British Chess Championship 2024

[Nick Burrows]

Absurdly unimportant question (but then, isn't this the place?). Why do the underdogs have White on bath boards two and three? (Elsewhere the usual pattern prevails).

The tag line for the forum above should be changed to "Where absurdly unimportant questions are answered in depth"

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I do like Jonathan's suggestion of bath boards! Like chess diving but a bit more relaxed...

The pairings are out for round 2:

https://chess-results.com/tnr969132.asp ... ES&flag=30

Ioannis Lentzos gets the pairing with Mickey Adams.

[Richard Bates]

I suspect there’s a high chance that board 37 is the lowest ever average age for a game played in the British Championship.

[Keith Arkell]

If you were to get partial credit for the near misses too...!

(Will you be playing in the senior's, Keith? Sounds like you have already done your bit for the ratings of the younger generation).

Yes, I'll be attempting to defend the 50+ title I won last year, and first won at Hull in 2018 in those happy days when it was encompassed within the Championship itself.

It looks harder to predict any upsets today, but Paul Motwani ( bd 13) and Mark Hebden (bd 16) have tricky young(ish) opponents to deal with. And, although now in his mid 30s, I expect Li Wu to give Luke a tough game on board 3.

Games I'm curious to see are board 37, and at the other end of the age spectrum, my senior team-mates Stu Conquest v Nigel Davies. Talented junior Jan Murawski is another to watch, and he has Black v Johnny Pein today.

The title itself is extremely difficult to call this year, but on Facebook a couple of days ago I went with 1-2 Gawain and David Howell, with David winning the play - off.

[Richard Bates]

If you were to get partial credit for the near misses too...!

(Will you be playing in the senior's, Keith? Sounds like you have already done your bit for the ratings of the younger generation).

Yes, I'll be attempting to defend the 50+ title I won last year, and first won at Hull in 2018 in those happy days when it was encompassed within the Championship itself.

Technically in 2018 you won the over 50s prize in the British Chmapionship, I think. The Seniors title (over50) was awarded via a separate event (as it always has been) won by Andrew Lewis.(just for a bit of pedantry that it has been established is the purpose of the forum )

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I suspect there’s a high chance that board 37 is the lowest ever average age for a game played in the British Championship.

I have no doubt Richard is right here. But for the record, what is that average?

37 - WFM Sivanandan, Bodhana (2185) vs Verbytski, Oleg (2076)

Bodhana was born in 2015. Oleg in 2013. I make that 9 and 11.

Bodhana has a Wikipedia article which confirms that she is 9 (along with multiple news reports). Oleg might still be 10, I don't know. The recent GoFundMe in the opening months of 2024 that helped towards Oleg participating in the 2024 World Cadet Championships gives his age as 10.

But Leonard Barden reported Oleg as 11 years old in his article of 28 June 2024:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/artic ... rs-impress

So the average is 10 years (it is probably a few days added on to that if a more precise average is needed, but not many, as both Bodhana and Oleg appear to have their birthdays in the period March to June - 10 years is good enough for the record books).

Quoting from Leonard's column from June:

In general, many of England’s best current talents are faced with slowing improvement and setbacks as they encounter a performance ceiling. For some, the final GM norm is elusive; for others, like most of the pre-teens now, the problem is getting above the 2200 master level. This phenomenon can be a shock when a player has been used to seeing a rapid rating advance, and the response probably needs to be a combination of higher level events plus a more sophisticated approach with the help of a coach and/or online instruction.

Leonard also mentions "Kenneth Hobson 15, of Oxford" - who is also playing in these Championships.

The puzzle from that column a month ago features a finish by Elis Dicen, 13, of Coventry, who (you see a theme emerging here) is also competing in these championships - she beat FM John Richardson and has been paired against GM Peter Wells in round 2.

Leonard's column from 26 July previews these Championships:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/artic ... nine-moves

I will quote the second part of what Leonard said about the British, as it is relevant here (he talks about norm chances in the first paragraph):

Hull will be a historic occasion for two nine-year-olds. Ethan Pang, already the youngest ever chess player to achieve a master level 2200 rating, will become the youngest ever British Championship competitor, breaking Howell’s age record set in 2000 by around three months.

Bodhana Sivanandan, already the youngest to be selected for England in any sport, will become the youngest player ever in the British Women’s Championship, which is incorporated in the open event. Both Pang and Sivanandan are already strong enough to win games, make reasonable debut scores, and to aim as a minimum at the traditional "master third" total of three out of nine.

