UK Blitz Chess Championships 2024 LIVE
The UK Blitz Championships 2024 will follow the format used in previous years’ events. There will be eight regional one-day qualifier events at locations across the country (scroll down to see the list) starting this Saturday, 21st September.
Top players for the London qualifier include Ameet Ghasi, Eldar Gasanov, Han Yichen, Peter Roberson, Stanley Badacsonyi, Shreyas Royal, Maciej Czopor, etc.
Chessdom.com will cover the events with live games and reports
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
Finals
The finals for the UK Blitz Championships 2024 will be held at a midlands venue to be confirmed on 30th November or 7th December TBC. The Championships will include an Open and a Women’s final, each event having 16 players with 15 rounds of blitz games in an all play all format. The winners will become UK Open and Women’s Blitz Champions for 2024.
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 will qualify for the Final. The two highest-placed female players will qualify for the Women’s Final. If a female player finishes in the top two places, then she may choose whether to play in the Open Final or the Women’s Final. If she decides to play in the Open Final, the two regional qualifying places for the Women’s Final from that event will go 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 will be 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 will be 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 will qualify.
Categories and category prizes
Players will be allocated a category of 16 players or part thereof based on their initial seeding. For example, if there are 48 entries to a qualifying tournament, then there will be 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 will be awarded to the highest-scoring player in each category. In the event of a tie, the lower-rated player will win the prize. If more than one player has the same rating, then the prize money will be shared.