IM Alex Golding, 22, who earned nearly £2,000, is among the rising talents aiming to match the leading English grandmasters

Hastings is the grandfather of international chess tournaments, first staged in 1895 and then every year since 1920, with breaks for war and pandemics. Its vintage years were the 1930s, 50s and 70s, when world champions and challengers lined up to compete, while the badminton legend Sir George Thomas and the Bletchley Park codebreaker Hugh Alexander both shared first after defeating renowned opponents.

Nowadays, Hastings has publicity problems, sandwiched as it is between the London Classic and Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee, and running simultaneously with the Magnus Carlsen show in the World Rapid/Blitz.