So if Bodhana and Ethan meet over the board (or if Ethan and Oleg meet, as Ethan must be younger than Bodhana to set the new record for youngest ever British Championship competitor), then new records will be set for the youngest pairing at the British!

We are presuming here that it was not common for 9-year-olds to compete in the British, but then Howell was that young. Who was the next youngest after that? Someone must have done the research to establish that Howell was the youngest at the time (in 2000).

For the record, what was Howell's qualification route in 2000, and what was the qualification route for Bodhana, Ethan and Oleg in 2024?

[IM Jack Rudd]

The record was broken four times in fairly swift succession, by McShane in 1995, Buckley in 1996, Thiruchelvam in 1999 and Howell in 2000. There I think it stayed for quite a while.

[ThomasEvans]

For the record, what was Howell's qualification route in 2000, and what was the qualification route for Bodhana, Ethan and Oleg in 2024?

No idea about Howell, but for this year's qualifiers:
Bodhana - presumably a wildcard (she didn't meet the cutoff in May to qualify as a 2100+ WFM but she meets that now)
Ethan - presumably a wildcard (as the youngest ever 2200 FIDE rated player)
Oleg - Hastings Masters (tied for top player not pre-qualified)

[Ian Thompson]

A report on the event from the BBC, from which we learn that:

1. The British Championship has 81 rounds ("The main championship event takes place at the City Hall over nine rounds each day").

2. Bodhana Sivanandan is playing in an event for under 9s ("Also playing in the competition for children under the age of nine is Bodhana Sivanandan").

[DavidWalker]

what was Howell's qualification route in 2000

I believe that David Howell qualified from the Redcar Congress (28-30 January 2000). I played in that congress and my recollection is that we both scored 3.5 points, but my tiebreak was better for the championship qualifier place. However, I knew that I would not be able to play in the championship, so I passed the qualification spot to him.

[NickFaulks]

However, I knew that I would not be able to play in the championship, so I passed the qualification spot to him.

And the rest is history!

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Thank you, Jack (and Thomas).

Luke McShane (1995 - 11 years old and about 6 months)
Simon Buckley (1996 - either 11 or 10, born 1985)
Murugan Thiruchelvam (1999 - 10 years and about 7 months)
David Howell (2000 - 9 years and about 8 months)

I am sure news coverage at the time would give more details.

Coming back to 2024, I forgot Supratit Banerjee, who is also either 9 or 10.

I wonder if this is the first Championships with so many 9-11-year-olds competing in the British Championships proper?

That might be harder to ascertain, but in theory the records are there, aren't they?

Are there many other competitors in this year's event who are juniors (under 16). Maybe the right way to compare to previous years is to come up with the number of players eligible for the junior titles that are contested within the British proper (is that an U18 and U21 title, or do I have that slightly wrong), and to express that as both raw numbers (the actual number) and a percentage.

For 2024, the female competitors are marked with a 'w', but I see no corresponding tag to help identify juniors. In my analysis below, I have put the cutoff at being an U18, despite some strong 18, 19 and 20-year-olds.

I was quite surprised to find that a junior is the number 7 seed in the event!

Svyatoslav Bazakutsa, a refugee from the fighting in Ukraine and settled in Liverpool with the help of the ECF (he is wearing his North Liverpool Academy school uniform in the article I link below) is now an IM but still only 15 or 16 (born 2008). He beat IM Chris Beaumont in round 1.

https://unric.org/en/reducing-inequalit ... pawn-time/

Then there is Shreyas Royal, just below Bazakutsa in the listings, and 14-15 years old.

Yichen Han is 16-17.

Is Artem Lutsko (the other Ukrainian IM) still a junior? Born 2006. So 17-18.

He featured in a Macclesfield Press article in August 2023:

https://www.pressreader.com/uk/macclesf ... 6655119177

Adding the above to the list below (which is in rating order) for completeness (and including Lutsko):

Svyatoslav Bazakutsa (UKR) is 15-16.
Shreyas Royal is 14-15.
Yichen Han (NED) is 16-17.
Artem Lutsko (UKR) is 17-18.
Kenneth Hobson is 15.
Ethan Pang is 9.
Indy Southcott-Moyers is 15-16.
Bodhana Sivanandan is 9.
Maksym Larchikov (UKR) is 14-15.
Stanley Badacsonyi is 14-15.
Supratit Banerjee is 9-10.
Jude Shearsby is 13-14.
Jan Murawski is 12-13.
Theo Khoury is 13-14.
Shlok Verma is 14-15.
Rohan Pal is 14-15.
Oleg Verbytski is 11.
Ruqayyah Rida is 11-12.
Elis Denele Dicen is 13.
Anusha Subramanian is 14-15.
James Merriman is 16-17.
Ronit Sachdeva is 16-17.
Ruben Nangalia Evans is 15-16.
Sanjith Madhavan (SCO) is 16-17.

