British Championships: David Howell wins title

A record-breaking number of over 1000 players are taking part in the 2013 British Championships, attracted by a combination of the beautiful venue and the fact that it’s the 100th in a series stretching right back to 1904. This year it is taking place in the Riviera International Centre in Torquay. There are 23 different sections at the 2013 British Championships, catering for all ages and abilities, but the main focus of interest is on the Championship itself. There are 106 players taking part, of whom 33 are titled players, including thirteen grandmasters. The Championship runs from 29th July to 10th August 2013.

Top results of round ten

• Results of all 53 games of this round

Top rankings after round ten

• Full results and rankings of all 106 players here

Selection of games from round ten

Select games from the dropdown menu above the board

IM Ameet Ghasi faces GM David Howell, 180 points higher on the rating scale.
The result: 0-1 in 54 moves, securing David the British Championship title.

IM Richard Palliser was also unable to overcome the difference of
190 points to GM Gawain Jones, who won his game in 34 moves

Crowds watching the end of the key games Ghasi-Howell and Hebden-Zhou

Game of the day by Andrew Martin

Rd 10 Game of the Day GB Ch 2013

Photos provided by Brendan O'Gorman and Keverel Chess

To really appreciate how far the event has come in its 100 years, one needs to take the opportunity to look back at some of the milestones on the way – the great characters, the champions and their games. To do this, IM Andrew Martin is using his computer skills to pick out some key games from the past and run his expert eye over them. Similarly, Bob Jones, local chess history writer, is compiling a set of ten pages, each on a past champion and one of his/her games. These will appear, one at a time, in the daily championship bulletins.

British Champions & Their Games - No. 10

2008 – Liverpool

The Championship moved to the wonderful neo-classical structure, St. George’s Hall, Liverpool, where they were celebrating being European City of Culture. There was bound to be a new name on the trophy as not a single former champion took part. In round four Stuart Conquest beat Keith Arkell in this game, who in turn caught up by beating Gawain Jones, leaving the two (Conquest and Arkell) sharing the English Championship but needing a two-game play-off, which Conquest won.

The BCM reflected, “The success of the two 40-somethings is to be applauded, though it does rather highlight the fact that the next generation of English players is not quite coming through”.

The champions with Jovanka Houska

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.