Top seeds win in British Championship opening round

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
8/2/2026 – The top seeds made a solid start to the British Chess Championship in Coventry, with Luke McShane, defending champion Michael Adams and four other top contenders winning their opening games. Most results on the leading boards followed the ratings, although 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan was held to a draw by George Zhao after recovering from a pawn deficit in a queen-and-minor-piece ending. | Photo: Yury Krylov
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Sivanandan draws as top seeds grab wins

The leading contenders made a largely trouble-free start to the 112th edition of the British Chess Championship on Saturday, as the top six seeds all won their opening games at the University of Warwick in Coventry. The tournament forms part of a nine-day festival running from 1 to 9 August, with more than 1,700 entries across all sections - a record for the Championships, which were first held in 1904.

Top seed Luke McShane began with a victory, while defending champion Michael Adams also collected a full point as he started his attempt to win the British title for a tenth time. The nine-time champion is seeking to equal Jonathan Penrose's record.

The other four players at the top of the starting list also prevailed, as 17-year-old Shreyas Royal, Harry Grieve, Ameet Ghasi and Svyatoslav Bazakutsa all defeated lower-rated opponents to become part of a 42-player leading group on 1/1.

Results generally followed the ratings across the leading boards. Only 4 of the first 20 games ended in draws, while the higher-rated player won every other game in that group.

One of the round-one draws involved 11-year-old prodigy Bodhana Sivanandan, who entered the 106-player field as the 24th seed. Playing white against George Zhao, Sivanandan lost a pawn on move 30 but managed to hold the resulting queen-and-minor-piece position.

Zhao had a knight against her bishop and an extra pawn, but could not convert his material advantage, and the players agreed a draw on move 40.

Photos from round 1

All photos by Yury Krylov - see full album on Flickr

Michael Adams, Oleg Verbytski

Nine-time British champion Michael Adams faced Oleg Verbytski in the first round

Elmira Mirzoeva

Elmira Mirzoeva was declared joint British Women's Champion - alongside Lan Yao - in last year's edition

Simon Williams

Simon Williams, a.k.a. Ginger GM, defeated Tim Elgar with black on Saturday

Bodhana Sivanandan

Bodhana Sivanandan, the youngest girl to ever defeat a GM rated 2600 or above

Matthew Sadler

Two-time British champion Matthew Sadler is not playing in the main event, but did participate in Saturday's Bughouse event - he played with co-author Natasha Regan in a team fittingly named Gamers Changers!

Daniel Gormally, Nicholas Pert

GMs Daniel Gormally and Nicholas Pert are providing commentary

Round 2 pairings

Bo. White Rtg Pts. Pts. Black Rtg
1
GM Mcshane, Luke J 2597 1 1 GM Wells, Peter K 2313
2
IM Bates, Richard A 2296 1 1 GM Adams, Michael 2595
3
GM Royal, Shreyas 2514 1 1 IM Ledger, Andrew J 2312
4
FM Shearsby, Jude 2293 1 1 IM Grieve, Harry 2508
5
GM Ghasi, Ameet K 2494 1 1 IM Balaji, Aaravamudhan 2285
6
CM Norris, Zack 2275 1 1 IM Bazakutsa, Svyatoslav 2488
7
IM Czopor, Maciej 2455 1 1 GM Davies, Nigel R 2276
8
FM He, Tom Junde 2266 1 1 IM Waldhausen G, Frederick 2455
9
IM Mahadevan, Siva 2447 1 1 CM Turner, Max N 2273
10
IM Pigott, John C 2255 1 1 IM Roberson, Peter T 2439
11
GM Williams, Simon K 2438 1 1 FM Bezuidenhout, Roland 2262
12
IM Han, Yichen 2421 1 1 IM Rudd, Jack 2252
13
FM Badacsonyi, Frankie 2252 1 1 IM Pert, Richard G 2410
14
FM Hobson, Kenneth 2244 1 1 IM Kanyamarala, Tarun 2398
15
FM Chow, Sam 2381 1 1 Cancedda-Dupuis, Livio 2250
16
CM Lishoy G, Dildarav 2235 1 1 IM Jackson, James P 2377
17
Tahmankar, Mandar 2085 1 1 FM Banerjee, Supratit 2357
18
GM Hebden, Mark L 2345 1 1 IM Cummings, David H 2244
19
WGM Yao, Lan 2320 1 1 FM Han, Qixiang 2239

...53 boards

All available games

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<< FIDE ratings - August 2026
Topics: British Championship 2026
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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