Incomplete record. This archive holds 10 games of this event; the others are missing, and the number played is not established. Ten verified Challengers scores are represented. Further played games are documented, but the complete pairing and default ledger is unavailable.
Mark Diesen won the ten-round Hastings Challengers undefeated with 8 points, earning £200 and a place in the next Premier. The expanded tournament had 64 reported entrants, including 27 from abroad. Ten verified game scores are represented here.
A place in the Premier
The Challengers Reserves section was abolished and the main Challengers field expanded for the 1973/74 congress. Sixteen-year-old Diesen won this open event ahead of seven players tied on 7 points: Arovah Bachtiar, Robert Bellin, Ralph Mallee, John Nunn, Craig Pritchett, Herman Suradiradja and Louis de Veauce.
Diesen and de Veauce entered the tenth and final round on 7 points. Diesen defeated Rol while de Veauce lost to Pritchett. Diesen described that finish in his contemporary first-person report in Chess Life & Review.
What survives
Published game selections establish further played games, but they are absent from the approved archive. The available standing summary lists 59 of the reported 64 entrants; the complete pairing, bye and default ledger was not obtained, so the total actually played remains unknown.
The Premier and the Main B subsidiary tournament were separate competitions. The source label also contains a game from the previous Challengers edition and a miniature whose section remains unidentified; those records are excluded from this tournament. Original game dates, unknown rounds, moves and disputed name forms are preserved.
Result
Ten verified scores survive in the approved archive. The published summary names 59 of the reported 64 entrants, and the number actually played is not established; no complete cross table is inferred.