British Championship Report
 

By the British Chess Championship Publicity Officer, Bob Jones. email: presschess@hotmail.com

 

Round 11

One thing was for sure at the outset - there would be no short Grandmaster draws on the top boards, as everyone needed wins to be sure of either winning the title, being in the play-offs or at least, ensuring a reasonable cheque for finishing high up the list - and so it proved.

The first title to be decided was the Ladies Championship where Georgian-born Keti Arakhama-Grant and Lithuanian-born Dagne Ciuksyte were playing on adjacent boards on level scores and both with Black. However, Dagne was forced to concede a draw, while shortly after, Keti’s superior position turned into a win. This gave her the title for the 4^th consecutive time.

Both Storey and Briscoe needed wins to get an 11 rd. IM norm, but both lost, Briscoe’s loss to Bellin ensuring the latter had gone through the tournament without a loss.

On the top boards, the tension grew as the first time control was passed at 18.15 before Jonathan Rowson overcame Pert to reach 8 points and become the leader in the clubhouse. Hebden and Haslinger drew to leave them on 7½. By 20.00 a crowd of about 100 people were glued to the two remaining games, which involved the overnight leaders. Aagaard had been the exchange down at one point but fought back and finished off on 8½ with a killing combination to reach 8½ and guarantee at least a place in the playoff. Very shortly after, Stephen Gordon, the only other person who could equal Aagaard, was forced to concede a draw with Kosten.

So after all that, it was a double scotch all round and no play-offs.

Congratulations to Keti and Jacob for playing both winning and entertaining chess all through the fortnight, showing it can be done. Well done to all the other prizewinners, norm-getters and the other new title holders in all the many other sections.

Many thanks are due to the contacts here at Great Yarmouth College who have no only welcomed this important event here, but done so much to facilitate the media and technical side of things.

Next year’s venue is the magnificent concert hall of the Town Hall in Liverpool, to mark that city’s year as European City of Culture. See you there.

Round 10 

It seems no-one can really stamp themselves on this tournament, as clear 1^st and 2^nd respectively going into today’s round, Aagaard and Haslinger, both lost and stay on 7½, allowing the chasing pack to close the gap.

On Bd. 1 Aagaard faced a Sicilian Defence and met it with an early King-side push, as is usual for White in this opening. However, by doing so, he weakened his own King-side while Black’s stayed strong. Black countered on the Q-side where both knights took up position. Eventually, as the first time control approached, Black’s final attack was able force the White King from g1 to g4 where pieces got pinned, and Aagaard resigned. A good example of the typical pattern of K-side thrust and Q-side counter thrust in the Sicilian and it was Andrew Martin’s Game of the Day.

On Bd. 2 Kosten and Haslinger reached an ending with opposite coloured bishops, which is often drawn in spite of any imbalance in the pawn structure. However, Kosten carefully manoeuvred, developing small advantages to the point where his Bishop was posted in a very strong position, both shepherding White pawns forward and preventing Black’s from advancing.

Jack Rudd had his moment of glory as he faced defending champion, Jonathan Rowson on Bd. 4, his highest placing ever in the later stages, but it was short-lived as he ran up against the Scot’s Sicilian Defence. This brought Rowson to 7 points and right back into the reckoning.  Likewise Hebden who defeated Stuart Conquest and Flear who beat Charlie Storey, denting his hopes of the title and the biggest upset since 1946.

This leaves the position at the start of the final round as 1^st= Aagaard & Gordon on 7½, 3^rd= Haslinger, Kosten, Rowson, Pert, Hebden, Flear all on 7. Any one of these 8 players could win the championship and a play-off on Saturday morning looks a distinct possibility.

Great Yarmouth’s very own Robert Bellin, one of only three former champions playing here, drew against David Eggleston, and must surely be aiming to become the only undefeated championship player in his home town.

By the middle of the final week, the event website was registering 2,500,000 hits a day. This figure needs to be treated with caution, as, for example, a hit is recorded each time a move is made in a game being monitored, though it is still technically correct to call it a “hit”. However, if one divides this overall number by, let us say 50, we get a rough idea of the number of different people, or “unique persons” as they say in the trade, watching daily. This still gives us the approximate more meaningful figure of 50,000 folk logging on for a reasonable period of time. For more information on hits, visit the ECF forum.

