South Coast Chess Tournaments: October & November

If you are itching to get some over the board action ahead of the Isle of Wight Chess Congress 21-23 Feb, there's a host coming up nearby in the next month.

Castle Chess Fareham Congress 11-13 October 2024:

Insert picture of Dave telling people the IOW exists. Photo by Keven Lamb

Starting with the Fareham Congress by Castle Chess. This takes place in the same venue as the Hampshire Congress, The stunning Lysses House Hotel: 51 High Street Fareham, Hampshire. PO16 7BQ.

It's a good crowd and popular with IOW players. Very easy to jump on a train from Portsmouth or Southampton.

Entry from £40.

If the hotel venue sells out, there's a cheap pub nearby called the Red Lion which has great room rates and a decent fry up. Entry form and info here

2nd Weymouth Chess Congress 18 - 20th October 2024:

Taking place at the at the Hotel Rembrandt with great room rates here and plenty avail nearby also. There's a few IOW players going to this so lifts may be available.

The hotel has a nice pool and spa!

Entry from £35. Full info and entry here

Torquay Weekend Chess Congress: 25 – 27 October 2024

This an interesting one, taking advantage of the new ECF membership upgrades and making all sections FIDE rated (as are we). If you are looking to play in the IOW Masters in Feb, and need to be over 1600 FIDE, I'd highly recommend heading to this.

I especially like the U1400 FIDE section, it's not very often lower rated players get to compete for FIDE rating without playing in an open field or a London "slaughterhouse" of unrated child geniuses (this can also be fun!).

Entry from £50. Full info and sign up here

Hampshire Chess Congress:1-3 November 2024

The the main show! This is a great Congress and a chance for IOW players to compete with the rest of Hampshire. We are somewhat unofficially associated with Hampshire Chess, so in a sense it's our Mothership. If you can make it I highly recommend and several islanders will be playing so there should be shared travel options.

Again there are deals to book at the Lysses Hotel, or a few local pubs and guest houses nearby.

Entry from £35. Full info and sign up here

I'm sure there are more but these are the ones I'm eying up to play personally. The ECF Events Calendar is a good place to look, though it's been broken for two weeks :/ congress.org.uk also tends to cover most events.