Players at lower starting ratings than their opponent will gain more points for winning, lose fewer points for losing, and gain a small number of points for drawing. And so on. Here is the current table showing the number of points each player earns for drawing against any of the other players – a win scores 10 points more than this and a loss scores 10 points fewer:
The winner will be the player with the largest average number of points earned per game played, provided they have played a minimum of 8 games.
Final standings (updated 21 August, after Rd 21, showing those who played at least 6 games; names in bold reached the minimum of 8 games needed to qualify for, er, having their names set in bold):
| Player | Starting rating | Game points | Games played | Average score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linhao Sha | 1502 | 6.5 | 10 | 7.2 |
| Simeon Bott | 1987 | 6 | 6 | 5.6 |
| Guy Parsons | 1130 | 2.5 | 6 | 5.1 |
| John Nevin | 1023 | 4 | 7 | 4.4 |
| Vikram Banerjee | 1476 | 6 | 9 | 3.9 |
| Anthony Norris | 1857 | 4 | 7 | 1.3 |
| Ethan Wood | 1173 | 6.5 | 17 | 0.5 |
| Paul McMahon | 1934 | 8.5 | 11 | 0.2 |
| Alan Richardson | 2022 | 5.5 | 7 | -0.3 |
| Konrad Scheffler | 1804 | 11.5 | 19 | -0.7 |
| Bluebelle Campbell | 1024 | 1.5 | 8 | -1.5 |
| Simon Marsden | 1528 | 5 | 13 | -1.6 |
| Paul Kemp | 1979 | 9 | 14 | -1.9 |
| Alan Wadsworth | 1640 | 5.5 | 15 | -2.1 |
| Rob Davies | 1386 | 6 | 18 | -2.2 |
| Matthew Heftman | 1700 | 3.5 | 8 | -4.6 |
| Michael Osborn | 1498 | 4 | 10 | -4.8 |