British Championships: Howell leads alone

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.

Before we proceed to the games and results of round six here a Game of the Day review
from round five of the game GM Mark Hebden v IM Ameet Ghasi, provided by Andrew Martin:

Top results of round six

Top rankings after round six

David Howell's win to put himself in a clear lead on 5.5, the Hebden v. Gordon draw put them on equal second, while there is now a phalanx of nine players on 4.5, as some fell back with draws allowing winners like Arkell, Ghasi and Kosten to make up ground with wins. Though undefeated, defending champion Gawain Jones has conceded four draws, and needs a good 2nd week to get back in contention.

• Full results and rankings of all 106 players here

Mark Hebden receives his Best Game prize from Chief Arbiter David Welch

Selection of games from round six

Select games from the dropdown menu above the board

Game of the day by Andrew Martin

Game of the Day Rd 6 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. 6

1946 – Nottingham

After an eight-year hiatus, players assembled at Nottingham University, happy that normality and good order could now be resumed. The event was still being run on its original format of an invitational 12 player American, and when the Scottish Association submitted the name of Robert Forbes Combe, the organisers advised them to think again and come up with someone more suitable to face up to the likes of Alexander, Golombek, Winter, Wood, Wade, Broadbent et al.

It would be tempting to suggest that Combe was an unknown, even in Elgin, had it not been for his legendary loss in four moves at the 1933 Folkestone International, when he played as a 21 yr. old last minute substitute.

Combe - Hasenfuss, Folkestone Chess Olympiad, Round 3, June 14, 1933
1.d4 c5 2.e4 cxd4 3.Nf3 e5 4.Nxe5? Qa5+ and White resigned since he loses his knight.

In addition to this notoriety, he had no track record at this level, hadn’t played chess of any sort for seven years and had a very weak heart which would be likely to affect his play in a tough tournament. Yet the SCA stuck to their guns and insisted he play.

The result was a sensation. In round one he played Alexander, the previous champion and odds-on favourite to retain his title, who often preferred the black side of the board.

A surprise this may have been to the unwary and unknowing, but it was no fluke, as Combe carved his way through the field, until he reached the penultimate round two points clear and could afford to relax with a draw against Winter to become, as Wood put it, …”the darkest horse who has ever won the British Championship”.

Robert Forbes Combe, the darkest horse in British Championship history

In reality, Combe possessed a very large collection of tournament books and whiled away long winter evenings by his fireside playing through hundreds of master games. This was his only British Championship and Folkstone was his only international – what a contrast! His heart finally gave out, dying in Aberdeen in 1952, aged just 39. His BCM obituarist, W. A. Fairhurst, wrote ”He was a very great chess-player… and it is probable he possessed the greatest chess brain of any British player of the last 20 years”.

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