My Favourite British Chess Championship Venues
by Danny Gormally
In this article I’m going to rate the best of British championship venues. Please leave any comments on social media on which ones you rate as the best venues; anyway, here are mine.
1. Torquay
Although my first British Championship was in Nottingham in 1996, and Hove 1997 was the first year of Smith & Williamson sponsorship when the first prize was propelled to £10,000, perhaps the British itself didn’t really start in my memories until Torquay in 1998. In my view and, I would guess, many others’, Torbay is the perfect location for a British Chess Championship. Even the journey to Torbay is pleasant as you rattle past the sunken boats in Exmouth and the often sea-lashed platform in Dawlish, until you are deposited in deepest and sleepy south Devon at the small train station situated near Torre Abbey. The abbey is flanked by a pitch and putt golf course near the tennis courts - head slightly north from there and you reach the Riviera Centre where the chess takes place.
This is a perfect venue for the sprawling tournament that the British has become, as there are at least two large main halls as well as several smaller rooms around the centre which can host some of the side events. Because it has its own microclimate Torquay always seems hot, and over the years I’ve played well here, and in the British Championships in general. Somehow it is easier to play chess when it is warm and sunny, but there have been some sour moments as well. I recall losing an important game to a young Luke McShane in 2002, in a Sicilian Defence where I made a crucial tactical howler at some point and was easily punished in a rook vs bishop ending. I trudged away from the venue utterly despondent. Why am I not good enough? Why are these players so much better than me? Why am I prone to these stupid brain freezes? Instead of processing what had just gone wrong and taking steps to alter my future outcomes, I was instead afflicted by these negative thoughts.
This was the same British Championships where Luke went into the last round as favourite, and surprisingly (or at least it seemed like a surprise at the time) lost to R B Ramesh from India. Ramesh is now much better known as the coach of present and future superstar Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa. Perhaps Torquay is the place then for upsets or unearthing new talents, as it was also the venue where Harry Grieve won the British Championship when an unheralded FM, but these players were probably just a lot better than we realised at the time.
This area of the world is so alluring that some of England’s strongest players like Keith Arkell and Jonathan Hawkins have relocated to Torbay altogether. Finish your game, stroll up to Appleby’s and have a drink in the beer garden and order some food, and soon other chess players will arrive, and you’ll have a laugh about your games and the absurdity of playing chess for a living, all while you gaze across the bay as the sun goes down and shadows sprawl along your table.
If there is a flaw in Torquay it is that the beach is relatively small, so that you get the impression of a squashed-in Cannes, or mini-Brighton. But that impression soon changes once you realise that it’s the gateway to towns like Paignton and Brixham, offering plenty of promise for exploring if you can find the time.
2. Scarborough
1999 was one of my favourite British Chess Championships, and that is perhaps because it was one of the first times where I felt in the thick of the action. That is what you are there for after all; you are there to win it - that is what you train for, to have a chance to make history and win a British Chess Championship and join some of the legendary names who have won it in the past: Jonathan Penrose, Nigel Short, Tony Miles, Michael Adams among others.
I raced to 4 out of 4, and as I was leaving the Ocean Room where the chess takes place, I ran into Scottish chess journalist John Henderson. ‘In the clubhouse, Danny?’ He joked.
One of the things that helped me in that edition was that because I was bereft of funds and had to sleep on a sofa bed in a room that was next to that of one of my fellow competitors, I was outside my comfort zone. To earn money, I would go down to the venue in the morning and spend a few hours inputting games into the bulletin published by Richard O’Brien, who is sadly no longer with us. And because I was looking at so much chess before the game it helped to focus my mind, and after four rounds I was clear leader. The ironic thing was that I probably didn’t realize how close I was to breaking through to becoming British Champion or wasn’t mentally ready for such an outcome. If I had known then what I know now - that it can become harder as you grow older, not easier - I would have tried everything in my power to win it. In any case Julian Hodgson was much more experienced and used that experience wisely to defang me in round 5. And Julian had, or I should say has, a sense of humour and a personality as well. In the last round, when he was in the process of winning the £10,000 first prize and I was in the process of blowing one of many grandmaster norms, he came up to me said that I was the second most talented player in the tournament. What a compliment, even if said in jest, but it still didn’t stop me fleeing the venue, almost in tears, when I inevitably lost to Nigel Davies’s positional approach. Two losses in the tournament in the same way - in positional, strategic games. Instead of putting my head down and working hard on that part of my game I retreated into misery, and spent that evening in morose fashion, nursing some cans of lager and refusing to go out and socialise with the others. I didn’t want to see any chess players and instead stared forlornly out of the window as a lightning bolt struck the garden only a few feet from where I stood.
Scarborough is in some ways a typical British coastal town, but in other ways it is not typical. Because it is situated up North, there isn’t the money you often see in southern venues. People are often poor, but they are also proud in their identity, and the food and culture in Scarborough isn’t at all bad. You can get some greasy fish and chips, and very fine they are too. There is also a large Chinese restaurant just as you leave the centre of town and head towards the north bay. When I went back there for a weekender only a few months ago what struck me was how little the town had changed from twenty-odd years ago, when the British used to come there regularly. All the same shops and cafes were still there. The people looked the same.
