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Gawain Jones Wins 2012 British Champs

  • SonofPearl
  • on 8/5/12 10:13 AM.

The 99th edition of the British Chess Championships took place from 23 July - 4 August in North Shields, Tyne and Wear.

Despite the absence of Nigel Short, Michael Adams and Luke McShane, the 11-round Swiss event proved very competitive and fans were treated to a thrilling tie-break finish.

Gawain Jones won his last round game to equal Stephen Gordon's final score of 9/11 and then won both their tie-break games - despite losing his queen in the first game!  A truly amazing comeback!

The top standings in the championship:

# Title Name Elo Pts
1 GM Jones, Gawain 2655 9.0
2 GM Gordon, Stephen 2539 9.0
3 GM Howell, David 2620 8.5
4 GM Gormally, Daniel 2505 7.5
5 IM Hawkins, Jonathan 2499 7.5
6 GM Arkell, Keith 2441 7.5
7 GM Turner, Matthew 2508 7.0
8 GM Conquest, Stuart 2501 7.0
9 IM Palliser, Richard 2482 7.0
10 IM Hanley, Craig 2419 6.5
11 IM Houska, Jovanka 2406 6.5
12 FM Eggleston, David 2323 6.5
13 Roe, Simon 2275 6.5
14 Adair, James 2262 6.5
15 FM Ledger, Dave 2246 6.5
16 Osborne, Marcus 2245 6.5
17 Harvey, Marcus 2134 6.5
18 Foo, William 2009 6.5

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More games and information can be found here.

Game annotations by Andy Bak of the Yorkshire Chess Association.

2601 reads 11 comments
0 votes

Comments

  • 10 months ago

    andystraw

    Totally agree - always easy to judge, but to play chess under pressure with a national title at stake and after 11 hard rounds is far far harder. Something many us here will have never or will ever face.

  • 10 months ago

    IM dpruess

    it was certainly a remarkable game, but i think it was quite decently played by them, and very instructive! i'm planning to use it for a followup on my video lesson from yesterday. i don't believe it's right to be insulting either of these players about their level of play. i think they can both be proud of their play at this event.

  • 10 months ago

    andystraw

    I feel really sorry for Gordon - played really well throughout the tournament except against Jones. Missed a perpetual in their normal tournament game which he then lost - the half point would have given him an outright champioship win.

    Have a look at Andrew Martin's descriptions of best game of the day on YouTube (heres one of Gordon's wins):

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvrsYp_H4BI

    Note he did not lose the English Championship in the playoff - he is still joint English Champion but not British Champion: and in fact won just over £4,000.

    Note as well Gordon has come second previously in the British Championships in 2007.

    Note also that he became a Grandmaster only playing games in Britain (I think).

  • 10 months ago

    Petrosianic

    surprising to see a FIDE 2539 fall apart in such a fashion, up Q for B for not even the slightest compensation.  Besides the bishop on c3 (and white should be happy to allow it trade for the rook on e1) , all of Black's pieces are bad, even Black's King is somewhat precarious.  Amazing.

  • 10 months ago

    diogens

    Yes, some notorious missing, including my favourite CM, Tryfon Gavriel

  • 10 months ago

    SonofPearl

    @ NimzoRoy I believe the prize money was less this year. I hope the top players can be attracted to the 100th edition next year.

  • 10 months ago

    NimzoRoy

    Why didn't Short, Adams & McShane play?

  • 10 months ago

    Nosorog79

    I'm sorry to say that but the first tie-break game proves the British championship level to be rather poor in the absence of Short, Adams and McShane. It was not even a blitz game! 

  • 10 months ago

    Aknaim

    Wow dropping your queen like that, and then still winning Yell embarrassing game in a way for both players.

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