Gawain Jones wins the 99th British Championship

The British Chess Championships took place in take place in North Shields, a town on the north bank of the River Tyne. Its name derives from Middle English "schele" meaning temporary sheds or huts (used by fishermen), and still today, the area is synonymous with fishing and other trades associated with seafaring.

The Championship was excellently covered by the web site of the Yorkshire Chess Association, which provided round-by-round reports and game analysis. It is well worth visiting to go through these reports. Here is some material from the final round and the playoff.

The British Championships went into the final round with three potential winners, although David Howell would have needed a minor miracle to gain a playoff. David and Danny Gormally finished their tournaments in fine style with quick tactical wins over their opponents, although neither player was able to challenge for the title when it was all said and done. In typical style, Keith Arkell was the last player in the tournament to finish as he tried to grind out a win with an extra pawn in a rook and pawn ending against the unbeaten Stuart Conquest, but on this occasion, the maxim “all rook and pawn endings are drawn” held true and Conquest remained unbeaten.

On paper, Stephen Gordon had the much tougher opponent than Gawain Jones and Gawain would be looking to capitalise on this to at least force a playoff. Stephen faced a Gruenfeld against Jonathan Hawkins, whom he needed to beat to win the tournament outright, or draw to guarantee at least a playoff. Gordon quickly realised that he could not really expect to gain any advantage from the opening and a draw was agreed after only 18 moves.

This result meant Gawain had to win to force a playoff. He set his stall out early with the black pieces by choosing the highly combative Sicilian Dragon, and Dave Ledger obliged to a complicated struggle by choosing to castle on opposite wings. Like in his Round 8 game against Jonathan Hawkins, Gawain produced another tactical brilliancy to force the playoff.

Gawain Jones in front of the ruins of the Tynemouth Priory and Castle, which was
once one of the largest fortified areas in England. Overlooking the North Sea and
the River Tyne, it dominates the headland. It is a English Heritage site.

Congratulations to Jovanka Houska who became the British Women’s Champion for the fifth consecutive year!

The playoff

This consisted of two 20 minute + 10 sec per move games, followed by an Armageddon (4 v 3 mins with 3 seconds from move 1). GMs Gawain Jones and Stephen Gordon tied for first, with 9.0/11 points and 2600+ performances. In the playoff between the two Gawain Jones lost his queen, but managed to draw. In the second game he outplayed Gordon to become the 99th British Champion. The two games, full of drama, excitement and amazing chess, have been annotated on the Yorkshire Chess web site.

Final results (after eleven rounds of play)

Prizes

Commentary by Andrew Martin

The explosive round eleven game between Dave Ledger and Gawain Jones that ultimately decided the event

You can follow Andrew Martin's round-by-round commentary on his
Yateley Manor Chess Master YouTube channel

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 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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