Welcome to the home page for the British Chess Championships in October 2021. The finals for the Open, Women’s, Seniors’ and Juniors’ Standardplay Championships were held at venues in Hull and Milton Keynes in early October 2021, subject to Covid-19 restrictions in place at the time. The events ran between the 2nd and the 17th of October.
University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX – Championship and Women’s Championship
The main Championship and Women’s Championship took place at the University of Hull with the main Championship running from Saturday 2nd October to Sunday 10th October and the Women’s Championship running from Thursday 14th to Sunday 17th October.
Milton Keynes (Kents Hill Park), Milton Keynes MK7 6BZ – Junior and Senior Championships
The Junior and Senior Championships were hosted at Milton Keynes, with the Junior finals running from Saturday 2nd to Sunday 3rd October and the Senior finals running from Monday 4th to Sunday 10th October.
Schedule
Open Championship Final – Saturday 2nd October to Sunday 10th October
Women’s Championship Final – Thursday 14th October to Sunday 17th October
Senior Championships Finals (50+ and 65+) – Monday 4th October to Sunday 10th October
Junior Finals – Saturday 2nd October to Sunday 3rd October
British Championships Final Round 9 – Nigel Towers
GM Nick Pert and IM Andrew Ledger were out in front with 6 points, followed by FM Marcus Harvey and GM Mark Hebden on 5.5 and GM Danny Gormally and FM Hamish Olson on 5. This meant that there was everything to play for going into the final round with any of the top 4 players in a position to take the title.
The final round started at 10.00 am on Sunday morning with commentary from GM Peter Wells and WIM Natasha Regan on the twitch commentary channel here – https://www.twitch.tv/ecf_commentary. Individual games were broadcast on PGN broadcast channels on Chess.com, Chessbomb, Lichess.org, Chess24 and Followchess.
Hamish Olson had white against joint leader Andrew Ledger with a Queen’s Gambit Slav variation played leading to the critical position below after 11 Rc1 (setting up a pin on the c file) .. Nf6 and 12 Nh4! with black to move. Hamish’s opening play has left black in a difficult position with no easy continuation to avoid the position opening up in the centre to white’s advantage. 12..dc is met by 13 Nxf5!
Black played 12..Be4 after which the game continued
13. cxd5 exd514. Bxe4 Nxe4 15. Nxe4 dxe4 16. Nf5 Bf8 17. Bb4 with a strong initiative which Hamish took advantage of to win the game. Hamish’s win meant that Andrew finished on 6 points.
Marcus Harvey had white against Nick Pert with a queen’s gambit accepted and an early queen exchange leading to a draw after white’s 55th move, putting Nick on 6.5 points.
This left Keith Arkell’s game against Mark Hebden with Mark needing a win to catch up with Nick and force a playoff. Keith had white in his game against Mark. Mark played a king’s indian defence with a series of exchanges leading to the position below in the resulting rook and pawn ending.
Although Mark had the initiative due to the chance of creating a more advanced passed pawn, Keith was able to hold the endgame with a draw agreed in the final position after white’s move 81.
The draw agreement meant that Mark finished on 6 points and Nick Pert became the 107th British Champion with 6.5 points out of 7. Results for round 9 are here – https://chess-results.com/tnr581778.aspx – with final standings as follows for the top 11 players –
Well played all in the 107th British Champs and congratulations to the new British Champion Nick Pert finishing on 6.5 out of 9, closely followed by Danny Gormally, Marcus Harvey, Mark Hebden, Andrew Ledger & Hamish Olson who all finished on 6 out of 9.
Over 50 Championship
In the Over 50 Championship FM Mike Waddington won his final round game against Jeremy Fraser Mitchell, and ended up with 6 points to win the Over 50’s title with final standings here for the top 5 players – https://chess-results.com/tnr581886.aspx
Over 65 Championship
Leader Roger de Coverly had been on an unbeaten run with 5.5 out of 6 going into the final round. He lost his round 9 game against Phil Stimpson but was still the clear winner and British Over 65 Champion with final standings here – https://chess-results.com/tnr581888.aspx
Women’s Championship
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Club/City | TB1 | |
| 1 | 1 | IM | Hunt Harriet | ENG | 2414 | None | 5,5 |
| 2 | 3 | WGM | Toma Katarzyna | ENG | 2254 | Wood Green | 5,0 |
| 3 | 4 | Kueh Audrey | ENG | 2080 | 4,5 | ||
| 4 | 2 | GM | Arakhamia-Grant Ketevan | SCO | 2376 | None | 4,5 |
| 5 | 5 | WCM | Varney Zoe | ENG | 1937 | None | 4,5 |
The Women’s Championship had a strong field of 11 players with the lead changing hands several times during the course of the event. IM Harriet became the British Women’s Champion with 5.5 points after the 7th round, followed closely by WGM Kata Toma on 5 points, and Audrey Kueh, GM Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant and Zoe Varney all finishing on 5 points.
British Juniors
U18 (5 rounds U18/U16 combined competition
| 5 | Kuzhelev Timur | U18 | RUS | Coulsdon | 3,0 |
| 8 | Mckay Jonathan | U18 | SCO | Glasgow Montrose | 2,5 |
| 10 | Barry Jake | U18 | ENG | None | 2,0 |
U16 (5 rounds U18/U16 combined competition)
| 1 | Ismail Mohammed Aayan | U16 | ENG | None | 5,0 |
| 2 | Sieczkowski Adam | U16 | ENG | Witney | 4,0 |
| 3 | Badacsonyi Frankie | U16 | ENG | Muswell Hill | 3,5 |
U14 (5 rounds)
| 1 | Kolani Arjun | ENG | Crowborough | 4,5 | |
| 2 | Madhavan Sanjith | SCO | Glasgow | 4,0 | |
| 3 | Pert Nina P | ENG | Brentwood | 3,5 |
U12 (5 rounds)
| 1 | Hobson Kenneth | ENG | Cowley | 4,5 | |
| 2 | Patel Zain | ENG | Kings College School | 3,5 | |
| 3 | Li Ethan Bingxuan | ENG | None | 3,5 |
U10 (7 rounds)
| 1 | Murawski Jan | ENG | St Josephs School | 6,5 | |
| 2 | Steiners Emils | LAT | Battersea | 5,0 | |
| 3 | Hanache Kai | ENG | None | 5,0 |
U8 (7 rounds)
| 1 | Zhao George | ENG | Westminster Under School | 6,0 | |
| 2 | Lishoy Gengis Paratazham Dildarav | ENG | Surrey Juniors | 5,5 | |
| 3 | Jakhria Kushal | ENG | Charlton | 5,0 |