 

Round 9
The Lancashire lads, Stuart Haslinger (Formby) and Stephen Gordon (Oldham) met on Bd. 1, but neither could clinch the full point and settled for a draw.

Meanwhile, joint overnight leader on 6½, Jacob Aagaard, got back to winning ways after his reverse the previous day, by beating young GM David Howell. Other GMs on the top boards settled for draws, but Rowson on Bd 6 pulled back to 6 with a win over Chris Briscoe. One GM that went down was former champion Chris Ward who lost to Charlie Storey, who only came in at the last minute to even up the numbers and now finds himself on 6/9. It was Storey’s first win over a GM and gave him his first IM norm. His immediate response was to ask “What do I need for a GM norm?” Andrew Martin, too, was impressed and awarded it his Game of the Day.

Another GM to lose was Danny Gormally, who lost to Jack Rudd, who enters every year and usually finishes up at about a 50% score. Now he’s on 6 points with 2 to play, in among the chasing pack of GMs and with a chance of an IM norm.

Alongside the chase for the overall title, there is the question of the Ladies Championship which involves the five ladies among the 68 players. Champion on the last 3 occasions has been ex-Georgian, Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant, and yet again she is has emerged as a leading contender, but this time she a close rival in the shape of Dagne Cuiksyte, who moved to Ipswich from Panevezys in Lithuania, 3 years ago. Dagne is a little constrained by having a 12 week old baby, Charlotte, whom she has to feed at intervals during the game, but apart from that, her partner Mark Weidman looks after the baby the rest of the time, carrying her round the hall in a special baby-carrier – a nice reversal of the traditional roles that has not gone unnoticed. But will it, in fact, be Charlotte’s presence who decides the destiny of this year’s Ladies trophy?

Leading players after 9 rounds: 1^st: Aagaard 7½.  2^nd . Haslinger 7. 3^rd=  Gordon & Pert 6½. 5^th=  Kosten; Rudd; Rowson; Conquest; Hebden; Flear & Storey all 6 pts.

Round 8
Board 1 paired the new Grandmasters-elect, and they banged out 17 moves of theory each in the first few minutes of the game. It was another Ruy Lopez, which, notwithstanding its centuries old popularity, seems to have found a renewed favour among the top players here. Nearing the time control, both players sought to attack; Aagaard gave up a piece to get his Queen and Rook established on the 7^th rank, but overlooked Haslinger’s smart riposte on the 40^th move and White had to resign. The game was accorded Andrew Martin’s Game of the Day.

Part of the secret of Haslinger’s recent success has been that, after years of higher education culminating in getting an M.Sc. in Maths at Liverpool University, he has allowed himself a sabbatical year to both play chess and consider his future career options. The GM title will be a fitting justification of that “year out”.

This left both players on 6½/8, but there were more shocks in store. On Bd. 2 young Stephen Gordon faced three times and defending Champion, Rowson, who, after playing 15…Rb4 endangered his own Rook and sure enough it got trapped, losing him the exchange. Later, with both Kings stuck in their respective corners and under attack from heavy artillery, the superiority of White’s double rooks told, and Rowson fell to his 2^nd loss. Stephen Gordon, one of the less familiar names among the high-fliers here, is a 20 year old student from Oldham, Lancashire, and needs only one more GM norm and the requisite 2500 rating to get the GM title, and at this rate, may well do it this week.

This put Gordon on 6/8, level with Pert, and the other results left a whole raft of GMs on 5½, including Kosten, Hebden, Flear, Howell, Conquest and Williams

Other players moving up to 5 pts and eyeing up the prize list if not the title, include former Champion Robert Bellin, Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant seeking to defend her Ladies title, Rendle, Rudd, Briscoe and Storey.

In the Commentary Room, Andrew Martin is offering a book prize to anyone who can predict the correct result on each of the top 4 games. No one has won it for a week, which must be telling us something.

Round 7
It was Aagaard again, leading from the front, who forced the pace in today’s round, beating Simon Williams and moving to 6½/7. Playing a Sicilian Defence, he established certain positional advantages in the early middle game, which he gradually and patiently added, all the time denying Williams any real counterplay, until he was forced to capitulate on move 49. 

