The Conquest Of Britain

The British Chess Championships 2008 was held recently in Liverpool and ended in victory for Stuart Conquest, with Jovanka Houska taking the women's title (both pictured).

Conquest had to win a playoff with rival Keith Arkell after they finished as joint top scorers with 8/11, just ahead of four other contenders, one of whom was Nigel Davies.  Bad luck Nigel!

Conquest had beaten Arkell during the tournament proper, so it was perhaps fitting that he also triumphed in the second game of the playoff and thus avoided the title being decided by an Armageddon game.

The Championships were well attended, but it is unfortunate that, as in many other national chess championships, the very best players often choose not to attend and instead seek richer pastures elsewhere.  In this case that includes Mickey Adams and Nigel Short who are currently playing in the Staunton Memorial in London.

Why are they not playing in Liverpool instead?  The honest and short answer is probably money, or rather the lack of it, in the national championships.  Like boxers aiming for a world title shot, they forsake their national title to aim for bigger prizes...

However, none of this can take away from the achievement of Stuart Conquest who conquered all those before him (that's the last pun, I promise ).

Here is Conquest's win against Arkell in round 4 and also the decisive second game of the playoffs.