ATHERTON Chess Club held their 21st Open Rapidplay chess tournament at the Jubilee Hall.
This year the open section only had 11 players but the strong field was headed by grandmaster Nigel Davies from Southport, who won all six of his games to take the first prize.
This was the first time such a highly-rated player entered the event while his young son Sam played in the minors’ section.
The Atherton Chess Club members all played well throughout the day, Matthew Fanning played well scoring three points including a hard game in the last round against GM Davies.
Lee Kay finished on 2½ points in the open.
Meanwhile the intermediate section was won by Martin Lythgoe with 5½ points, he was assisted by Atherton’s youngest member, Mahima Raghavendra, who held the other section leader to a draw in round five which allowed Martin to get first place on his own.
The event had 54 players in total this year playing for the £640 prize fund.
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