UK Open Blitz Championships 2024 qualifiers and results

The UK Blitz Championships 2024 follows the format used in previous years’ events. There were eight regional one-day qualifier events at locations across the country as follows —

London – Saturday 21st September – St Luke’s Church, Kidderpore Avenue, Golders Green NW3 7SU
South West – Saturday 28th September – St Michael’s Centre, North Road, Stoke Gifford BS34 8PD
Midlands – Saturday 28th September – Quinborne Community Centre, Quinborne, Birmingham B32 2TW
North West – Sunday 29th September – Bolton Arena Sports Village, Arena Approach, Horwich, Bolton BL6 6LB
North East – Sunday 6th October – Gosforth Empire 32-34 Salters Road, Gosforth, Newcastle-On-Tyne NE3 1DX

Northern Ireland
Belfast – Sunday 29th September – NICS, Maynard Sinclair Pavilion, Stormont, Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast BT4 3TA

Wales
Cardiff – Saturday 5th October – Mercure Cardiff North Hotel, Llanedeyrn, Cardiff CF23 9XF

Scotland
Edinburgh – Sunday 6th October – Edinburgh Park Novotel, 15 Lochside Ave, Edinburgh EH12 9DJ

Entries
Click here to view the entrants’ list

Format and rating
All qualifier events will be fifteen-round Swiss tournaments. The time limit for all events will be all moves in 3 minutes plus 2 seconds per move. Default round times will as follows subject to variation by regional organisers —

Round	Time	Round	Time	Round	Time
Round 1	11.00	Round 6	13.30	Round 11	16.00
Round 2	11.25	Round 7	13.55	Round 12	16.25
Round 3	11.50	Round 8	14.20	Round 13	16.50
Round 4	12.15	Round 9	14.45	Round 14	17.15
Round 5	12.40	Round 10	15.10	Round 15	17.40

Qualifier events will be FIDE rated.

Finals Qualification
The top two players in each qualifier qualified for the Final. The two highest-placed female players qualified for the Women’s Final. If a female player finished in the top two places, then she could choose whether to play in the Open Final or the Women’s Final. If she decided to play in the Open Final, the two regional qualifying places for the Women’s Final from that event went to the next highest placed women in the same qualifier. If there are not sufficient women in the qualifier to offer these places to, the spare place or places were distributed to the highest non-qualifying women across the other qualifiers. If fewer than two women enter a qualifying event, then the highest-scoring female player(s) in any of the eight qualifiers who did not qualify were invited to play in the Women’s Final. In the event of this being tied, then the player with the highest Tournament Performance Rating on that score qualified.

Categories and category prizes
Players were allocated a category of 16 players or part thereof based on their initial seeding. For example, if there were 48 entries to a qualifying tournament, then there were three categories of 16, with players 1 to 16 in Category A, 17 to 32 in Category B and 33 to 48 in Category C.
A category prize of £50.00 was awarded to the highest-scoring player in each category. In the event of a tie, the lower-rated player won the prize. If more than one player had the same rating, then the prize money was shared.

Event regulations
Detailed qualifier event regulations can be found here — https://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/UK-Blitz-Regional-Qualifier-Regs-2024-v01.pdf

Qualifying players to date are as follows —

London/Golders Green 21st Sept (174 entries)

Open: GM Eldar Gasanov (12.5) and IM Shreyas Royal (12)
Women’s: WGM Elmira Mirzoeva (9.5) and WFM Mei-En Emmanuelle Hng (9.5)

Full results and cross-tables – https://chess-results.com/tnr1012743.aspx
PGN file – UK Blitz 2024 London Qualifier

Category Prizes

A Eldar Gasanov
B Theo Khoury
C Justinas Stojanas
D Jacob Yoon
E James Corrigan
F Dildarav Lishoy Gengis Paratazham
G Ruqayyah Rida
H Teng Yan Megan Kwok
I Henry Brennan
J Makar Hrytsenko
K Ivan But

