The Flood Cup
is the club’s most prestigious tournament. It has been contested annually since
1978. The Flood Cup is run in round-robin format, or as a 7 round Swiss
tournament if entries are too high for all-play-all. Time controls are 40 moves
in 100 minutes, then 10/20. [List of winners]
[rules]
The One Hour
tournament receives its name from the fact that each player has 60 minutes in
which to make all moves. It has been contested annually since 1995. [List of winners]
[rules]
The club has run
an Allegro tournament since at least as far back as 1983. The Best
All-Rounder Trophy has always included the Allegro Tournament as a component. [List of winners]
[rules]
The official Lightning
tournament has been held annually since at least as far back as 1983. Since its
inception in 1985, the Best All-Rounder Trophy has always included the
Lightning Tournament as a component. [List of winners]
[rules]
The St David’s
Day trophy was first contested in 2004. A scratch handicap tournament is
held on the Friday closest to March the First which is the day set aside to
honour the Welsh patron saint – a figure deeply revered at the club (by some).
The format of the tournament in 2004 was 3 min + 2 sec/move, round-robin with points
handicap. This is likely to change in 2005 due to the whim of the senior Welsh
player at the club who will collude with the DOP. [no link to the rules as
there are none]
The Best
All-Rounder Trophy is awarded to the club's champion player. During the
year points are gained by players based on their final position in selected
club tournaments during the year - the club champion is the one with most
points accrued. The current four tournaments used to calculate the Best
All-Rounder are the Flood Cup, One Hour, Allegro and Lightning. [List of winners]
[rules]
The Joe Tarnawski
Trophy is awarded to player with the best achievement in the combined
Allegro and Lightning tournaments. [List of winners]
[Rules]
The Handicap
Trophy is awarded to the player with the highest score in the Flood Cup plus
handicap score. A certain number of points is given to each player as a
handicap before the start of the tournament, such that each player has an equal
chance of winning. [List of winners]
[rules]
The Maiden
Trophy is awarded to the player who finishes highest in the One Hour Trophy
and has not previously won a club tournament. [List of winners]
[rules]
Each year the club holds a Prize Night. As well as distributing the prizes that have been achieved through the year, the club also runs a Handicap Lightning Tournament. Players are handicapped on time (according to rating) so that they have between 2 and 5 minutes to complete all their moves. [List of winners]
The Gap Open was staged every year between 1980 and
2002. Originally scheduled for October/November, it was run on the Queen’s
Birthday Weekend every year since 1983. Entries since 1993 were less than the
late 1980s and early 1990s mainly because the club staged a separate tournament
for juniors during the weekend. In 2001 the junior tournament attracted 35
entries, more than the Open itself. This trend continued in 2002 when the
junior event received 40 entries, compared to only 16 for the Open. This
dwindling of numbers led to the decision to abandon the Open in 2003. The 2001
Gap Open was run as a repechage event for the Queensland Championship with all
but the final 8 contesting the Open. [List of winners]