British Championships

The British Championships starts on Sunday. I can spot one of the top players on this site playing in the Championship itself, however he does not use his real name on this site (he's not one of the top players in the tournament).
http://www.britishchess08.com/entrants.htm

There are always one or two relatively weak players in the Championships, but this year there are loads of them - there are several people I have beaten or drawn with recently (including GM Nick Pert, but that was in a simul a few weeks ago!).

David Tebb is playing in the Major Open, which is always a very hard fought tournament. One of the prizes is entry to the Championships the following year. The highest graded under 9 in the country, Peter Andreev, is playing in the Major Open as well. This is good news for my son as it means Peter won't be playing in the Under 9 Championship!

Is anyone else here playing in any of the events taking place in Liverpool?

Originally posted by Fat Lady
The British Championships starts on Sunday. I can spot one of the top players on this site playing in the Championship itself, however he does not use his real name on this site (he's not one of the top players in the tournament).
http://www.britishchess08.com/entrants.htm

There are always one or two relatively weak players in the Championships, but thi ...[text shortened]... 9 Championship!

Is anyone else here playing in any of the events taking place in Liverpool?

Afraid not. Bank manager wouldn't allow me to take out a second mortgage to afford the entry fee...must be the credit crunch I suppose.

Originally posted by Fat Lady


There are always one or two weak players in the Championships, but this year there are loads of them - there are several people I have beaten or drawn with recently (including GM Nick Pert, but that was in a simul a few weeks ago!).

Nick Pert is not that weak - he is ranked 6th in the country.

Originally posted by Tyrannosauruschex
Nick Pert is not that weak - he is ranked 6th in the country.

He was #4 in the country when I drew with him, so he must be on the downhill slide.

Regarding Northern Lad's comment - I didn't know what the entry fee for the Championships was, so I checked - £175! That would probably work out at something like 50p a move.

I always like to defend graduates of Warwick University - players from such a fine institution deserve the utmost respect.

Also, he is quite a positional sort of player, so his style is probably not all that well suited to simultanious play.

I just checked out his website, which has given odds for the players entered.

Nick's guide to the favourites for this year's British Championship in Liverpool

Implied odds only! Based on entries as at 22 July.

3/1 Gawain Jones. Probably the closest player to a computer when it comes to pure calculation. Recently making up for some erratic form, and is a decent contender.

3/1 Nick Pert. A strong frontrunner the last 2 years. A good all round game. Faced the toughest opposition in the competition the last 2 years, and lost both last rounds when receiving a double black, nerves will play a big part in my final position this time round, but I definitely have the game to win here.

7/2 Mark Hebden. Always dangerous, deep positional understanding, and strong attacking flair, but tends to struggle to win this tournament! Has come into the tournament, with good warmup, finishing outright 3rd in the Irish Championships.

4/1 Steve Gordon. Very strong IM, his openings are probably the best in the competition, he's defending English Champion, and will be hungry for his final GM norm. Definitely not one to write off.

6/1 Stewart Haslinger. A recent surge in form gained him the GM title. Reliable player, capable of beating anyone, and tends to perform well in the British. I certainly wouldn't be surprised to see him with 7.5 points.

7/1 Glenn Flear. Has expanded his opening repetoire. Very strong in the endgames, which he has written extensively about, if he can stay fresh, and steer games in this direction, it will favour him.

7/1 Danny Gormally. You never quite know what you will get with Danny. Capable of performing well over 2600, but just as capable of performing under 2300. Broad opening repetoire, creative style, a lot of his battle is with himself!

10/1 Keith Arkell. Big endgame specialist. Left the game for a while, but coming back, and capable of grinding out the victories. Too many draws may prevent him from coming first.

12/1 Simon Williams. The most creative and attacking player of the field. Definitely one for the spectators, he is bound to produce some brilliant games. Flip side is his consitency as his flair can often backfire.

12/1 Stuart Conquest. Totally wiped out at the Irish Championships managing just 4.5/9. Needs to improve considerably to justify his 3rd seeding.

