Over the board face to face chess is ruled out at present but many online competitions have been organised locally and nationally – and Wellington’s top player, Alex Conway, took on one of the toughest tests imaginable.

The English Chess Federation organised a 24-hour endurance competition to raise money for the British Red Cross which attracted nearly 500 entrants. Alex could not resist the temptation of such a challenge, which involved playing matches where each player had just five minutes to complete all his or her moves.

This format over 24 hours meant that lots of games were played very quickly, requiring intense concentration and speed of thought, which is very difficult to maintain for long periods. The competition started at 5pm on Saturday and the winner was the player who won most games. Alex got off to a good start and played continuously for nine hours before taking a break. At one time around midnight he was in the top ten but fatigue set in and he took a much-needed break around 2am before resuming at 8am on the Sunday in 30th position.

Alex played for most of the remaining time available registering many wins but a few more losses than he would have wished – and the competition in the higher positions was very tough. He lost two close matches against Grandmasters before scoring a fine win by checkmate against an opponent of almost Grandmaster status. In the end Alex just missed out on a prize, finishing in a very creditable 40th place.