Just after International Chess Day on 20th July, numerous chess events were happening at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. The English Chess Federation (ECF) organized The 109th British Chess Championship along with a range of other chess events, creating an atmosphere of excitement and competitive spirit in the chess community. More than ten players from Ireland participated in the British Championships.
British Championships: Championship
International Master (IM) Tarun and Women International Master (WIM) Trisha participated in the prestigious 109th British Chess Championship. They qualified to play in the event by virtue of being National Champions. ECF laid out qualification routes here: https://www.britishchesschampionships.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Qualification-Regulations-2023-v1.pdf.
Starting out both of them started as 15th and 16th seeds in the tournaments. Coincidentally both of them have the same rating (2344)!
IM Tarun’s best result in the tournament was drawing against GM Nicholas Pert in the third round. He briefly described in his Facebook Post “Got an interesting middle-game imbalance – Knight Pair vs Bishop Pair. My opponent complicated the position with a king-side attack which made the position hard to assess. We both were under time pressure, and we agreed to a draw.”
Tarun concluded the tournament with an impressive score of 5.5 out of 9 rounds, earning him the 13th rank in the Final Standings.
WIM Trisha had a rough tournament, but her games were full of enterprising chess. One such game was against Candidate Master (CM) Thomas Villiers:
She finished with 4.5 out of 9 rounds. Trisha received the Best Under-18 Girl Prize and Best Women 2nd place!
The full prize winners list can be viewed here: https://www.britishchesschampionships.co.uk/bcc-2023-prizewinners/
British Championships: Senior 65+ Championship
CM Dr. Tim Harding and Gabriel Matthews participated in the 65+ Championship scoring 4 and 3.5 out of 9 rounds, respectively.
Tim played a very interesting game where both sides were attacking the flanks. Tim managed to attack quicker, resulting in a full point:
British Championships: Senior 50+ Championship
FM Andrew Smith and Martin Chrihton participated in the British Senior 50+ Championship scoring 5 and 1 out of 9 rounds, respectively
Victorious from winning the European Team champions, GM Arkell Keith continues his great form. He won the championship by scoring 5/7. Prior to the tournament, he gave a simul.
British Championships: Juniors
Aayaansh Mulukutla played the Under-8 Section. He came 3rd place scoring 5/7.
Other Tournaments
Well-known Irish chess players: Alex Goss, Thomas Dunnr Jr., and Pat O’Hanlon played the Weekender and PM tournaments, respectively.