Four Nations
It was an underdog team, The Sharks, which played the role of kingmaker. They began by holding the Manx team to a draw, enabling Wood Green to narrow the gap in the title race. But in the next (penultimate) round, The Sharks faced Wood Green, who fielded England heavyweight Michael Adams on top board (whose win is shown below). Despite that, the Sharks scored a 4.5-3.5 upset. Meanwhile, Manx Liberty won their match easily, leaving them three points ahead of Wood Green in the title race. That dashed Wood Green's hopes, so their final match with Manx Liberty mattered only for pride, and ended in a 4-4 tie.
Michael Adams-Peter Roberson
4NCL, May 2025
1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 e5 c5 4 c3 Nc6 5 Nf3 Bd7 6 Be2 Nge7 7 O-O cxd4 8 cxd4 Nf5 9 Nc3 Rc8 10 a3 a6 11 Rb1 Qb6 12 Be3 Na5 13 Bd3 Nxe3 14 fxe3 Be7 15 Nd2 O-O 16 Qh5 16 Rf6!! was even stronger, e.g. 16…gxf6 17 Qg4+ Kh8 18 exf6 Bxf6 19 Qh5. Bobby Fischer played a similar blocking move with a rook to win a famous game against Pal Benko at the 1963/64 US Championship. g6 17 Qh6 (see diagram) f5 White threatened Rf1-f3-h3, so this appears essential. But 17….Qd8 was better. After 18 Nf3 (to prevent Be7-g5), the rook's path is blocked, so there is time for counterplay with 18…Na5-c4. 18 exf6 Rxf6 19 Rxf6 Bxf6 20 Bxg6 hxg6 21 Qxg6+ Bg7 22 Nxd5! Using the pin on the sixth rank.
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The Guardian
01-08-2025
- The Guardian
Chess: 10-year-old targets world record alongside grandmasters at British Championship
England's grandmasters are in action on Saturday, as round three of the British Championship gets under way at St George's Hall in the centre of Liverpool. Former Russian Nikita Vitiugov, 38, the national No 1, is top seeded while the No 2 and world senior champion, Michael Adams, is the man in form after the 53-year-old from Taunton, Somerset, won the English title in July. The continuing chess boom, reflecting the easy availability of online blitz games, the popularity of the world No 1, Magnus Carlsen, and the success of Netflix's The Queen's Gambit, have combined to spark a record entry of more than 1,600 players for the championship and its subsidiary tournaments. Vitiugov, who switched federations in response to the invasion of Ukraine, and Adams, who defies the years and was impressive when winning the English title at Kenilworth, can expect several challenges to appear during the 11-round tournament, which finishes on Sunday week. Gawain Jones, 37, is the defending champion and No 3 seed. Matthew Wadsworth, 25, and England's youngest ever grandmaster Shreyas Royal, 16, are ambitious for new achievements while Dan Fernandez, 27, is fresh from an impressive first place in the Ghent Open. Bodhana Sivanandan, the 10-year-old Harrow primary schoolgirl who is already in the record books, scored another landmark result last Sunday when she achieved a Fide women's grandmaster performance with 4.5/9 at the Aix-en-Provence tournament in France. In doing so, Sivanandan broke a historic age record set by Judit Polgar, the all-time women's No 1, in London 1988 at age 12, and then broken by Hou Yifan, China's all-time women's No 2, as an 11-year-old at the Beijing Fide zonal in 2005. Sivanandan met a strong field, including a grandmaster and five international masters. Her fast, confident, accurate and impressive defence in a tricky pawn down rook endgame against 2488-rated GM Ortik Nigmatov of Uzbekistan was captured on video by ChessBase India. Her overall performance rating for the event was 2401, providing her first woman grandmaster norm and her second of three required norms for woman international master. Her overall Fide rating leapt from 2087 to 2216, her highest yet. The age record for a national championship was set in July 2024 by a 10-year-old, Abdalrahman Sameh Mohamed, who totalled 10.5/11 with a rating performance of 2466 in the Egyptian championship in Cairo. For the UK, the record holder is Akshaya Kalaiyalahan, who won the first of her two British women's titles in 2013, aged 11. Sivanandan's latest result suggests that she has made a big quantum jump, as many talented juniors do. She currently has momentum on her side. In such circumstances, extraordinary results become possible. The women's championship at Liverpool is incorporated within the open event, and on the face of it, winning the title this year could be a bridge too far for Sivanandan. The three clear favourites are the former world girls champion Harriet Hunt, the English woman champion, Elmira Mirzoeva, and the defending co-champion Lan Yao, who is fresh from a major success at the Andorra Open, where she achieved her third and final norm for the IM title, although she still needs a 2400 rating for that against her current high of Fide 2382. This was Yao's winning final round game, which clinched her final norm. She was unbeaten in the Andorra Open against six IMs and a GM. Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion Last Sunday, the same day that Sivanandan and Yao reached their norms, Jonathan Pein, 27, son of the ECF International Director and CHESS magazine editor, Malcolm Pein, made his first IM norm in Oviedo, Spain, sharing third prize with seven wins, two losses, and no draws. Chess made its first appearance this week at the Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with a huge $1.5m prize fund. The quarter-finals and semi-finals were both played on Thursday. One game provided an early disaster, as Nodirbek Abdusattorov v Jan-Krzysztof Duda lasted only five moves due to a mouse slip: 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 Bc4 Nxe4 5 Nxe4 d6?? and Black resigned. Of course 5...d5 was intended, when the game is level. In the quarter-finals Alireza Firouzja (France) beat Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan) 3-1, Arjun Erigaisi (India) beat Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia) 2.5-1.5, Carlsen (Norway) beat Nihal Sarin (India) 2.5-0.5, and Hikaru Nakamura (US) beat Levon Aronian (US) 2.5-1.5. In the semi-finals Firouzja beat Erigaisi 4-1 and Carlsen beat Nakamura 4-3. On Friday the Carlsen v Firouzja final and the Nakamura v Erigaisi third place match both start at 1pm BST on The games are live and free to watch, and highly recommended viewing. There are several streams available and Stream A has England's David Howell as the lead commentator. 3982 1 g4+! fxg4 (if Kh4 2 Bg3 mate) 2 Rd5+! Ne5 3 Rxe5+ Qxe5 4 Qxh6 mate.
