The 98th edition of the Caplin Hastings International Chess Congress was held from 28th December to 5th January 2025 at the Horntye Park Sports Complex, Hastings, England. The Congress featured Masters Tournament, Con Power tournament, New Year tournament and Weekend Congress event.
16-year-old Haowen Xue (China, 2502) emerged victorious in the Caplin Hastings Chess Masters, with the score of 7/9 points. Haowen Xue was unbeaten in the tournament, and emerged as the sole Winner, earning the prize of ยฃ2,500. With the performance of 2645, Haowen Xue claimed his third Grandmaster norm and fulfilled all requirements for the GM title.
As many as six players tied for second place, trailing by half a point: GM Pengxiang Zhang (China, 2567), GM Pierre Laurent-Paoli (France, 2559), GM Shreyas Royal (England, 2522), GM Kirk Ghazarian (USA, 2501), GM Eldar Gasanov (Ukraine, 2476), and GM Daniel Gormally (England, 2424).
Hastings Con Power event was played from 28-31 December with three sections: U2150, U1950, and U1750. The events were played in 6-swiss rounds, and Jonathan Arnott (England, 2082) and Younggyu Lee (South Korea, 1722) tied for the top of the U2150 category scoring 4.5 points, Paul Kelly (Wales, 1939) and AIM Aram Swiatkowski (England, 1792) shared first in the U1950 section with 5 points, while Paul Jackson (England, 1721) emerged as the sole Winner of the U1750 category with the score of 5.5 points.
New Year tournaments were played in three rating categories with 5-swiss rounds in each tournament: U2050, U1850, and U1650. Oliver Howell (England, 1950) and Gerben Van Pel (Netherlands, 1925) tied for the top in the U2050 event with 4 points, three players tied for first in the U1850 section: Chris Howell (England, 1849), Ben Sadler (England, 1824), and Louie Ellson (England, 1821) scoring 4 points, and Erik Heitmann (Germany, 1593) won the U1650 tournament with 4.5 points.
The Weekend Chess Open was played from 3-5 January in Open, Major, Inter and Minor categories. Jack Liu (England, 2180) won the Open tournament with the score of 4.5/5 points, Sylvio Prudent (France, 1780) triumphed in the Major event with 4.5 points, Caelan Rooney (England, 1724) and Zoe Pellatt (England, 1663) tied for the top of the Inter championship with 4.5 points, and Daniel Evans-White (England, 1437) won Minor event with the perfect score of 5/5 points.
Detailed information and all results are available on the Official website.
Final Standings – Caplin Hastings Chess Masters:
| Rk. | Name | sex | FED | Rtg | Pts. | |
| 1 | Xue, Haowen | CHN | 2502 | 7 | ||
| 2 | GM | Zhang, Pengxiang | CHN | 2567 | 6.5 | |
| GM | Laurent-Paoli, Pierre | FRA | 2559 | 6.5 | ||
| GM | Royal, Shreyas | ENG | 2522 | 6.5 | ||
| GM | Ghazarian, Kirk | USA | 2501 | 6.5 | ||
| GM | Gasanov, Eldar | UKR | 2476 | 6.5 | ||
| GM | Gormally, Daniel W | ENG | 2424 | 6.5 | ||
| 8 | GM | Stefansson, Vignir Vatnar | ISL | 2537 | 6 | |
| IM | Seo, Jung Min | SWE | 2491 | 6 | ||
| IM | Bazakutsa, Svyatoslav | UKR | 2484 | 6 | ||
| GM | Kovchan, Alexander | UKR | 2455 | 6 | ||
| IM | Zhou, Yang-Fan | ENG | 2424 | 6 | ||
| FM | Grutter, Tim | NED | 2379 | 6 | ||
| IM | Siva, Mahadevan | IND | 2349 | 6 | ||
| FM | Lux, Hugo De Melo | BRA | 2327 | 6 | ||
| FM | Badacsonyi, Stanley | ENG | 2266 | 6 | ||
| 17 | IM | Boyer, Mahel | FRA | 2526 | 5.5 | |
| IM | Kaasen, Tor Fredrik | NOR | 2473 | 5.5 | ||
| FM | Golding, Alex | ENG | 2405 | 5.5 | ||
| IM | Vestby-Ellingsen, Mads | NOR | 2383 | 5.5 | ||
| FM | Waldhausen Gordon, Frederick | SCO | 2355 | 5.5 | ||
| FM | Roux, Baptiste | FRA | 2338 | 5.5 | ||
| FM | Nielsen, Andre | NOR | 2276 | 5.5 | ||
| Bozinakis, Pavlos | GRE | 2271 | 5.5 | |||
| Golding, James | ENG | 2203 | 5.5 | |||
| Brown, Tom | WLS | 2118 | 5.5 | |||
