Chess Go Spinny

 How would tournament leader Harry Grieve approach Round 9 ? He knew beforehand that a draw would be sufficient to get him a GM norm and a playoff place (or outright victory if N Pert - Arkell was a draw), and many people speculated that he would play a very solid opening to maximize his drawing chances. Not a bit of it; he played a very adventurous opening in which he sacrificed the exchange early on, and ended up sacrificing another one later. For a long while, it wasn't clear what the result would be, and when Pert got an early advantage against Arkell and smoothly converted it, the organizing team were gearing themselves up for a playoff. It turned out not to be necessary; the complications eventually resolved in Grieve's favour, and he ended up delivering mate in a position where his opponent's two queens were useless to prevent it. He thus won the tournament outright, as well as obtaining his final IM norm (and the title) and first GM norm. Nick Pert finished second, ...

My apologies for the severe delay to this round report - I came down with Covid immediately after the British, and a combination of recovery from that and difficult home circumstances meant I found it difficult to write. It's not often that a GM loses in twelve moves, but this happened in Round 8 of the British Championship, as Danny Gormally's championship hopes ended very quickly against John Emms. The other games on the top boards lasted considerably longer, with Wadsworth - N Pert and R Pert - Arkell being hard-fought draws; this allowed Harry Grieve to take sole lead going into the last round with a win against Eggleston. This win also wrapped up the Under-21 title for Grieve, as Jonah Willow could only draw against Brandon Clarke. With Balaji also having wrapped up the Under-18 title, this meant that the only subsidiary title still in the balance was the women's championship; draws for Lan Yao and Katarzyna Toma and a win for Sheila Jackson meant that all three compe...