The British also came to the Ocean Room in 2001 and again in 2004, the first of Jonathan Rowson’s three British Championships in a row. The abiding memory of that event for me was how utterly confused I was. I had lost my confidence, but a passing comment from another player changed everything. He mentioned how Anand once played the British Championships and would play all his games in under five minutes. This was it - I was the honourable heir to Vishy’s speed crown. Gone would be the confused overthinking and worrying about everything; for once I would trust my formidable instincts and the results would flow. I got away with this car crash chess against Stephen Gordon, blowing him away using less than 20 minutes on my clock. But I was helped by the fact that the Rossolimo Sicilian can be quite simple to play for White, and I probably also surprised Stephen with this strategy. No longer, because the cat was out of the bag. Vishy Gormally was on the prowl and coming for us all.
Against Rowson in a 6.Be3 …Ng4 Najdorf the superficiality of this approach was exposed. There was no depth to my thinking, and I soon understood why Vishy was able to get away with playing in this way and I wasn’t. Vishy would think in his opponent’s time, and calculate a lot quicker than me when it was his turn to move. He is also one of the best to ever play the game, which probably helps.
So, I was left with the knowledge that I wasn’t a genius like Vishy, and that Rowson had used his own talents in a more productive way than I had. Again, I should have used these lessons and used them to drive me forward. If I had worked hard to gain the depth of understanding and calculation that Rowson seemed to have I might have grabbed a British title for myself. But instead, I retreated into my shell, muttering and feeling sorry. In the concluding rounds, by now completely lost as to what to do, I capitulated further and ended up winning nothing. £10k for Jonathan, nothing for me.
3. Edinburgh
Edinburgh is where Jonathan is from, and although the British Chess Championships were held here in 2003, they haven’t been back there since. Which is a pity, as it would be hard to find a prettier place in the entire world, let alone in the UK.
I feel there are at least a couple of reasons for this. For one thing, since the English Chess Federation emerged from the old British Chess Federation Scottish players haven’t generally been encouraged to play in the British Championships, and conditions haven’t been offered very often to their titled players. Why that is, I’m not completely sure. There is also the factor of rising prices, and hosting a tournament in Edinburgh might be seen as disproportionately expensive currently as that part of the world just increases in popularity and cost, as there are more and more people with disposable income and the rise of Airbnb drives up the rents in these desirable areas.
Edinburgh has steep rises, sometimes shockingly steep as you round a corner, and it strikes you how high up you are. It also has Mackintosh architecture and a sense of history and Gaelic belonging.
The 2003 edition was the second and currently last of the Indian victories, as Kunte took home the title ahead of players like Rowson and Harikrishna. It also ended up in a damp squib for me, as I lost to Joe Gallagher in the penultimate round and failed to win a prize of any serious note. I also lost out, unfairly I believed at the time, on the best game prize.
Despite this disappointing finish I have fond memories of playing the British Championships in Edinburgh, and hope that the British Championships can go back to Scotland in future.
Honorable mentions:
Street 2000 This was a memorable British, as Julian Hodgson started poorly, got his own chair, and was also attacked by a wasp during a game - fortunately the wasp didn’t connect - and Julian won his third British title. Although I didn’t win one of the main prizes, I won a nice game against Colin Crouch in the final round to at least come away with some decent money (I think it was around £700 or £800 in the end), and that gave me the impetus to go on and get my first grandmaster norm a couple of weeks later.
Llandudno 2017 One of the first British Championships that was played after they abbreviated the tournament to only nine rounds. There is something very charming about this part of Wales. Llandudno is situated in a neatly packed bay, and it winds around to the cliff of the Great Orme which hosts a herd of mountain goats that was originally given as a gift to Queen Victoria. I stayed with Steve Rush in the town of Prestatyn, so would commute in every day, and that helped my chess because the temptation of going out every night and getting smashed was taken away.
On one of the final nights Steve took his car inland to try and find an old client of his, and on the way back we stopped on a high cliff and looked across the coast of North Wales. In the fading light you could see the spine of Snowdonia, grey and ancient.
Hull 2021 I have had much heartbreak in the British and this was another version where I came very close to winning it, but it still goes down as one of my favourite British Chess Championships. Why? Because there were so few players in the tournament. British Chess Championships are usually chaotic, with too many players and booming arbiter voices being needed to assert control, but this felt like a cosy, not too stressful, renewal. The small numbers were due to the tournament taking place in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic.
If I had to give advice to those trying to win a British Chess Championship and try to learn from someone who has struggled to get over the line, and how to avoid making the same mistakes, I would say that what it mainly takes to win the event is character. When you look at some of the people who have won it over the years that I have been playing, they often have a strong character and personality. Michael Adams, Julian Hodgson, David Howell, including some of the ‘surprise’ winners (if that isn’t too insulting to them) like Jacob Aagaard and Joe Gallagher. They all have a strong character and personality, and that comes through in their chess and their approach to the game. At the time they won the British Championship they completely believed in their chess game and what they were doing.
If you want to learn from what I have done and what I have done wrong, what we can clearly see from this article is that I haven’t learned from my mistakes. Remember that if you are a younger player then the British Championships are unlikely to be the last one that you will take part in. If you happen to fail or have a bad event don’t let your head drop like I did, take on board what exactly happened, and try to learn from it.
I always feel like experience is one of the most overrated words, as people don’t always use that experience correctly; I know I don’t. An experienced player can just be a player with a lot of scar tissue of failures at the British Championships.
There is a reason why Stuart Conquest is the only player north of 40 years of age to break through and a win a British Chess Championship while I’ve been playing. Because the British can feel like such an overwhelming and important event, the longer you wait to win it, the harder it becomes.