Spectator
30-07-2025
- Spectator
Full English
Michael Adams took first place in a strongly contested English Championship, held in Kenilworth in July. The veteran elite grandmaster defeated Nikita Vitiugov in a tense playoff, after the two tied for first place with five wins and two draws each. Vitiugov, a former Russian champion, now lives in the UK and has represented England since 2023. Adams won a crisp attacking game against 16-year-old Shreyas Royal, who already became a grandmaster last year. Michael Adams-Shreyas Royal English Championship, Kenilworth, July 2025 White to play, position after 29…g7-g6 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Nxe5 d6 4 Nf3 Nxe4 5 d4 d5 6 Bd3 Bf5 7 O-O Be7 8 Re1 O-O 9 Nbd2 Nd6 10 Nf1 c6 11 Bf4 Bxd3 12 Qxd3 Na6 13 Ng3 Nc7 14 h4! Attacking prospects on the kingside give Adams the edge, despite the innocuous appearance of the symmetrical pawn structure. Ne6 15 Be5 Re8 16 h5 f6 The weakening of the g6 square makes it harder for Black to evict a knight from f5 and turns out to be crucial in the long run. 17 Bxd6 Bxd6 18 Nf5 Qd7 19 N3h4 Nf8 20 Qf3 Bc7 21 Qg4 Kh8 22 g3 22 Ng6+ hxg6 23 hxg6 Rxe1+ 24 Rxe1 Re8 25 Qh5+ Kg8 currently leads nowhere, as the Nf8 guards the h7 square. But Adams has seen that a rook on the h-file would lend decisive force to the attack. Qf7 23 Kg2 Rad8 24 c3! A brilliant finesse. Adams probably considered 24 Rh1 Re4 25 Ng6+ Kg8 26 Qxe4! dxe4 27 Nfe7+ Qxe7 28 Nxe7+ Kf7 29 Nf5 g6 30 hxg6 hxg6 31 Ne3 Rxd4 and judged that Black can put up considerable resistance. Defending the d-pawn with c2-c3 is a subtle way to amplify the threat. a5 24…Rd7 was more stubborn, to defend the e7 square. 25 Rh1 Re4 26 Ng6+ Nxg6 26…Kg8 27 Qxe4 dxe4 28 Nfe7+ wins comfortably now. 27 hxg6 Rxg4 28 gxf7 Re4 29 Rae1 g6 (see diagram) Allowing mate, but there was nothing better, e.g. 29…Rf8 30 f3 Rxe1 31 Rxe1 and Re1-e8 wins. 30 Rxh7+ Black resigns as 30…Kxh7 31 Rh1 is mate. Vitiugov won his final round game in style: Nikita Vitiugov-Ameet Ghasi English Championship, Kenilworth, July 2025 White to play, position after 29…Bh6-f8 30 Bxg5 fxg5 31 Nxg5 Qh5 32 Nf7+ Kg8 33 Bd1 33 N5h6+! Bxh6 34 Bd1 was a beautiful winning line, because 34…Bg4 35 Bxg4 Qxg4 36 Nxh6+ wins the house. Qh7 34 Ng5 Qh8 35 Bg4 35 g3! was stronger, which keeps the knight out of f4, since 35…hxg3 36 Qxg3 would win on the open g-file Rad8 36 Qf3 Nf4 37 g3 hxg3 38 Qxg3 Bg7 39 Rg1 Bxf5 40 Bxf5 Nd6 40…Rd6 41 Ne6 Nxe6 42 Bxe6+ Rdxe6 43 dxe6 Rxe6 still offers good chances to defend. 41 Ne6 Nxf5 42 exf5 Nxe6 43 fxe6 Qh6 44 Re4 Re7 45 Rh4 Qf6 46 Qh3 Black resigns 46…Kf8 dodges Rh4-h8#, but then Rg1-f1 wins the queen.
Belfast Telegraph
20-07-2025
- Belfast Telegraph
Why two headliners could be absent from the starting grid at this year's Armoy Road Races
The hard-working Armoy Club have secured a high class line-up for the popular Co Antrim meeting, including Yorkshireman Jamie Coward, Manx racer Conor Cummins, North West 200 winner Paul Jordan, leading national road racing exponent Michael Sweeney and last year's runner-up Phil Crowe.
