British Women's Championship, 14-17 October 2021

 This year's British Championship festival had a number of events other than the main championship, and one of them was the British Women's Championship. This is normally awarded within the British Championship itself, but this year it was a stand-alone event.

The pre-tournament favourites were two former champions, IM Harriet Hunt (who won the title four times between 1995 and 1999) and GM Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (who won it four times between 2003 and 2007). But they clearly weren't going to have it all their own way, as third seed Katarzyna Toma beat both of them in successive rounds to be the sole leader after round 3.

Had she gone on to convert a winning position against Varney in round 5, Toma would now no doubt be the champion. But a loss on time in that game meant that there were three joint leaders after that point, and whoever of Toma, Varney and Hunt made the most of their two final games would probably win the event. 

And Hunt was the won who rose to the challenge, winning both games on the last day to finish on 5½/7 and win her fifth title. (The 22-year gap between successive titles is a record for this championship.) Toma was second with 5; third place on 4½ was shared by Arakhamia-Grant, Varney and Kueh. (Kueh's performance notably got her live rating up to 2099, just one point short of being able to claim the WFM title.)

 


Title Name Rating Federation 1.Rd 2.Rd 3.Rd 4.Rd 5.Rd 6.Rd 7.Rd Score
1 IM Hunt Harriet V 2414 England 10w1 5b½ 2b0 4w1 3w1 6b1 7w1 5½
2 WGM Toma Katarzyna 2254 England 6w1 4b1 1w1 3b½ 5w0 7b½ 9w1 5
3 Kueh Audrey 2080 England -½ 8b1 5w1 2w½ 1b0 10w1 4b½ 4½
4 GM Arakhamia-Grant   Ketevan E 2376 Scotland 7b1 2w0 11w1 1b0 8w1 5b1 3w½ 4½
5 WCM Varney Zoe 1937 England 11b1 1w½ 3b0 7w1 2b1 4w0 -1 4½
6 Singha Swati 1438 India 2b0 7w0 -1 10b1 11w1 1w0 8b1 4
7 Subramanian   Anusha 1623 England 4w0 6b1 10w1 5b0 9b1 2w½ 1b0 3½
8 Pyun Lindsay 1443 England -½ 3w0 9b½ -1 4b0 11w+ 6w0 3
9 Hariharan   Shambavi 1109 England -½ 10b0 8w½ 11b1 7w0 -1 2b0 3
10 AFM Bridgeman Niamh 1802 England 1b0 9w1 7b0 6w0 -1 3b0 0 2
11 Arora Prachi 1437 India 5w0 -1 4b0 9w0 6b0 8b- 0 1

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