Handicap Cup 2025
Congratulations to Tim Watson who triumphed in the Handicap Cup on his first attempt. The tournament took place at The County Club on Monday, 7th July 2025.
This year's event had a record entry of 31 players and no less than 4 players tied for top spot with 5 points from 6 games; however, Tim was awarded the trophy on tie break (sum of progressive scores).
Full results can be found at: St Albans Handicap Cup - Results
In each round of the 6-round Swiss time allocated between players in each game is determined by a time handicap based on the difference in their ECF Rapid Rating.
| ECF Rating Difference | Higher Rated Player | Lower Rated Player |
| 0 to 99 | 10 min | 10 min |
| 100 to 199 | 9 min | 11 min |
| 200 to 299 | 8 min | 12 min |
| 300 to 399 | 7 min | 13 min |
| 400 to 499 | 6 min | 14 min |
| 500 to 599 | 5 min | 15 min |
| 600 plus | 4 min | 16 min |
| Final Ranking after 6 Rounds | ||||||
| Rk. | SNo | Name | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 |
| 1 | 15 | Watson, Timothy | 1666 | 5 | 19.5 | 9766 |
| 2 | 9 | Manghiuc, Bogdan A | 1876 | 5 | 19 | 9576 |
| 3 | 19 | Gemmell, Adam | 1601 | 5 | 18 | 9515 |
| 4 | 3 | Sommerbauer-Cornell, Ben | 1983 | 5 | 18 | 8776 |
| 5 | 11 | Lexton, Mike J | 1807 | 4 | 16.5 | 7524 |
| 6 | 7 | Robinson, Adam | 1905 | 4 | 15 | 8150 |
| 7 | 4 | Gemmell, John | 1955 | 4 | 14 | 9178 |
| 8 | 16 | Magee, Sean | 1648 | 4 | 11 | 9349 |
| 9 | 5 | Willmott, Neil D | 1948 | 3.5 | 14.5 | 8435 |
| 10 | 1 | Ellis, Aidan B | 2072 | 3.5 | 13 | 8695 |
| 11 | 18 | Kortekaas, Matt | 1624 | 3.5 | 12.5 | 9247 |
| 12 | 2 | Fraser-Mitchell, Jeremy N | 1985 | 3.5 | 12.5 | 8978 |
| 13 | 13 | Botev, Lubomir | 1705 | 3.5 | 9 | 7550 |
| 14 | 12 | Serrano, Jose | 1724 | 3 | 13 | 8581 |
| 15 | 10 | Bower, David E | 1867 | 3 | 12 | 8592 |
| 16 | 8 | Bodnar, Ovidiu | 1887 | 3 | 11 | 8017 |
| 17 | 17 | Taylor, Stephen A | 1638 | 3 | 9.5 | 9162 |
| 18 | 20 | Brown, Harvey | 1600 | 3 | 7 | 8327 |
| 19 | 28 | Robinson, Ethan | 1249 | 2.5 | 10 | 8910 |
| 20 | 14 | Cross, Ian K | 1692 | 2.5 | 10 | 8373 |
| 21 | 23 | Baguley, John | 1538 | 2.5 | 8 | 8772 |
| 22 | 22 | Claret, Ray R | 1541 | 2.5 | 7.5 | 8591 |
| 23 | 24 | Pines, Chris | 1526 | 2.5 | 4.5 | 6636 |
| 24 | 26 | Calvia, Luca | 1408 | 2 | 9 | 8868 |
| 25 | 6 | Lawrence, Paul | 1932 | 2 | 8.5 | 8156 |
| 26 | 30 | Syske, Adrian | 1124 | 2 | 7 | 6915 |
| 27 | 25 | Douse, Terry | 1509 | 2 | 5 | 5091 |
| 28 | 31 | Hill, Martin | 1007 | 1.5 | 8 | 6843 |
| 29 | 21 | Coetzee, Kieren | 1584 | 1.5 | 2.5 | 7290 |
| 30 | 27 | Mateo-Golding, Leo | 1400 | 1 | 5 | 6896 |
| 31 | 29 | Moore, Maurice | 1175 | 1 | 4 | 6524 |
| Annotation | ||||||
| Tie Break1: Progressive Score, before FIDE-Tie-Break (PS)(Gamepoints) | ||||||
| Tie Break2: Sum of the ratings of the opponents (whithout one result) | ||||||