Chess: 10-year-old Targets World Record Alongside Grandmasters At British Championship

England’s grandmasters are successful action connected Saturday, arsenic information 3 of nan British Championship gets nether measurement astatine St George’s Hall successful nan centre of Liverpool. Former Russian Nikita Vitiugov, 38, nan nationalist No 1, is apical seeded while nan No 2 and world elder champion, Michael Adams, is nan man successful shape aft nan 53-year-old from Taunton, Somerset, won nan English title successful July.

The continuing chess boom, reflecting nan easy readiness of online blitz games, nan fame of nan world No 1, Magnus Carlsen, and nan occurrence of Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit, person mixed to spark a grounds introduction of much than 1,600 players for nan title and its subsidiary tournaments.

Vitiugov, who switched federations successful consequence to nan penetration of Ukraine, and Adams, who defies nan years and was awesome erstwhile winning nan English title astatine Kenilworth, tin expect respective challenges to look during nan 11-round tournament, which ­finishes connected Sunday week.

3982 Adam Kozak v David Navara, Fide World Rapid Teams, London 2025. White to move and win.

Gawain Jones, 37, is nan defending champion and No 3 seed. Matthew Wadsworth, 25, and England’s youngest ever grandmaster Shreyas Royal, 16, are eager for caller achievements while Dan Fernandez, 27, is caller from an awesome first spot successful nan Ghent Open.

Bodhana Sivanandan, nan 10-year-old Harrow superior schoolgirl who is already successful nan grounds books, scored different landmark consequence past Sunday erstwhile she achieved a Fide women’s grandmaster capacity pinch 4.5/9 astatine nan Aix-en-Provence tourney successful France.

In doing so, Sivanandan collapsed a historical property grounds set by Judit ­Polgar, nan all-time women’s No 1, successful London 1988 astatine property 12, and past ­broken by Hou Yifan, China’s all-time women’s No 2, arsenic an 11-year-old astatine nan Beijing Fide zonal successful 2005.

Sivanandan met a beardown field, including a grandmaster and 5 world masters. Her fast, confident, meticulous and awesome defence successful a tricky pawn down rook endgame against 2488-rated GM Ortik Nigmatov of Uzbekistan was captured connected video by ChessBase India.

Her wide capacity standing for nan arena was 2401, providing her first female grandmaster norm and her 2nd of 3 required norms for female world master. Her wide Fide standing leapt from 2087 to 2216, her highest yet.

The property grounds for a nationalist title was group successful July 2024 by a 10-year-old, Abdalrahman Sameh Mohamed, who totalled 10.5/11 pinch a standing capacity of 2466 successful nan Egyptian title successful Cairo. For nan UK, nan grounds holder is Akshaya Kalaiyalahan, who won nan first of her 2 British women’s titles successful 2013, aged 11.

Sivanandan’s latest consequence suggests that she has made a large quantum jump, arsenic galore talented juniors do. She presently has momentum connected her side. In specified circumstances, bonzer results go possible.

The women’s title astatine Liverpool is incorporated wrong nan unfastened event, and connected nan look of it, winning nan title this twelvemonth could beryllium a span excessively acold for Sivanandan.

The 3 clear favourites are nan erstwhile world girls champion Harriet Hunt, nan English female champion, Elmira Mirzoeva, and nan defending co-champion Lan Yao, who is caller from a awesome occurrence astatine nan Andorra Open, wherever she achieved her 3rd and last norm for nan IM title, though she still needs a 2400 standing for that against her existent precocious of Fide 2382.

This was Yao’s winning last information game, which clinched her last norm. She was unbeaten successful nan Andorra Open against six IMs and a GM.

Last Sunday, nan aforesaid time that Sivanandan and Yao reached their norms, Jonathan Pein, 27, boy of nan ECF International Director and CHESS mag editor, Malcolm Pein, made his first IM norm successful Oviedo, Spain, sharing 3rd prize pinch 7 wins, 2 losses, and nary draws.

Chess made its first quality this week astatine nan Esports World Cup successful Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, pinch a immense $1.5m prize fund. The quarter-finals and semi-finals were some played connected Thursday.

One crippled provided an early disaster, arsenic Nodirbek Abdusattorov v Jan-Krzysztof Duda lasted only 5 moves owed to a rodent slip: 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 Bc4 Nxe4 5 Nxe4 d6?? and Black resigned. Of people 5...d5 was intended, erstwhile nan crippled is level.

In nan quarter-finals Alireza Firouzja (France) hit Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan) 3-1, Arjun Erigaisi (India) hit Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia) 2.5-1.5, Carlsen (Norway) hit Nihal Sarin (India) 2.5-0.5, and Hikaru Nakamura (US) hit Levon Aronian (US) 2.5-1.5.

In nan semi-finals Firouzja hit Erigaisi 4-1 and Carlsen hit Nakamura 4-3.

On Friday nan Carlsen v Firouzja last and nan Nakamura v Erigaisi 3rd spot lucifer some commencement astatine 1pm BST connected chess.com. The games are unrecorded and free to watch, and highly recommended viewing. There are respective streams disposable and Stream A has England’s David Howell arsenic nan lead commentator.

3982 1 g4+! fxg4 (if Kh4 2 Bg3 mate) 2 Rd5+! Ne5 3 Rxe5+ Qxe5 4 Qxh6 mate.