Seaton Chess Club held its third Rapidplay chess tournament in Axmouth, Devon on Sat 18th October 2025.
As previous years, the event was held at the Axmouth Church Hall, which proved once again to be an excellent venue with a well-equipped kitchen and separate analysis room. Players were competing for the Ray Hunt Memorial Trophy. The tournament would not be possible without Ray's kind legacy and he is sadly missed. Our contemporary approach to the organisation of the tournament also continued with entries being accepted through online booking and payments system and the round pairings being displayed via the chess-results.com service. This made for a very smooth process for the preparation and running of the event so thanks to all participants for their support.
The arbiter for the event was Tony Tatam who very kindly travelled from to manage proceedings and the event went extremely smoothly. There were 18 entries in total, which made for a very comfortable and relaxed playing environment. The time control was 20 minutes plus 10 second increment so there were a few close finishes as players became short of time – often attracting quite an audience!
The tournament was a closely fought affair with Jack Rudd and Paul Hampton going into the last round both on 4/5. Joe Forty, Rami Talab and Jon Underwood were all not far behind on 3.5/5. Wins from Jack, Rami and Jon sealed their positions in the final honours with Jack winning outright and Jon and Rami joint second.
There were also grading prizes for Joe Forty, Franz Pitman and Toby Ralph.
Thanks to all those who helped organise and contributed to the event: Jon Underwood, Steve Dean and Paul Hampton. Thanks also to Tony for acting as arbiter and a final thanks also to all the players who were able to attend – many whom had travelled some distance – to make the event a great success and we look forward to seeing everyone (and maybe a few more!) next year!
You can see the results and final cross table on the chess-results website by clicking here.