Triathlon: A UK first
Triathlon: a UK first AlphaChess want to be innovative and bring something new to the UK chess scene so we were hopeful that our vision would gain some traction among players. In August 2025, we launched the country’s first ever FIDE Triathlon. How was it received? We came up with the formula of three standard (two to start Saturday, one on Sunday morning), six rapid (Sunday afternoon) and nine blitz games (Saturday evening), weighted differently to give a maximum total points of 72. Players were divided into two Pools for the standard games but the blitz and rapid were accelerated opens with some forbidden pairings at the beginning to limit multiple games over the weekend between the same players. Eighteen FIDE-rated games over the weekend was a lot. One piece of useful feedback was that we should allow a little more time between games - which we will do. Otherwise, when it was all over, six players had won trophies and everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves. We’ll be running more...