Fusion so far: Rapid and Freestyle Chess
Fusion: Our innovative event blending Rapid and Freestyle Chess Written by Rock Yu “Fusion” is the name we have given to our series of seven Friday evening events comprising five games of FIDE rapid and a single game of Freestyle (AKA Fischer random/960). On Friday 24th April, we ran our second iteration of the year at our Potters Bar venue just off the M25. The “normal” FIDE rapid element of the first Fusion event, on Friday February 13th (AlphaChess isn’t superstitious), was won by Beni Sisupalan, who was delayed by traffic but won the four games that followed his subsequent first-round bye. He took home first prize cash and the first of the seven trophies. Congratulations to Beni! Beni was third seed for Fusion II and performed respectably but it was CM Lion Lebedev who won the trophy and first prize cash this time in the FIDE rapid. Well done to Lion! After the FIDE rapid, there was a single game of Freestyle Chess, which is a variant with a surprisingly rich history. Although many...