| Verbytski, Oleg | ENG | 2033 | 5.5 | |||
| WFM | Rida, Ruqayyah | w | ENG | 2019 | 5.5 | |
| Struck, Lasse | GER | 1983 | 5.5 | |||
| 30 | IM | Balaji, Aaravamudhan | ENG | 2364 | 5 | |
| IM | Lucas, Arthur | FRA | 2335 | 5 | ||
| FM | Badacsonyi, Frankie | ENG | 2218 | 5 | ||
| Bin-Suhayl, Ieysaa | ITA | 2183 | 5 | |||
| Briem, Benedikt | ISL | 2132 | 5 | |||
| Kolani, Arjun | ENG | 2131 | 5 | |||
| Saunders, Aron | ENG | 2106 | 5 | |||
| WFM | Verbin, Valentina | w | MDA | 2093 | 5 | |
| CM | Abrahams, Daniel | CAN | 2072 | 5 | ||
| Bharat Kumar, Balahari | ENG | 2063 | 5 | |||
| Kolka, David | ISL | 2020 | 5 | |||
| WCM | Bhatia, Kanishka | w | SCO | 2018 | 5 | |
| Malinovskii, Ilia | ENG | 2003 | 5 | |||
| Jukes, Sam | WLS | 1911 | 5 | |||
| Sasikumar, Srivathsan | ENG | 1904 | 5 | |||
| Dewangan, Aayush | ENG | 1878 | 5 | |||
| 46 | Boswell, Jacob Connor | ENG | 2277 | 4.5 | ||
| Liu, Jack | ENG | 2225 | 4.5 | |||
| Steiners, Emils | LAT | 2209 | 4.5 | |||
| Chandler, Cliff R | ENG | 2161 | 4.5 | |||
| Brewer, Callum D | ENG | 2151 | 4.5 | |||
| Patel, Zain | ENG | 2099 | 4.5 | |||
| Zhang, Junyi | ENG | 2070 | 4.5 | |||
| IM | Marusenko, Petr | UKR | 2021 | 4.5 | ||
| White, Stuart A | SCO | 2017 | 4.5 | |||
| Rayner, Francis | WLS | 2013 | 4.5 | |||
| Adams, Henry | ENG | 1991 | 4.5 | |||
| Gu, In-Jung | KOR | 1987 | 4.5 | |||
| Suez-Panama, Gilles | FRA | 1979 | 4.5 | |||
| Bilandzic, Ante | DEN | 1912 | 4.5 | |||
| 60 | IM | Muir, Andrew J | SCO | 2214 | 4 | |
| FM | Wall, Tim P | ENG | 2173 | 4 | ||
| Dette, Jan | GER | 2102 | 4 | |||
| Cheng, Louis | SCO | 2087 | 4 | |||
| Burrows, Martin P | ENG | 2042 | 4 | |||
| ACM | Lishoy Gengis Paratazham, Dildarav | ENG | 2037 | 4 | ||
| CM | Zhang, Kendrick Botong | NZL | 1979 | 4 | ||
| WFM | Norinkeviciute, Rasa | w | LTU | 1952 | 4 | |
| Samarasinghe, Jude Ranga | SRI | 1944 | 4 | |||
| AIM | Fryer, David W | ENG | 1928 | 4 | ||
| Ahn, Sungmin | KOR | 1926 | 4 | |||
| Vaidyanathan, Adithya | ENG | 1904 | 4 | |||
| Keely, Leo A | ENG | 1899 | 4 | |||
| Pick, Freddie | ENG | 1874 | 4 | |||
| Kennedy, Craig | SCO | 1851 | 4 | |||
| Lee, Jungsoo | KOR | 1705 | 4 | |||
| Kim, Yegeon | KOR | 1697 | 4 | |||
| Kim, Nayoon B | w | KOR | 1663 | 4 | ||
| 78 | Schimnatkowski, Lukas | GER | 2221 | 3.5 | ||
| Sciupokas, Arunas | LTU | 1969 | 3.5 | |||
| Mikalajunas, Kajus | ENG | 1941 | 3.5 | |||
| Hu, Junyan | ENG | 1933 | 3.5 | |||
| Vaidyanathan, Sathya | ENG | 1908 | 3.5 | |||
| Kim, Taewoo A | KOR | 1863 | 3.5 | |||
| Buckland, Louis | ENG | 1856 | 3.5 | |||
| Jacobs, Simon | ENG | 1756 | 3.5 | |||
| Swiatkowski, Dominik | ENG | 1744 | 3.5 | |||
| 87 | Gorainow, Nikita | GER | 2045 | 3 | ||
| WCM | Ashton, Alannah | w | ENG | 1953 | 3 | |
| Alcindor, Samuel | FRA | 1927 | 3 | |||
| Rastogi, Nayan Keats | ENG | 1892 | 3 | |||
| Ruane, Brendan J | ENG | 1869 | 3 | |||
| Stokes, Stephen | IRL | 1866 | 3 | |||
| Eldridge, Albert | ENG | 1850 | 3 | |||
| Flynn, David | ENG | 1834 | 3 | |||
| Miller, Daniel | ENG | 1789 | 3 | |||
| Prudent, Sylvio | FRA | 1780 | 3 | |||
| Wilson, Matthew R | ENG | 1766 | 3 | |||
| Chapman, Luke | ENG | 1706 | 3 | |||
| Choi, Hyunbin | KOR | 1673 | 3 | |||
| 100 | Byron, Alan M | ENG | 2069 | 2.5 | ||
| Zhu, Yaoyao | w | ENG | 1990 | 2.5 | ||
| Rubeck, Jonathan | ENG | 1824 | 2.5 | |||
| Butt, Laurence A | ENG | 1818 | 2.5 | |||
| Raffin-Sumyk, Piermael | FRA | 1512 | 2.5 | |||
| 105 | Blewitt, Stephen D | ENG | 1831 | 2 | ||
| Graham, Oliver | ENG | 1789 | 2 | |||
| 107 | Bryant, Marc A | ENG | 1825 | 1.5 | ||
| Han, Yongsu | KOR | 1718 | 1.5 | |||
| 109 | Kelly, Paul J | WLS | 1839 | 1 | ||
| Wheeler, James M | ENG | 1863 | 1 | |||
| Honarvarmahalati, Hooman | IRI | 1797 | 1 | |||
| CM | Arnott, Jonathan W | ENG | 2082 | 1 |
