98th Caplin Hastings International Chess Congress on December 28 2024

Video shows the opening speeches.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon everyone and thank you all for coming. Welcome to the 98th Hastings International

00:07Chess Congress and we have some very special guests here with us today to help us open the

00:15events and also my good friend Alex McFarlane, Chief Arbiter, will also finish with some technical

00:21announcements. I hope you can all hear and maybe first I'll introduce Mr John Ashworth who is CEO

00:27our headline sponsor and captain. Thank you very much John for coming to support this event.

00:39On to John's left we have the President of the English Chess Federation,

00:42ECF, the President of the English Chess Federation, Mr Dominic Lawson. Thank you.

00:54Yes thank you very much for that introduction Stuart.

00:56It is my huge honour to welcome you all to this esteemed tournament that's been running since

01:031895. Sitting in these chairs before you have been names such as Lasker, Steinitz, Parrish,

01:11Albin, Alakine, Capablanca, Yui, if I pronounced his name right there was some controversy around

01:16that, Botvinnik, Korshoy, Karpov, Kasparov, Short and more recently local heroes David Howell who

01:23won it a few years ago just from just down the road in Seaford and our very own,

01:28prodigal son, the returning Stuart Conquest of this hill.

01:37Huge thanks and recognition to Stuart and his team for getting this important tournament back

01:42on the calendar this year and I must, if I may, just give some thanks to the irreplaceable Pam

01:48Thomas, Alex who you'll hear from, Alex McFarland, Head Arbiter, Sandra who actually is in charge of

01:54the catering upstairs, a very understated but important role and I'd also like to point out

02:00the special relationship that this tournament has with the local Hastings Chess Club. So there are

02:05people and resources from there that make this thing work and we're very much appreciative of

02:10all of that. Catlin is an organisation which is my privileged lead. We're a software company,

02:17we make software for banks, we're always looking for bright people who have a

02:22hesitancy and an inclination towards STEM subjects. We like chess people, we like clever people,

02:27so if the chess works well, if it doesn't work well and you're looking for a job,

02:31find me and we'll talk about employment. That's all I wanted to say other than

02:36let battles commence and have a super time. Thank you.