The most impressive performer so far, after Aagaard, has been Stuart Haslinger. After an uncertain start to the tournament, he followed up his win against No. 2 Stuart Conquest yesterday with another today against GM Danny Gormally. Haslinger, a 23 year old student from Formby, Lancashire, got his 3^rd GM norm at the Welsh International just a few weeks ago, and merely needed to raise his rating at some point to 2500 or above. He hasn’t had to wait long, for this win today did exactly that for him. Everyone concerned so far seem to agree with this conclusion – it only awaits FIDE’s ratification. Subject to that, it appears a second GM title has been created here within a few days. 

Rowson & Kosten both lost ground by “only drawing”, but it was a lively game right from the start and was accorded Andrew Martin’s Game of the Day. His full analysis will appear in the daily and final bulletin, currently being prepared by Arnold and Nathaniel Lutton. In short, Rowson attacked strongly at the start, but Kosten gradually turned the tables for a while and Rowson only just managed to regain equality, and both player were probably not unhappy to share the point.

Former champion and Gt. Yarmouth’s very own Robert Bellin had a difficult first week involving several short draws, but had already determined to make his mark this week. True to his word, he beat Stephen Barrett with a strong attack, to move to 4.5, with more points to come.

As the 2^nd week progresses other players who have had a good run, will now be keeping their eye on possible norms to be won. Given continuing success in Rds 8 & 9, nine round norms are there to be had for Stephen Gordon (GM), and S. Barrett, C. Briscoe, P. Poobalasingham, C. Storey and Li Wu who are all up for IM norms.

Round 6
By the end of the first week, things were warming up in more ways that one – the weather was almost stiflingly hot and affairs on the board reflected the weather.

Board 1 featured a Scottish battle royal as Rowson and Aagaard were paired together. The latter might have been excused for feeling a safe draw against the top seed might be the best policy, but he clearly thought otherwise. He had the slight advantage of the white pieces and after a short tip-toe through the familiar opening moves of a Ruy Lopez, he sought very hard to find some positional advantage. He won a pawn on move 30, but Rowson managed to hang on and equalise, agreeing a draw 20 moves later.

The shock of the day on the top boards was Conquest’s 2nd loss of the tournament, this time against Haslinger. He too played a Ruy Lopez, in which Black put his King in the corner and played an early f5. Pawns came off opening lines to the White King. The Black pawns came forward and broke the position right open, and the White King fell to a Queen, Rook and bishop pair all bearing down. Andrew Martin awarded it his Game of the Day and the result must mean that Conquest can now only have an outside chance at best.

Bd. 4 featured a very long game between Ketevan Arakhamis-Grant and Hebden, in which all four knights featured. After White won a pawn on move 24 with a clever tactic, the knights tangoed around the board for over 60 more moves, attacking and defending with great skill. However, after almost 7 hour’s play neither player could find a winning plan and a draw was agreed. Most of the other GMs consolidated their positions in the leading group with wins; Gormally, Howell and Flear whose opponent Jack Rudd, couldn’t understand at first why his game should be attracting such a large crowd, until he realised his board was situated next a large cooling fan.

At the end of the day, Aagaard had retained his one point lead, but a pack of no less than seven were on his shoulder on 4½.


Round 5
The usual pattern in a large Swiss Tournament is for the number of draws to increase in the later stages, as the players of equal abilities are paired together all the way down the list, but that was not the case today as wins and losses abounded. With some exceptions, it was mostly the GMs that seem to have got their collective bits between their teeth and decided to strike for the front.

Hebden notched up a quick win, with Howell and Rowson not far behind. The top game involved the only two left on maximum points; Pert, who had seemed the steadiest and most focussed of the titled players so far, against Aagaard, who, although riding a certain amount of luck against Wu in Rd. 2, now seems to possess a certain bullish determination. Certainly this quality paid dividends today, as Pert was torn apart. He was a little slow in castling, and his King got caught in the centre. The Dane sacrificed a Knight for 2 pawns to open the centre and, having breached White’s defences, piled in with the heavy artillery. This now leaves Aagaard the only player on a maximum score, a full point clear of Kosten and Rowson, who have a raft of players half a point behind them.

