British Championships: Howell inches towards 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 eight

It is a testimony to fighting spirit that the participants of the 100th British Championship are showing that only two of the ten boards finished in draws – and just one with players in contention for the title. David Howell and Mark Hebden both won their games (Howell with black), while last year's winnter Gawain Jones is working his way up the ladder after a poor start.

• Results of all 53 games of this round

Top rankings after round eight

In the next round on Tuesday seven players can theoretically catch David Howell (if he loses his game against Danny Gormally) and Hebden can catch him by winning if he draws. Well worth watching.

• Full results and rankings of all 106 players here

Start of the game Simon Williams vs David Howell

Many-times opponents Hebden and Arkell share a joke before the start...

... reigning British Champion Gawain Jones joins in

Selection of games from round eight

Select games from the dropdown menu above the board

Game of the day by Andrew Martin

Rd 8 Game of the Day GB Ch Torquay 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. 8

1958 – Leamington Spa

In 1949 at Felixstowe the formula changed from the American to Swiss system, allowing 32 to contest the title, rather than the traditional 12. Not everyone was convinced of the rightness of this, arguing that the eventual winner might not have played several of his rivals, but it has stayed this way ever since.

A 15-year-old schoolboy called Penrose took part and came 18th= on five points. The following year he came 3rd= and really caught the eye of the public, though he did not play during his university years, and didn’t reach for the heights again until he came 2nd= at Plymouth in 1957, behind another dark horse, the 60-year-old Hungarian-born Dr. Fazekas. Penrose had finished with four draws and a win, where Fazekas had finished with four wins and a draw, so Penrose had let it slip. Incidentally, later that year Fazekas returned the trophy in disgust at being left out of the BCF team for the Munich Olympiad.

Next year, Jonathan Penrose (picture above) avoided this slow finish mistake, and ended W;W;W;W; to tie with Barden. He won the five-match play-off, the following being the fourth and decisive game.

Having made this final breakthrough, Penrose virtually made the trophy his private property through the 1960s, winning it ten times in the twelve years 1958 – 1969. He competed in nine Olympiads between 1952 – 1974, beating many of the world’s top players en route. But after collapsing at the board through nervous tension, he restricted his chess to the more sedate form of postal chess, becoming a GM in 1983 and was the world’s highest rated postal player in 1989.

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.