The Southend Easter Chess Congress, last run in 2019 and sidelined by covid in 2020 (cancelled) and 2021, makes its return to the Essex chess scene – 14 April 2022 to 18 April 2022. The congress starts on Thursday 14 April, with the 2nd Southend FIDE Rapid, then the conventional 7-round events Friday 15 April to Monday 18 April: FIDE U1900, ECF U1750, ECF U1600 and ECF U1450. The U1600 section includes the Frank Sealey Prize kindly donated in Frank’s memory.
Entries are now open and available online from the congress website:
https://southendchesscongress.org/
The Essex Championship, which is awarded at Southend as the only remaining congress in Essex, was not awarded in 2020 or 2021, but will be awarded at Southend 2022, to the highest placed eligible competitor in the Southend FIDE Open. Holder from 2019: John Moore of Writtle.
To avoid any misunderstanding, the Southend Congress is not organised by the Essex Chess Association, though there is a strong Essex presence involved and the ECA provides financial support. The Congress was started by Southend-on-Sea Chess Club in 1958 and run by the Club every year until 2014 inclusive. It has been run as an independent congress from 2015.