UK Open Blitz Finals 2025 – A Report from the Championships
The finals of the UK Open Blitz Championships 2025 took place on Saturday 22nd November at the Woodland Grange Hotel near Leamington Spa in Warwickshire. There were separate Open and Women's finals with 16 of the top UK chess players in each. The finalists qualified as top finishers from 16 Open Qualifier events at venues across the UK, with over 800 participants competing for a place in the finals.
The two 16 player finals were played in an all play all format with the order of pairings determined in advance. Round 1 started at 12 noon with a total of 15 rounds in each competition at 3|2 Blitz time control, completing around 5-30 pm.
All games were broadcast live on chess.com from liveboards at the venue with commentary from GM Matthew Sadler and WIM Natasha Regan.
You can see all of the games on chess.com at the Event link here - https://www.chess.com/events/info/2025-uk-open-blitz-final
You can also see a recording of commentary and video on the ECF's Youtube Channel here - https://www.youtube.com/@EnglishChessFederation
Further details are available on the Event web page - https://www.englishchess.org.uk/uk-open-blitz-championships-2025-finals/ with full pairings and results for all games at the link here on Chess Results - https://s3.chess-results.com/tnr1240820.aspx?lan=1&SNode=S0
The ECF’s Home Development Director Yuri Krylov was at the event and provides his perspectives on the tournaments which took place on a rainy November afternoon in Warwickshire.
The UK Open Blitz Finals 2025
Yesterday felt like one of those quintessential English chess days - the kind where you wander into a tournament expecting a quiet, pleasant afternoon and instead find yourself caught up in a whirlwind of brilliance, camaraderie, and the usual sprinkling of charming logistical chaos. In short: bliss. And the weather couldn’t have been more fitting. It was cold, with relentless sheets of rain hammering down from morning to night, making an indoor refuge feel not just welcome but necessary. With 32 boards of top-level national blitz buzzing away, it was the perfect way to spend a stormy day.
I was at the UK Open Blitz Championships finals, camera in hand, delighted to spot a whole constellation of familiar faces: Andrew Varney encouraging WFM Zoe Varney with quiet paternal pride, FM Stanley Badacsonyi buzzing with a confidence that suggested he might do something outrageous (spoiler: he did), his lovely mum Alli, IM Lorin D’Costa who I'd corresponded with digitally the very same day so that he was somewhat surprised to see me in person, and a dozen others who make these events feel like family reunions where everyone happens to be exceptionally good at forks and pins.
GM Gawain Jones was my favourite to win, as I’m still haunted by the memory of playing him in a bizarre blitz simul last summer at the Global Chess League side event last year - you know, the one where he and another titled player played four boards blitz at once because apparently the laws of physics don’t apply to them. I lost, naturally, though not before he announced checkmate in that irritatingly polite way strong players do. I’d seen it, of course, but I’m a staunch believer in never resigning and allowing the full, ceremonial checkmate to wash over me. None of this “mate in two, I resign” business. No - don’t walk off the pitch before the final whistle.
GM Danny Gormally eventually won the whole event - modest as ever, radiating that classic chess-player humility that is equal parts endearing and cautious. Stanley, meanwhile, materialised like a blitz-playing superhero to grab second place on the same score, only edged out on tie-break. There were five tie-breaks - because chess organisers always believe that if something can be made more complicated, it should be - but as direct encounter was the first and Danny beat Stanley with Black, that settled it. And honestly, I’ve never seen Danny look quite so determined: arriving an hour early, having already visited the wrong venue the day before, he had the energy of a man who meant business.
Now - I don’t want to tread on the toes of Aga Milewska (ECF women’s director), Tim Wall (ECF junior director), or anyone else working tirelessly for juniors and women’s chess, but as the father of a young girl who treats “sitting still” as a personal insult, I am constantly awestruck by the level kids now reach at such tender ages. They don’t just play chess. They inhabit it.
Which brings me to Bodhana Sivanandan - the top seed, the sensation, the calm-blue-flame in the room. She came into the Women’s section looking every inch the favourite that she was, and by round seven she was on a perfect score. Eugenia Karas finally held her to a draw, Zoe Varney beat her, but none of that dimmed her momentum. Bodhana won the title with a round to spare, sealing it with a nail-biting clock win over Elmira Mirzoeva in round fourteen.
And here’s the thing that truly marks her out: when I spoke to her afterward, she wasn’t celebrating the victories, she was analysing the flaws and thoughtful about the points she didn’t score. She now heads for the London Chess Classic with her trusty booster seat that has seen her take many scalps and I’m sure with many more to come.
I first met Bodhana almost two years ago at my first arbiter job - the Southern Gigafinal of the Delancey Challenge. I was fresh out of the arbiter course, blissfully unaware that two years later I’d be spending half my life organising, photographing, and occasionally gaffer-taping chess events. Back in the summer of 2024 she has just been selected for the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest already holing a WCM title. And the moment I will never forget: after the Gigafinal finished, she stayed behind to help the arbiters pack up. That combination - world-class talent and world-class kindness - is rare, precious, and utterly wonderful.
Speaking of gaffer tape: a highlight of the day was helping David Lightfoot secure a few rebellious camera cables to the floor, which gave me flashbacks to my old filming days. He promised me a burger for lunch which did not, in the end, appear - largely because the hotel served only sandwiches, and possibly because the universe does not want me to be happy. But I intend to hold him to that burger, and have already begun researching Michelin-starred options on the Isle of Wight. The internet was temperamental, but David fought bravely and the broadcast held together.
I didn’t catch Natasha and Matthew’s commentary live - watching a stream while standing in the playing hall might have been frowned upon - but I heard lovely things. And as ever, it was a joy to see Matt Carr and Alex Holowczak (ECF events director), who appear to exist like in that movie - Everything Everywhere All At Once. I’ll make sure to bump into them at the London Chess Classic next week, distracting them as ever from their duties.
I don’t write much. I certainly don’t write much long. But the world of chess keeps pulling words out of me. And it’s not the chess itself, truthfully. I couldn’t reproduce a single position from yesterday, nor recall an opening or tactic. What I remember is the people. The buzz. The thrill. The quiet intensity that crackles through the room during a live game — something no broadcast, however slick, can quite bottle.
Chess is often described as art, science, and sport, but I’ld add: it’s a performance. Live, messy, glorious performance. Whether it’s GM Michael Adams gently blowing on his pieces at the British in Liverpool this summer before each game, or FM Andy Smith grappling on board one in our Thames Valley league after arriving characteristically late, or a room full of U8s noisily playing with more courage than experience - nothing beats being there.
And best of all: it usually costs you nothing. Just turn up. And let the magic of English chess work its charm.