London 2024 galleries

Photos by Melinda Wilde (Melinda also took two short videos here – https://melindawildephotos.com/uk-open-blitz-qualifier-2024-london)

Photos by Sebouh Takvorian

South West/Stoke Gifford – 28th September (73 entries)

Open: IM Tarun Kanyamarala (13) and IM Matthew Wadsworth (12)
Women’s: WIM Trisha Kanyamarala (11) and WFM Mei-Xian Eunice Hng (8.5)

Full results and cross-tables – https://chess-results.com/tnr1012748.aspx
PGN file (top boards) – https://chess-results.com/PartieSuche.aspx? lan=1&id=50023&tnr=1012748&art=3

Category Prizes
A Tarun Kanyamarala
B Aron Saunders
C Zack Norris
D James Guest
E Florence Spirling

South West pictures by Chief Arbiter Igor Doklestic
Left to right – Trisha Kanyamarala v Matthew Wadsworth; Harry Grieve v Tarun Kanyamarala; Harry Grieve (opponent TBC
Bottom – view across the playing hall in Stoke Gifford

Midlands/Birmingham – 28th September (64 entries)

Open: FM Stanley Badacsonyi (12.5) and IM Yichen Han (12.5)
Women’s: Ana Williams (9) and WFM Ruqayyah Rida (8.5)

Full results and cross-tables – https://chess-results.com/tnr1012744.aspx

Category Prizes
A Finlay Bowcott-Terry
B Luke Honey
C Oliver Harrison
D S Tayeb S Kazemi


Qualifiers Stanley Badacsonyi (front right) and Yichen Han (back on the left)		View across the playing area

North West/Bolton – 29th September (60 entries)

Open: GM Keith Arkell (13) and Jacob Boswell (12)
Women’s: WFM Kamila Hryschenko (10) and Alexandra Hardwick (9)

Full results and cross-tables – https://chess-results.com/tnr1012746.aspx

Category Prizes
A Keith C Arkell
B Tim Elgar
C Shriaansh Ganti
D Toby Quaite

Northern Ireland/Belfast – 29th September (17 entries)
Played as a 17 round All Play All with a bye per round)

Open: Kamil Marchlewicz (16) and Benedict Keohane (14)
Women’s: Leah Worbey (6) and Julia McNab (1)

Full results and cross-tables – https://chess-results.com/tnr1012735.aspx

Category Prizes
A Kamil Marchlewicz
B Micheal Alwin

Belfast 2024 gallery

Wales/Cardiff – 5th October (35 entries)

Open: FM Aaravamudhan Balaji (13) and Kushal Jakhria (11.5)
Women’s: WFM Bodhana Sivanandan (10.5) and WCM Anusha Subramanian (8)

Full results and cross-tables – https://chess-results.com/tnr1012736.aspx

Category Prizes
A Aaravamudhan Balaji
B Kushal Jakhria
C Ethan Mcgrath

North East/Newcastle – 6th October (30 entries)

GM Daniel Gormally (14.5) and CM Supratit Banerjee (13)
Women’s Madara Orlovska (9) and Irina Briggs (4)

Full results and cross-tables – https://chess-results.com/tnr1012745.aspx

Category Prizes
A GM Daniel Gormally
B Husain Nakara


Open Qualifiers Danny Gormally and Supratit Banerjee	Women’s Qualifiers Madara Orlovska (right) and Irina Briggs (left)

Scotland / Edinburgh – 6th October (48 entries)

Open: FM Frederick Waldhausen Gordon (12.5) and Keith Ruxton (12)
Women’s: Kanishka Bhatia (8) and Chrysa Mitraka (7.5)

Full results and cross-tables – https://chess-results.com/tnr1012741.aspx

Category Prizes
A Freddie Gordon
B Ranxi Rex Shao
C Ishan S Kumar

Boards 1 and 2 – Frederick Gordon to the back at the left.

View across the playing area at the Edinburgh Park Novotel

Edinburgh 2024 gallery