This year’s International Autumn Tournament will be held at the Kents Hill Park Hotel and Conference Centre in Milton Keynes.  The hotel is situated in a very quiet area of Milton Keynes on the edge of an extensive area of parkland.  It is comprised of a number of separate buildings connected by covered walkways.  The buildings are named after birds.  The main building contains the reception area, and the dining room on the ground floor.  On the first floor is the bar.  BCA will occupy the ground floor bedrooms of the Lapwing building, which is about 50 yards from the main building.  The chess room will be on the ground floor of the Nightingale building, again about 50 yards from the main building but in the opposite direction from Lapwing.  Kents Hill Park has a leisure Centre, which has a gym, an indoor swimming pool, a spa pool, a steam room and a sauna.  The hotel is just a short taxi ride from Milton Keynes railway station.

The format will be a five round Swiss tournament.  If there are sufficient entries there will be two sections, an Open and a Challengers for those rated under 1450.  When making your booking, please state the section you wish to play in.  If you do not state a preference, it will be assumed you wish to enter the section according to your rating.  Both tournaments are open to blind and partially sighted players and to associate members of the BCA.  The tournament entry fee is £12, regardless of which section you enter.  Note: A £2 increase to our entry fees was approved at a committee meeting in April.  This is the first increase since 2001 and takes effect from the start of the BCA’s financial year in October 2024.

The rate of play is likely to be 90 minutes for each player for all moves.  Any player can request a half point bye in any one of the first four rounds or a delay in the start of their game in round 1 of 30 minutes.  Likely start times for the rounds are 20.00 on the Friday evening, 09.45 and 14.15 on the Saturday and 09.45 and 14.00 on the Sunday.

Prices at this hotel are significantly lower than we paid at last year’s venue.  The cost for dinner, bed and breakfast for BCA members and associate members per night is: for a single room, £57; for a twin/double room £50 per person.

An online booking form is here.  The closing date for entries is 26th August.  Please send any queries about the event to John Fullwood.  Email: organiser.autumn@braillechess.org.uk.