2021 British Championship, Round 1

 The British Chess Championships have returned, after their absence in 2020, and this is the first time since 1998 that I will not be playing; while happy enough to be attending my local chess club, a journey all the way to Hull on public transport is probably a bit too risky for now. With any luck, I should be able to take part in the 2022 event in Torquay.

It seems that a number of other people may have had similar doubts, which is why the Championship Section is the smallest in my time, less than half the size of the Douglas 2005 event. Still, it is impressively strong for such a small tournament, with 4 GMs, 4 IMs, 3 FMs and 2 WFMs playing. Notably, for the first time since Liverpool 2008, none of the entrants have ever won the title before, although all four GMs have been runner-up (in Arkell's case, losing in a playoff against Conquest at the aforementioned 2008 event).

The opening round featured the standard top half v bottom half mismatches, and the size of the rating differences suggested that any full-point upsets would be very unlikely. So it proved, although four of the bottom-half players (Brooks, Sucikova, Finn and Khoury) managed to draw their games.


Board No. Federation Title Name Rating Pts. Result Pts. Title Name Rating Federation No.
1 11 England
Brooks Phil J 2191 0 ½ - ½ 0 GM Pert Nicholas 2548 England 1
2 2 England GM Gormally Daniel   W 2480 0 1 - 0 0 FM Webb Laurence E 2184 England 12
3 13 Slovakia WFM Sucikova   Svetlana 2175 0 ½ - ½ 0 FM Harvey Marcus R 2465 England 3
4 4 England GM Hebden Mark L 2455 0 1 - 0 0 WFM Head Louise 2090 England 14
5 15 England
Starley Robert 2057 0 0 - 1 0 IM Mcphillips   Joseph 2425 England 5
6 6 England GM Arkell Keith C 2380 0 ½ - ½ 0
Finn Peter 1959 England 16
7 17 Chile
Willison Steven 1936 0 0 - 1 0 IM Eggleston David   J 2356 England 7
8 8 England IM Ledger Andrew J 2329 0 1 - 0 0
Stubbs Oliver 1925 England 18
9 19 England
Khoury Theo 1814 0 ½ - ½ 0 FM Olson Hamish 2273 Scotland 9
10 10 England IM Bradbury Neil H 2265 0 1 - 0 0
Mehrafarin   Amirabbas 1734 Iran 20
11 21 Scotland
Gordon Frederick 1523 0 1

full point bye


12 22 England AFM Latypova Olga L 1266 0 ½

half point bye






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