Smith & Williamson British Chess Championships 2006

The 93rd Annual Championship

Monday 7th August - Saturday 19th August

University of Wales, Swansea

Live games

Official home page

Crosstable

Play over Rowson games

Aug 20: It was 60 years ago today that another Aberdonian was the last Scottish player to win the British title when Robert Forbes Combe drew his final round game with William Winter in the British Championship in Nottingham on August 20, 1946. Recently we haven't had to reminisce much about Combe since the current Scotland no.1 Jonathan Rowson has dominated the event.

As in his two previous victories Jonathan has given his fans some anxious moments by losing a game. This time he came back in fine style to win the last four including victories against GMs Gormally and Parker.

Rowson joins a select band of players to have won the British three or more times. Penrose was the last player to record three wins in a row in 1969 - the last of a sequence of four. The longest winning run was seven consecutive titles by Atkins, the final victory in the sequence in Glasgow 1911.

10	Penrose, Jonathan	1958	1969
9	Atkins, Henry	1905	1925
6	Yates, Frederick	1913	1931
4	Hodgson, Julian	1991	2000
3	Golombek, Harry	1947	1955
3	Mestel, Jonathan	1976	1988
3	Short, Nigel	1984	1998
3	Speelman, Jonathan	1978	1986
3	Sultan Khan, Mir	1929	1933
3	Rowson, Jonathan	2004	2006

Table of treble and up and Champions list at Mark Week's site.

http://chess.about.com/library/ble41gbr.htm

Aug 18: Jonathan Rowson has won a third consecutive British title. The Scotland no. 1 defeated GM Jonathan Parker, the 1994 Scottish champion, in a gutsy performance in the 11th and final round to finish on 8.5/11. Rowson won his last four games to recover from a mid-tournament slump. In a great event for Scottish competitors Keti Arakhamia finished ouright second. Rowson wins the top prize of £10,000, Kete Arakhamia gets £5,000 and an extra £500 as Lady Champion. Play over Keti games.

Photos below of Rowson before last round game v Parker courtesy of Stephen Connor of the Atticus CC site which has an excellent photo report of the British.

Connor Woods points out on the noticeboard we actually have 5 British Champions - Jonathan Rowson - British Champion, Keti - Women Champion, Calum McQueen (under-15s), Lynsey Shovlin (under-100s) and Connor (under-14s). Lynsey Shovlin mentions that Stephen Wright won the Weekender.

Leading scores: 1 J. Rowson 8½/11, 2 K. Arakhamia-Grant 8, 3-6 D. Gormally, M. Hebden, G. Jones 7½ J. Parker.

Aug 18: Congratulations to Connor Woods (Hamilton) who won the British under-14 Championship with a maximum 7/7. (Pictured before today's final round). Crosstable

 

 

 

 

Rd 10 Aug 17: Jonathan Rowson has staged a remarkable recovery to move back into contention for a third consecutive British title. Rowson defeated GM Danny Gormally to take his score to 7.5/10 tied first with former Scottish Champion Jonathan Parker. Rowson plays Parker in the 11th and final round on Friday.

Keti Arakhamia continued her excellent form with another convincing win to move within half a point of Rowson and Parker. So the preview has worked out perfectly (!) and we have three former Scottish champions on the top two boards in the last round.

The final round pairings are: 1) Parker (7.5) v Rowson (7.5), 2) Arakhamia (7) v N. Pert (7).

A speed play off will occur on Saturday unless the top board has a decisive result.

 

Preview: GM Jonathan Rowson starts the defence of his British Championship title in the University of Wales, Swansea on August 7. Games take place daily at 2.15pm until August 18th (games are 7 hours maximum, rest day August 13th). The Scotland no.1 is vying to be the first player since Jonathan Penrose in the 1960s to win 3 consecutive championships. Penrose was champion 1958-63 and 1966-69 – a record 10 wins in all.
Rowson is favourite to win the £10,000 top prize. Two former Scottish champions will provide a serious challenge to a third Rowson victory – WGM Keti Arakhamia of Edinburgh, the 2003 Scottish Champion (wife of current champion Jonathan Grant) and yet another Jonathan the 1994 champion GM Jonathan Parker.

  Some pictures of Scots at the British taken by Lara Barnes

How Rowson won in 2005

How Rowson won in 2004