Since the club was first founded in 1887, new Tournaments have been introduced on only rare and special occasions. One such special occasion took place earlier this week (Monday the 20th March 2023) at the clubs Bradstow Mill, Broadstairs venue.
The club was welcoming home Robert (Bob) Page who had relocated away from Broadstairs to be nearer his family and grandchildren during the pandemic, and as such the club never really had the chance to say goodbye.
The Robert Page Rapid Play Championship 2023 Tournament and welcoming back home was a way of more formally acknowledging Bob’s great service to Broadstairs Chess Club where he served as Club Secretary for 25 years.
It was great to meet up with Bob, the current Kent Individual Major Champion and two other current champions Manoj Natarajan (Kent Individual Intermediate Champion) and John Couzens (Kent Individual Minor Champion), who all enthusiastically took part in the tournament along with 16 other participants.
The joint winners were Manoj and Ian with 5 points out of 6, and the top 7 players are listed in the table. There were particularly notable performances from Bob Cronin (4.5) and Nik (4). Young Bayley more than held his own against players 6 times his age.
We are looking forward to continuing the tournament in future years to come and again welcoming Bob back home.
Broadstairs chess club meet on a Monday evenings from 7.30pm until 11.00pm at Bradstow Mill and enters teams into the Thanet and East Kent League. If you are a chess enthusiast of any age why not pop along and say hello. Contact details andrewflood042@gmail.com
| Position | Name | Points |
| 1 | Manoj Natarajan | 5 |
| 1 | Ian Hames | 5 |
| 3 | Chris Stampe | 4.5 |
| 3 | Robert Cronin | 4.5 |
| 5 | Robert Page | 4 |
| 5 | Nik Loginov | 4 |
| 5 | Dominic Blundell | 4 |