Meanwhile, in the Commentary Room, Andrew Martin had a set of questions prepared for him by Rob Jones, and challenged his internet audience to e-mail the name of the last player to win four consecutive titles. The first in with the correct answer was one Ron Jones of Peterborough, a member of the Perkins Chess Club. The two are in no way related, I hasten to add.

 

Round 4
Before the start of today’s round it was revealed by the Great Yarmouth College authorities that the demand for the live webcam output, that had been set up by them and was going out through their channels to the event website, was so great that the system was unable to cope fully. So they closed down the webcams covering the main playing hall while Andrew Martin was doing his stand-up act in the Commentary Room. It was hoped this would enable more people to log on more quickly and enjoy Andrew’s perceptive analyses of the top games. Meantime, GYC were seeking a greater band-width to cope with the unprecedented demand.  

Also, they had made available video clips of the TV programmes that Anglia and BBC’s Look East, broadcast on Monday evening, which can now be accessed through the website. 

Another first for the event today was Andrew’s innovation of offering a book prize through the internet. For years he has regularly done this with his immediate audience in the Commentary Room, but the presence of a live webcam opened up the possibility of interacting with the wider audience. He set a question and the first person to answer correctly via e-mail received a copy of Gary Lane’s book, “Find The Checkmate”. The quick-witted winner was Mr. Justin Hadi, an Oxford University student, who thus claims a very small place in chess history. Andrew plans to repeat this feature twice a day during his analysis sessions. 

On Bd. 2 GM-elect Jacob Aargaard kept his foot on the pedal with a quick win over Graeme Oswald. Not far behind was Nick Pert who beat Stephen Barrett on Bd. 1. GMs Rowson, Flear and Kosten also kept in touch with the leaders with wins. David Howell fought on the better side of a long R v R+N endgame, but had to concede after almost 7 hours’ play that he couldn’t make anything of the advantage. An identical situation arose in Sowray v Yang-Fan Zhou which ended the same way.  

One of the few full-on Grandmaster encounters so far was on Bd. 3 where Conquest met former Champion Chris Ward. This long game followed a surge and flow pattern, where long passages of slow deliberate play were followed by mad time scrambles. In the end Conquest was able to force a draw by repetition when R+N v R down.

Andrew Martin’s Game of the Day award went to the Glenn Flear – Susan Lalic game, in which he won a couple of pawns in the early middle game and finished off with a nice exchange sacrifice to settle the matter abruptly.

Round 3
It is not known what, at the outset, the odds were against the spotlight in Round 3 falling on Nick Pert, Graeme Buckley, Stephen Barrett, Stephen Gordon, Graeme Oswald, Glenn Flear, Li Wu and Jacob Aargaard (in that order) contesting the top 4 games, but they must have been pretty long. Also, the unexpected sight of familiar names like Rowson, Hebden and Howell playing down the hall, way off the pace, was a timely reminder that there are no easy games at this level. Not that any of the Grandmasters needed to lose heart at this early stage, but no-one could afford to be off-form for more than a game or two.

Most significant of the top games was that between Li Wu and Aargaard on Bd. 4. The latter had to win to be assured of reaching the 2500 rating that would enable him to convert his three GM norms into the full title – anything less would continue the uncertainty. Things went badly for him and towards the first time control he felt he was staring defeat in the face, but both players were short of time, and the Dane played instinctively, hoping his young opponent would miss the best continuations. This is indeed what happened and he managed to pull the iron from the fire and grab the full point. On entering the Commentary Room afterwards, to a round of applause from the assembled crowd, Britain’s newest Grandmaster went through the game, with the preamble that “to win a tournament like this one needs a certain amount of luck, unless one is Jonathan Rowson - and many would say being Jonathan Rowson is lucky anyway”. Lucky or not, Andrew Martin accorded it his Game of the Day. 

Pert made no mistakes against Buckley, though the latter was able to play on for almost 20 moves a whole rook down, thanks to some potentially powerful pawns.

However, on Bd. 3 it was the GM that came a cropper, Flear losing to the unfancied Graeme Oswald, only 49^th out of the 68 players in terms of rating, but jointly leading the field at the end of the day. Flear sacrificed the exchange in order to try and achieve a breakthough, but Oswald not only hung on but countered in style. 

