2021 British Championship, Round 3

 The top-board clash between Gormally and Hebden petered out to a 19-move draw, giving the players on 1½ a chance to join them in the lead, and all three pairings in that scoregroup produced someone who did so. On board 2, Marcus Harvey beat Keith Arkell after the latter got tangled up in the opening and had to give up a pawn to get any counterplay. On board 3, Neil Bradbury ruthlessly exploited a space advantage against Joe McPhillips. And on board 4, Andrew Ledger had a slight positional edge all the way through against Peter Finn, and made things more and more difficult for his opponent as the game went on.

There is a sizeable chasing pack as well, as all four games in the 1/2 scoregroup were also decisive. Wins for Nick Pert, David Eggleston and Hamish Olson against lower-rated opposition were no surprise, but the fourth one was the shock of the tournament so far, as 10-year-old Freddie Gordon beat Laurence Webb, rated more than 600 points above him.


Board No. Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name Rtg No.
1 2 GM Gormally Daniel   W 2480 2 ½ - ½ 2 GM Hebden Mark   L 2455 4
2 6 GM Arkell Keith C 2380 1½ 0 - 1 1½ FM Harvey Marcus R 2465 3
3 10 IM Bradbury Neil H 2265 1½ 1 - 0 1½ IM Mcphillips   Joseph 2425 5
4 8 IM Ledger Andrew J 2329 1½ 1 - 0 1½ Finn Peter 1959 16
5 13 WFM Sucikova   Svetlana 2175 1 0 - 1 1 GM Pert Nicholas 2548 1
6 14 WFM Head Louise 2090 1 0 - 1 1 IM Eggleston David   J 2356 7
7 15 Starley Robert 2057 1 0 - 1 1 FM Olson Hamish 2273 9
8 12 FM Webb Laurence E 2184 1 0 - 1 1 Gordon Frederick 1523 21
9 11 Brooks Phil J 2191 ½ ½ - ½ ½ AFM Latypova Olga L 1266 22
10 19 Khoury Theo 1814 ½ 0 - 1 0 Willison Steven 1936 17
11 18 Stubbs Oliver 1925 0 1 - 0 0 Mehrafarin   Amirabbas 1734 20





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