12/1 Bogdan Lalic. Very strong, but likely to take too many draws. Expect to see him on +4 at the end of the tournament!

20/1 Richard Pert. A new father, maybe new inspiration. Good recent form and hunger for a GM norm could play in his favour.

20/1 Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant. Good track record at the British, and as the leading Scot to have entered, well we certainly can't rule her out!

33/1 Nigel Davies. Very solid and experienced, again likely to have too many draws to win, but a very difficult opponent to beat.

33/1 Lawrence Trent. His rating seems to have shot up recently. I haven't seen enough of his games to rate his chances accurately, but it may be worth keeping an eye on him.

50/1 Andrew Greet. Big on openings, and a decent solid player. Needs to move up a level to win here though.

I saw that a few weeks ago. Makes for interesting reading. I'd like to see Mark Hebden win, but he always seems to just miss out. Steven Gordon played some great chess last year. If I was a betting man (which I am!) I'd put money on Gormally at those odds. If he's on top form I'd say he was quite a bit better than anyone in the tournament this year. However he has been known to lose to a certain RHP player...

It's a pity there's no Rowson this year, I thought he might try to regain the trophy he held for so long.

Michael Adams will be a strong favourite in the under 100 tournament. He must have some serious sandbagging to get his grade from 250 or so down to below 100.

Yes, it does seem strange without him there. Perhaps he is going to make a late entry for extra dramatic appeal.

I think Stephen Gordon will put in a good performance, now he has finished his degree he should be able to focus on the job in hand and get that GM title that has slipped past him so many times.

Originally posted by Tyrannosauruschex
Yes, it does seem strange without him there. Perhaps he is going to make a late entry for extra dramatic appeal.

I think Stephen Gordon will put in a good performance, now he has finished his degree he should be able to focus on the job in hand and get that GM title that has slipped past him so many times.

Michael Adams is commited to playing in the Staunton Memorial tournament which clashes with the British. So are Nigel Short, Jon Speelman and Peter Wells.

That's one of the reasons why the British is so weak this year.

Judging solely on pictures, I want to be best friends with David Anderton. He looks like the coolest/most clinically insane guy on the list. Tebb looks like the exact opposite (not not cool, not insane). It looks like you could tell him you just slashed his tires and he'd be like, "It's fine. I have four more in my trunk for just this situation!"

Originally posted by !~TONY~!
Judging solely on pictures, I want to be best friends with David Anderton. He looks like the coolest/most clinically insane guy on the list. Tebb looks like the exact opposite (not not cool, not insane). It looks like you could tell him you just slashed his tires and he'd be like, "It's fine. I have four more in my trunk for just this situation!"

He is quite a nice guy, I have organised a match against his team this year and he put out a really great spread of food for the occasion.

I wish I lived in the UK. Chess players in the States are generally just overweight sloppy messes. (For the record, I'm 6'3" and 180 pounds) 🙂

Originally posted by Fat Lady
He was #4 in the country when I drew with him, so he must be on the downhill slide.

Regarding Northern Lad's comment - I didn't know what the entry fee for the Championships was, so I checked - £175! That would probably work out at something like 50p a move.

Compare that with the EU Individual Champs also to be held in Liverpool (in September), which will cost me £30 should I decide to play. It's also a much stronger tourney than the British with already 35 GMs entered, nine of whom (including Adams and Short) are over 2600.

Originally posted by !~TONY~!
I wish I lived in the UK. Chess players in the States are generally just overweight sloppy messes. (For the record, I'm 6'3" and 180 pounds) 🙂

I don't know, some US chess players seem perfectly normal:
http://www.chesscenter.com/kingpin/Kingpin/chessbeast/beastoct2002.html

(and at least you could be pretty confident that he doesn't have a pocket Frittz hidden on his person).

Originally posted by !~TONY~!
I wish I lived in the UK. Chess players in the States are generally just overweight sloppy messes. (For the record, I'm 6'3" and 180 pounds) 🙂

😠😠😠😠there's just more of me to love😠😠😠😠😠