After a long tussle, Barrett beat Gordon on Bd. 2 to stay in the leading pack of four, together with Pert, Oswald and Aargaard. Grandmasters Conquest, Gormally, Ward and Kosten all won to stay half a point behind.  Yesterday’s casualties, Howell, Rowson and Hebden all rediscovered winning ways, and stay in touch with the leaders.

Round 2
There was drama at the end of Round 2 as several hopes, aspirations and reputations took a dent.

On Bd. 1 the three-times defending champion, Jonathan Rowson, playing Black, was involved in a difficult ending against Glenn Flear, where both players ran very short of time. As Flear made his 40^th move, the last before the first time control, he noticed his flag had fallen, and momentarily assumed he had lost on time. He then noticed Rowson’s flag had already fallen, so Flear, far from having lost, had actually beaten the top player in the tournament. Rowson was a piece down at that point so can’t feel too badly done by.

On Bd. 2, the Danish-born Scot, Jacob Aargaard, was playing Leicester GM Mark Hebden who had to defend a Ruy Lopez. At the end, Aargaard was able to get a second queen and a forced mate quickly followed. Aargaard immediately claimed this win gave him the GM title. He has 3 GM norms to his credit and simply needs to raise his rating to 2500. He thought this win had done it for him, but on checking back over his recent tournament results, it seems that, in fact, he was agonisingly close but not quite over that particular finishing line. His next game may do it for him - or not, as the case may be.

Andrew Martin’s game of the day was on Bd. 3 where Nick Pert faced Stewart Haslinger. Pert’s 23^rd move Bd8 deserves at least one exclamation mark, if not two, after which the game was soon over. Full analysis can be found in Arnold Lutton’s daily bulletin and will be featured in the final commemorative bulletin that he publishes later. All Martin’s commentaries can be seen and heard live on the website, and many thousands are tuning in, so he has to bear this in mind as he gets into full flow with his hilarious observations on the chess world and its inhabitants. If world-wide interest in this event be in any doubt, the website received at least 600,000 hits on Day 1 and yesterday this went up to ¾ million. This will inevitably continue to climb as the tournament progresses and the issues become clearer.


Round 1
The Opening ceremony this year was a little more informal than some in the past. The Mayor and Lady Mayor, Mrs & Mrs. Paul Garod, in their civic finery, the College Principal, Robin Parkinson and E. C. F. President, Gerry Walsh assembled in front of the top four boards, and everyone simply gathered round.

First of all the Congress Manager, David Welch, was presented with the President’s Award for services to chess. Then David Howell was presented with documentation that made him the first recipient of an ECF John Robinson Fellowship, which takes the shape of a grant of £2,000 to further his chess career. This was followed by words of welcome from the Principal and the Mayor, succinct enough to allow play to get under way right on time – the perfect start. 

On Bd. 1 Rowson found it difficult against Simon Knott, but played elegantly in a long endgame involving bishops of opposite colour, and was able to nurse an extra pawn and secure victory.

On Bd. 2 Jack Rudd played with his usual freedom and gave Conquest things to think about, to such an extent that he ran short of time. However, after he was able to equalise, Rudd was determined not to blow his chances by pushing too hard, and they baled out for a draw, about which Rudd must feel the happier.

On Bd. 3 Hebden met Sowray’s Pirc Defence by pushing hard in the centre and establishing a knight on the 6^th rank for much of the game, supported by a pawn and both rooks. Eventually, a white pawn on d7 settled the matter in Hebden’s favour.

On Bd. 4, Susan Lalic played the Winawer against the French Defence, but got into early difficulties and gave up the exchange for no compensation.

On Bd. 5, David Howell, possibly a little unsettled by the media interest in him  (T.V. and radio interviews that took most of the morning), dropped a half point against another junior David Eggleston. Howell also got a knight established on the 6^th rank, usually a sure sign of a win to follow, but this time he couldn’t convert it into a full point.

An interesting newcomer to British chess is the 29 year old Lithuanian lady, Dagne Ciuksyte, who has just qualified as an English player under the 1 year residence rule. She met Charles Storey of Whitley Bay, who was moved up from the Major Open at short notice, to even up the numbers.

The game started on the familiar enough lines of a Ruy Lopez, but soon took off. Storey, clearly encouraged by his sudden promotion, played with great verve and took the point, and the honour of being awarded the Andrew Martin “Game of the Day”.