![David Howell](https://www.chess.com/bundles/web/images/image-default.445cb543.svg)
David Howell yesterday won the British Championships 2009 in Torquay convincingly, scoring seven wins, four draws and no losses. In the last round he drew quickly with IM Gary Lane and thus secured the title. Howell also won the British U21 and English Championship titles.The 96th (!) British Championship took place July 26-August 7 in the Riviera International Conference Centre in Torquay. The tournament was open only to British Isles subjects or players resident therein for the past year, or those with British Overseas Dependent Territories Citizenship. The Championship was accompanied by several other tournaments, including Junior and Senior Championships and Opens.Great Britain is the European country with the highest number of H1N1 flu cases, and so it's no surprise that the British Ch was the first tournament we came across having a special "Flu Policy":
If you are exhibiting flu-like symptoms, characterised by feeling unwell and having an elevated temperature, we are sure you would not wish to infect anyone else and you would probably not be in the mood to play chess.(...)If you are unfortunate enough to suffer symptoms, please bear in mind that the period of being infectious roughly coincides with the period during which the symptoms occur. We will have a thermometer to enable you to check for elevated temperature if you start to feel unwell at the Championships.National guidance recommends that people without symptoms should just behave normally.
British rising star David Howell was top seed at this year's Championship and he did even better than expected, winning seven, drawing four and not losing a single game! Mark Hebden and Simon Williams finished half a point behind and IM Richard Palliser played his best national ever, finishing on 8/11.
2008 winner Stuart Conquest and David Gormally shared 5th and 6th place with 7.5 points.After the prizegiving Howell went straight off to London where he'll be competing in the Staunton Memorial at Simpson in-the-Strand as from today.
British Championships 2009 | Final Standings (top 30)
![British Ch 2009](https://www.chess.com/bundles/web/images/image-default.445cb543.svg)
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