Kovchan and Golding tie for first place at 99th Hastings Congress

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
1/4/2026 – The Hastings International Chess Congress ended with a decisive final round that reshaped the standings. Marius Deuer entered the last day as sole leader and needing only a draw to secure at least a share of first place, but his defeat on the top board opened the door for his closest rivals. As a result, Alexander Kovchan and Alex Golding (pictured) finished level on points and were declared joint winners. | Photo: West Wales Chess Congress (2022)
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Decisive action in the final round

The 2025/26 edition of the Hastings Chess Congress was held from 28 December 2025 to 2 January 2026 at the Horntye Park Sports Complex in Hastings. The main tournament was a nine-round, FIDE-rated Swiss played over six days, with a time control of 90 minutes plus a 30-second increment per move. As in many previous editions, the event attracted a strong international field and produced a closely fought finish.

Throughout the tournament, third seed Marius Deuer appeared the most likely winner. The German IM, aged 17, held the sole lead after round six and regained it after round eight, when he remarkably defeated second seed Sarunas Sulskis. Going into the final round, Deuer led a chasing group of four players by half a point and needed only a draw to guarantee at least a share of first place.

In the decisive ninth round, Deuer had black against experienced Ukrainian GM Alexander Kovchan, who was one of the four players trailing him by half a point. The others were IM Bennet Hagner from Germany, GM Simon Williams and IM Alex Golding from England.

A well-known Caro-Kann line that quickly simplified the position appeared on the top board, seemingly suiting Deuer's needs from a tournament perspective. However, the young German lost control of the game, allowing Kovchan to first seize the initiative and then reach a favourable endgame. In the technical phase, Deuer made a further error, losing a knight to a tactical sequence, and Kovchan converted his advantage to win in 49 moves.

Kovchan 1-0 Deuer

Annotations by Martina Gerdts

A decisive game was also played on board two. Williams, true to his attacking approach, sacrificed a pawn from the black side of a Ruy Lopez. Although this gave him some initiative, his 22-year-old opponent defended accurately and later emerged with extra material. Golding converted his advantage cleanly to score a 37-move victory, moving level at the top of the standings.

On board three, the final potential challenger, Bennet Hagner (aged 17 like Deuer), was unable to generate winning chances against Koby Kalavannan and agreed a draw after 30 moves. As a result, Alexander Kovchan and Alex Golding finished tied for first place and were declared joint winners of the Hastings Chess Congress.

The outcome capped another competitive edition of one of the most tradition-rich tournaments in the chess calendar, with Hastings now looking ahead to its centenary edition next year.

Final standings

Rk. Name Pts.
1 Kovchan, Alexander 7
2 Golding, Alex 7
3 Deuer, Marius 6,5
4 Hagner, Bennet 6,5
5 Ghimpu, Samuel-Timotei 6,5
6 Laurent-Paoli, Pierre 6
7 Kaasen, Tor Fredrik 6
8 Gordon, Stephen J 6
9 Plat, Vojtech 6
10 Kuru, Atilla 6
11 Williams, Simon K 6
12 Wang, Hao(Zj) 6
13 Kalavannan, Koby 6
14 Vaidyanathan, Adithya 6
15 Sulskis, Sarunas 5,5
16 Grutter, Tim 5,5
17 Gormally, Daniel W 5,5
18 Mazur, Stefan 5,5
19 Skytte, Rasmus 5,5
20 Badacsonyi, Stanley 5,5
21 Hobson, Kenneth 5,5
22 Demac, Elias 5,5
23 Sivanandan, Bodhana 5,5
24 Kapechun, Mikhailo 5,5
25 Blanquet, Camille 5,5

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Topics: Hastings, Hastings International Chess Congress
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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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.