THE first Hastings international chess congress was held in 1895 - a time when chess congresses of any kind were rare.
The second did not occur until 1919, when a tournament was held to mark victory in World War One.
This prompted the start of an annual event held over the New Year, starting in 1920-21 and supplemented by special summer congresses in 1922 and 1995.
There have been 95 New Year congresses - five were cancelled in the 1940s due to Adolf Hitler.
(You could blame 'war' or 'wartime regulations' for the cancellations, but everyone knew who was really to blame.)
Fast forward to 2020 and we were looking forward to the 96th New Year congress - the 100th overall Hastings international chess congress.
Then came covid-19, but many people thought Hastings would go ahead, like Biel, Prague and other prestigious international events, albeit in a modified format.
But such thinking failed to take into account that Hastings has got itself into a situation where it is largely beholden to a single sponsor.
That sponsor is Caplin Systems, a financial software firm run by John Ashworth, a keen but not very informed chess player (his ECF grade is 81).
A decision on how this year's event would be organised was due to be taken by the organising committee on August 22.
But before the committee met Ashworth gave an interview to The Chess Pit in which he claimed the vast majority of Hastings participants are in the "higher-risk category."
Furthermore he said there was a need to be "exceptionally cautious."
Now when your chief sponsor says "Jump!", you don't ask " Why?" - you ask "How high?"
And so it came to pass that, for the second time in its history, Hastings has been cancelled.
You could blame covid-19 or government regulations for the latest cancellation - you could, but I don't.
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