Viktor-ious! Stoyanov powers through to win Autumn Rapids

Viktor Stoyanov, our increasingly-powerful junior prospect, triumphed in the Autumn Rapids last night to win a place in the Four Seasons final.

Sixteen-year-old Viktor stormed through to win one point clear of second-placed Luca Buanne, another promising junior.

Luca’s performance was just as impressive as he finished a point clear of Battersea’s first-team captain Tommaso Penna.

Well done Viktor and Luca particularly. There were also grade-busting performances from Arnold Hunt and our veteran of veterans, Peter Yusoff.

The Autumn Rapids was the last stage of our Four Seasons rapid-play tournament, following our Chessmas event last year and the Spring and Summer Rapid events.

It means our finalists are:

• Duncan Kerr (Chessmas Rapids)
• Jonny Pein (Spring Rapids)
• Midhun Unnikrishnan (Summer Rapids)
• Viktor Stoyanov (Autumn Rapids)

A date for the final has yet to be announced but the format for the final will be the same time controls: 10 minutes with a 10 second delay.

The finalists will play a six-game double round-robin. The winner to be crowd Rapid Champion of 2019.

Next year the Four Season will return.

The Winter Rapids will take place first in January or February, Spring (Mar-May), Summer (June-Aug), Autumn (Sept-Nov).