Steve Harley wins 2026 Rapid Tournament

The 2026 Rapid Tournament was held over three successive warm July Thursday evenings. There were 22 entrants, although many were not able to play all rounds due to holidays.

Above is the start of round 1.

Our 2025 Rapid Champion, Jon Ady started strongly winning his first 3 rounds, as did Steve Harley. Next placed were 7 with 2 out of 3.

In round 4, above, Steve gets ready to reply to Jon’s first move as white, and Bob Wooding cannot believe he is on board 2 (It has never happened to him before) as he takes on Aditya.

The situation after round 5 was Steve on 5 points, Jon on 4 points and Ryan on 3.5 points.

After a tense last couple of last rounds Steve and Aditya agree a draw, resulting in Steve winning the tournament outright and Jon coming second.

There were some outstanding performances particularly by junior Ryan who finished equal 3rd with 3.5 points. This was Ryan’s first club tournament and he had some great games. Aditya, Bob W, Ollie, Sid and Tristan all finished on 3.5 points too. Also a mention for junior Jake M. who performed well in a tough field.

Above, Jon hands the Rapid Trophy to the worthy winner, Steve Harley. On receiving the trophy Steve commented “This is the first trophy I have won since I was 16!” It was a nice surprise to see Steve winning a trophy, rather than more usually handing them out!

Full details are in the cross table above. Click on it to go into more details, e.g. select a player for performance ratings etc.