British Championship: Wadsworth beats Royal, climbs to shared first place

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
8/2/2024 – Matthew Wadsworth defeated 15-year-old prodigy Shreyas Royal to join Gawain Jones and Ameet Ghasi in the lead of the British Championship. With three rounds to go in Hull, eight players stand a half point behind the co-leaders, including top seeds David Howell and Michael Adams, who drew their direct encounter on Thursday. | Photo: Melinda Wilde
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Jones, Ghasi and Wadsworth share the lead

No player has managed to take the sole lead at any point during the first six rounds of the British Championship in Hull. Round 6 saw Matthew Wadsworth beating 15-year-old prodigy Shreyas Royal to join Gawain Jones and Ameet Ghasi in the lead. Jones and Ghasi agreed to a 27-move draw on the top board.

A crucial encounter was played on board 3, where top seed David Howell escaped with a draw against defending champion Michael Adams. Adams failed to find a tactical shot in the middlegame while having a 35-minute advantage on the clock. Howell, a time-trouble addict, showed his ability to deal with high-pressure situations, as he survived by finding one precise move after the other while "living on increments".

Howell and Adams are two of eight players standing a half point behind the co-leaders. In Friday's round 7, Ghasi will play white against Wadswaorth while Adams will play white against Jones.

In the race among the women participants, Lan Yao continues to lead, with 3½/6 points to her name. Elmira Mirzoeva, Trisha Kanyamarala and 9-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan have collected 3 points each.

British Chess Championship 2024

The playing hall during round 3 | Photo: Melinda Wilde

The encounter between Wadsworth and Royal featured a tense early middlegame fight before reaching an equal - yet slightly asymmetrical - position with two rooks and a bishop per side. Royal faltered decisively by playing a natural-looking move.

Wadsworth v. Royal

Here 29...Bxc5, among other moves, keeps the balance. After thinking for almost 5 minutes, though, Royal went for 29...Red8, failing to sense the danger in the double-rook endgame that emerges after the following (forced) sequence: 30.Bxb6 axb6 31.a5

White gives up a pawn to create a quick passer on the b-file. Wadsworth went on to show the correct technique to make the most of his advantage in the technical endgame.

In fact, Black gets a queen before his opponent, but the doubled rooks on the seventh rank combined with the threat of promoting the b-file end up giving White a memorable win.

There followed 44.Kg2 Qa2 45.Rc7 Qd5+ 46.f3 Qa2+ 47.Kh3 Qe6+ 48.Kh4

The king has escaped the checks, and Black cannot defend against the simultaneous threats of checkmate and a potential promotion - resignation came after 48...Kd8 49.Rc8+.

It should be noted that after 49...Rxc8 the only winning move is 50.Rh8+, simplifying into a winning pawn endgame.

Standings after round 6

Rk. Name  TB1 
1 Jones, Gawain Cb 5
Ghasi, Ameet K 5
Wadsworth, Matthew J 5
4 Howell, David Wl 4,5
Adams, Michael 4,5
Mcshane, Luke J 4,5
Bazakutsa, Svyatoslav 4,5
Royal, Shreyas 4,5
Gasanov, Eldar 4,5
Palliser, Richard Jd 4,5
Balaji, Aaravamudhan 4,5
12 Conquest, Stuart C 4
Grieve, Harry 4
Merry, Alan B 4
Lutsko, Artem 4
Derakhshani, Borna 4
Kanyamarala, Tarun 4
Ledger, Andrew J 4
19 Trent, Lawrence 3,5
Pert, Richard G 3,5

...86 players

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Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.
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