British Championship: Bazakutsa leads, Sivanandan among chasers

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
8/5/2026 – Svyatoslav Bazakutsa took sole possession of the lead at the British Chess Championship after defeating nine-time champion Michael Adams in round four. The 18-year-old Ukrainian now has a perfect 4/4, half a point ahead of a five-player chasing group. Among them is 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan, who continued her strong start by beating fifth seed Ameet Ghasi with the black pieces. | Photo: Yury Krylov
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Upset wins by Bazakutsa and Sivanandan

Ukrainian IM Svyatoslav Bazakutsa moved into sole first place at the British Chess Championship after defeating nine-time champion Michael Adams in Tuesday's fourth round. The 18-year-old sixth seed is the only player in the 109-player field to retain a perfect score, having won all four of his games.

Playing white, Bazakutsa outplayed Adams in a slow strategic battle arising from an English Opening, as he made good use of the initiative in a queenless manoeuvring battle.

The youngster eventually reached a rook ending with an extra pawn, although engines assessed the position as equal.

Adams defended for a long time, but eventually faltered in the technical ending. Bazakutsa took full advantage of the error and converted the position into a memorable win.

Svyatoslav Barazutsa

Svyatoslav Bazakutsa during round three | Photo: Yury Krylov

Five players are half a point behind the leader on 3½/4: Shreyas Royal, Harry Grieve, Marcus Harvey, Yichen Han and 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan. Sivanandan joined the chasing group with an upset victory as black against fifth seed Ameet Ghasi.

The game reached a symmetrical position in the early middlegame, but a couple of timid moves by Ghasi allowed Sivanandan to seize the initiative. She then converted her strategic advantage into a win in remarkably precise fashion. Her 3½/4 performance has earned her 20.2 rating points after four rounds.

Ghasi 0-1 Sivanandan

Ahmeet Ghasi, Bodhana Sivanandan

Ahmeet Ghasi resigns the game against Bodhana Sivanandan | Photo: Yury Krylov

Shreyas Royal

Shreyas Royal, the youngest player to achieve the grandmaster title in British history, defeated 12-year-old prodigy Supratit Banerjee on Tuesday | Photo: Yury Krylov

Standings after round 4

Rk. Name TB1
1 Bazakutsa, Svyatoslav 4
2 Royal, Shreyas 3,5
3 Grieve, Harry 3,5
4 Harvey, Marcus R 3,5
5 Han, Yichen 3,5
6 Sivanandan, Bodhana 3,5
7 Mcshane, Luke J 3
8 Adams, Michael 3
9 Czopor, Maciej 3
10 Waldhausen Gordon, Frederick 3
11 Roberson, Peter T 3
12 Williams, Simon K 3
13 Pert, Richard G 3
14 Chow, Sam 3
15 Hebden, Mark L 3
16 Badacsonyi, Stanley 3
17 Ledger, Andrew J 3
18 Han, Qixiang 3
19 Ghasi, Ameet K 2,5
20 Willow, Jonah B 2,5
21 Mahadevan, Siva 2,5
22 Gordon, Stephen J 2,5
23 Mcdonald, Neil R 2,5
24 Kanyamarala, Tarun 2,5
25 Jackson, James P 2,5

...109 players

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Topics: Bodhana Sivanandan, British Championship 2026, Svyatoslav Bazakutsa
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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British Championship: Twelve players on 2 out of 2

8/3/2026 – The British Championships in Coventry has opened as a wide-ranging chess festival, with 40 tournaments taking place over nine days across classical, rapid, blitz and variant formats. Alongside the main Championship, sections for juniors, veterans and rating groups have created a busy schedule. Early rounds have already produced testing games for the leading players, with Luke McShane held by Peter Wells and Michael Adams (pictured) overcoming Richard Bates after a difficult Catalan struggle. | Photo: Yury Krylov

See also

Top seeds win in British Championship opening round

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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Video

60m English New ideas in the Najdorf_E

‘New ideas in the Najdorf – a Power Play 18 Update’ aims to complement Daniel King’s popular DVD from last year ‘The Sicilian Najdorf - a repertoire for Black’. Such a dynamic and popular opening as the Najdorf is developing the whole time. On this download, Daniel King updates lines that were included on his DVD but also responds to viewers’ requests, considering lines that he omitted from his original repertoire. The lines examined on this update are: • 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 h3 e5 7 Nde2 • 5….a6 6 Bc4 in combination with the English Attack (Be3, f3 etc) • 5…a6 6 Be3 and the …a5 variation • 5…a6 6 Be2 and 9 Re1 • 5 f3 (instead of 5 Nc3) It isn’t necessary to have seen the original Najdorf DVD to understand the lines examined here – but it would help as they form part of a complete repertoire.