2021 British Championship, Round 5

 Mark Hebden's position as sole leader in the British Championship didn't last long; he lost to Andrew Ledger, who is himself now the sole leader on 4/5. There is a large chasing pack right behind on 3½: as well as Hebden himself, there are Gormally and Pert (who drew with each other), Harvey (who drew with McPhillips), Olson (who beat Bradbury) and Eggleston (who beat Webb). With four rounds left, it's still plausible that anyone from this group could win.

Decisive games were, in general, the order of the day in this round, with Gormally-Pert and McPhillips-Harvey the only drawn ones; in general, the higher-rated player won, with two exceptions: Ledger-Hebden and Willison-Stubbs. The latter was one of those bizarre games where a clearly winning player overlooked the threat of mate in one.


Board No. Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name Rtg No.
1 8 IM Ledger Andrew   J 2329 3 1 - 0 3½ GM Hebden Mark   L 2455 4
2 2 GM Gormally Daniel   W 2480 3 ½ - ½ 3 GM Pert Nicholas 2548 1
3 5 IM Mcphillips   Joseph 2425 2½ ½ - ½ 3 FM Harvey Marcus R 2465 3
4 10 IM Bradbury Neil H 2265 2½ 0 - 1 2½ FM Olson Hamish 2273 9
5 12 FM Webb Laurence E 2184 2 0 - 1 2½ IM Eggleston David   J 2356 7
6 6 GM Arkell Keith C 2380 2 1 - 0 2 Starley Robert 2057 15
7 21 Gordon Frederick 1523 2 0 - 1 2 WFM Sucikova   Svetlana 2175 13
8 14 WFM Head Louise 2090 1½ 1 - 0 1½ Khoury Theo 1814 19
9 16 Finn Peter 1959 1½ 1 - 0 1½ AFM Latypova Olga L 1266 22
10 17 Willison Steven 1936 1 0 - 1 1 Stubbs Oliver 1925 18
11 11 Brooks Phil J 2191 1 0 not paired
12 20 Mehrafarin   Amirabbas 1734 0 0 not paired


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