I make that 24 players aged under 18 playing in the British proper (the fact that the local BBC reporter that Ian Thompson pointed out the report from, has said Bodhana is playing in the U9s needs correcting!). Is that some sort of record? 24 players out of 86 in total is nearly a third being juniors. If you include the 18 and 19 and 20 year-olds, you probably do get very close to or over a third (29 players would represent over a third). I have no idea what the proportion would have been at previous British Championships, but this feels like a record-breaking total of some sort.

(If it is not impolitic to ask, how many qualified and how many got wildcards?)

Apologies if someone else has already worked out the above.

PS. I have given 'nationalities' above, but I am actually referring to FIDE registrations - am aware that many (likely all) are actually resident in the UK, for various reasons. Many playing for UK teams or at UK schools.

PPS. Was half-expecting to see Frederick Waldhausen Gordon playing. Are there any other strong juniors missing?

PPPS. Lovely to see that one of the rating events has been named after Penrose (the U2000 event). Is that the first time this has happened, or just the first time I noticed it?

[Keith Arkell]

Technically in 2018 you won the over 50s prize in the British Chmapionship, I think. The Seniors title (over50) was awarded via a separate event (as it always has been) won by Andrew Lewis.(just for a bit of pedantry that it has been established is the purpose of the forum )

Ah yes I can see that you’re right, Richard. I won a grand for being the highest placed 50+ ahead of a whole bunch of aged GMs, but not the title. You just helped me to erase a false memory

[Roger de Coverly]

PPPS. Lovely to see that one of the rating events has been named after Penrose (the U2000 event). Is that the first time this has happened, or just the first time I noticed it?

I rather think they ran it at Torquay two years ago and Leicester last year.

There was a period where if under 21 it was only necessary to have a grade of around 180, so you got a lot of teenagers in the British and a low entry in the Major Open. Bournemouth in 2016 would have been one of these.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

PPPS. Lovely to see that one of the rating events has been named after Penrose (the U2000 event). Is that the first time this has happened, or just the first time I noticed it?

I rather think they ran it at Torquay two years ago and Leicester last year.

There was a period where if under 21 it was only necessary to have a grade of around 180, so you got a lot of teenagers in the British and a low entry in the Major Open. Bournemouth in 2016 would have been one of these.

Thank you, Roger. I am not about to go and look, but good to know that this maybe was the case in other recent years (lots of juniors). Possibly some of the juniors being so young (the 9-11 year olds) might be a new thing. The 180-grade qualification (or whatever it is in new money) helps to know as well. I am aware there will be a listing somewhere detailing how people qualified (or there should be, this was usually the case in previous years, not sure if that listing is still maintained?).

It is:

https://www.britishchesschampionships.c ... 24-V10.pdf

Shreyas Royal qualified as an IM. Elis D Dicen qualified via the Major Open last year, as did Shlok Verma. Yichen Han qualified three different ways: top 20 from 2023 Championships, and also U18 and U21 Champion last year. Rohan Pal, Sanjith Madhavan, Ronit Sachdeva and Ruben Evans were four of the five joint U16 winners last year. Jude Shearsby was the Midlands qualifier. Indy Southcott-Moyers and Ruqayyah Rida from the Cambridge Open. Kenneth Hobson and Oleg Verbytski from the Hastings Masters. Supratit Banerjee, Stanley Badacsonyi and Jan Murawski from the Grand Prix.

Apparently 8 wildcards are available ("Home Chess Director & Championship Manager (8)"), and were "offered during May 2024"

As I have identified 16 qualification routes for the 24 juniors above, presumably the 8 wildcards went to these other juniors? Possibly the two junior Ukrainian IMs qualify under some other rule (involving residency, rating, title or a combination of these - I have not re-read the championship qualification regulations recently).

Svyatoslav Bazakutsa
Artem Lutsko
Ethan Pang
Bodhana Sivanandan
Maksym Larchikov
Theo Khoury
Anusha Subramanian
James Merriman

Would it be normal for the qualification PDF to list the wildcards? Maybe it hasn't been updated yet?

Best of luck to all the competitors in Round 2!