British Championship 2022, Round 9

 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, with James Jackson and David Eggleston, both of whom won their last-round gamse against higher-rated opponents, finishing equal third.

Lan Yao won the women's title; her draw against Dishman meant that she could not be overtaken, and then Katarzyna Toma's failure to convert a winning position against Birtwistle meant the title was hers outright.

My own game was a hard-fought draw. I thought I'd gotten a nice advantage early on, but my opponent proved equal to the task of holding the position, and in the end, I was the one fighting to save it. This got me a final score of 5/9, my first plus score since Coventry 2015, and a gain of about 6 rating points.