IT’S NOT every day that a top grandmaster turns up to play at a local chess club, in fact it’s a fairly rare occurrence, yet that is what happened at Bude Chess Club on Wednesday, July 15.

Grandmaster Dr John Nunn, one of England’s strongest players and once in the world’s top ten, had emailed the organisers to say that he was visiting Bude on holiday and would it be possible to visit the club.

Naturally they said yes and Bude Chess organisers John and Christine Constable felt that it would be a great opportunity to raise money for The Friends of Bude Sea Pool at the same time. Thus all entry fees went direct to the charity, along with donations on the night.

It was decided to play a handicapped rapidplay, where each game lasts just 20 minutes. However, the time that each player has to make all of their moves depends on their rating based on their previous games, with the better players having a sliding scale of fewer minutes compared to their opponents.

As a result Grandmaster John Nunn played all of his games with just two minutes on his clock, with his opponents all having 18 minutes.

Despite this, he still won all of his games!

John Constable came a very commendable second, winning four out of the five games that he played, losing only to the grandmaster.

Although a small event, players attended from Bude, Maramchurch, Kilkhampton, Camelford, Calstock and Liskard.

Bude Chess normally meets on Thursday evenings from September to April and further details can be found on their website: www.budechess.co.uk.

For the full report, and a round-up of the area news and sport, see this week’s edition of the Post.