Battersea flexed its muscles at the British Chess Championships with a series of strong performances and even a chessboxing match – but just missed out on being able to claim another British belt.
GM Michael Adams won the battle for top dog overall, finishing half a point clear of three-time winner GM David Howell, who has strong Battersea connections and played for the club last year.
Had David won, he would have been first Battersea player to British title since Raymond Keene in 1971. Raymond, of course, went to become England’s second Grandmaster.
Meanwhile, there were a series of impressive performances from club regulars in other sections of the tournament in Torquay.
In the “Soanes” section, stalwart Bill Drennan put in a rating performance of 1803 to score 4/5 and finish joint-second.
England junior Denis Dupuis also punched above his weight to finish joint-third in the Under 10 section, which was won by Sohum Lohia who has also turned out for the club.
Sohum also won the Under 11 section in which Luca Buanne finished joint 5th with 4.5/6. Denis finished just behind on 4/6.
Luca also competed in the Under 12s, finishing up the leaderboard on 4/7, and the Under 1750s where he scored a highly-respectable 3.5/5.
England’s newest International Master, Battersea prize-fighter Adam C Taylor, pulled out of the Championship in round 7 to play in his first exhibition chessboxing match, which ended in a draw.
Also in the main section was another England junior, Viktor Stoyanov who finished on an even 4.5/9 having faced some tough opposition.
First team skip Midhun Unnikrishnan, however, threw in the towel from the Major Open after three rounds.
Full results from the British Chess Championships are available here.
The full list of prize-winners is available here.
