A Second Time for 20 Seconds Chess

Remember 20 Seconds Chess? The big prize money, novel format tournament, scheduled for Saturday January 19th? Well, if you were cynical about your chances of winning anything - here's something that may well change your mind:

I was reading with interest a debate about the 20 Seconds Chess tournament on your website and in particular a concern from some of your posters over who the four special invited guests would be.

As one of the organisers, I thought it would be useful to confirm who exactly the invited guests are and also to take the opportunity to invite your chess club community to the event at a discounted price of £15 (limited to 30 people)

We have invited two GM 's Keith Arkell and David Howell as our guest players. The two other places were allocated as wild cards for 2 players from the group stage. The idea was simply to give low ranking chess players the chance to pit their skills against a GM in a new competitive format.

As this is our first event I am keen to get as many local players involved and realistically we will have around 100 competitors on the day and our main mission is to test the new format in a competitive environment and to see if it actually works! Also, with the numbers being relatively low there's also really good chance that someone from your club could win one of the cash prizes on the day (£2,000, £500, £250 & £250).

I would be grateful if you could share this information to your community and if they wish to take advantage of the discount they simply need to write your URL on their entry form.

Kind regards
Jason van Haeften

Your chances just got better - and the entry fee just got lower. So, here's a link to the tournament homepage again.