Smith & Williamson British Chess Championships 2003

Record Entry for the British Chess Championships
Abhijit Kunte takes the Title

Edinburgh's George Heriot's School proved to be an outstanding venue for the Smith & Williamson British Chess Championships attracting a record entry of 1009. Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte from India became British Champion in a close and exciting finish. Scottish Champion, Paul Motwani, was always in contention and finished in second place shared by Cypriot, Vassilios Kotronias, and Indian, Pentala Harikrisna.
However, Woman Grandmaster Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant was the star of the show at the Prizegiving Ceremony. She became joint Scottish Champion in April and today Lord Provost, Lesley Hinds, crowned her British Ladies Champion. She also shared fifth place with among others Jonathan Rowson, our top-rated Scot, and received the Best Game prize for her stunning defeat of English top seed, Stuart Conquest. Keti hails from Georgia but now lives in Edinburgh with her husband, Jonathan Grant, and daughter.
Two other notable winners were John Dempsey from Glasgow in the Weekend Soames Tournament and Rhian Hughes of Edinburgh who became the British Under 9 Girls Champion.

2 August 2003

Hugh S Flockhart
Director, Chess Scotland
0131 661 3022
hughmoya@talk21.com

Scores after Round 11: 1st Abhijit Kunte (IND) 8½/11 (£10,000); 2-4th P Harikrishna (IND), V Kotronias (CYP), P Motwani (SCO) 8 (£3,000 each); 5-9th K Arakhamia-Grant (GEO), J Gallagher (SUI), J Rowson (SCO), A Summerscale, N Pert (both ENG) 7½, etc.

Three excellent performances by Paul Motwani, Jonathan Rowson and Keti Arakhamia gave real hope for a Scottish home winner. Someone has already pointed out that Paul is the highest placed British player. It could have been so much more if Paul had converted a favourable opening position against the Bangladesh player Rahman in round 7. Similarly Jonathan Rowson made an unfortunate slip in a won position in the penultimate round, also against Mr Rahman 44...Bf5??.

British Championship Crosstable

Scottish winners: Chon Lee (Edinburgh University) won the Under-1800 section; Rhiann Hughes (Edinburgh) Girls Under 9 Champion; John Dempsey (Glasgow Montrose) won the U-1720 Weekender; Calum McQueen (Giffnock) won the U-1480 Weekender.

Detailed result crosstables for all sections are available at the BCF site - click the link. Chess Scotland rating performance tables are available here.

The umteenth Motwani v McNab	Andrew Martin commentary
Rowson v Arakhamia	Ziaur Rahman
Mannion v Conquest	John Shaw
Elaine Rutherford	Andy Muir
Gallagher v Collins	Will the real Sam Collins stand up

(photos by SC)