Michael Adams has now won seven major tournaments in a row without losing a single.
The eight-time British champion trailed the leaders at last week’s Cambridge International Open until the ninth and final round, but surged when it mattered most to win the £1,500 prize for the second year running.
The 52-year-old Cornish native has completed a series of events at Cambridge 2023, the England and British Championships, the World 50+ team and individual events and the London Classic before his latest win. He has proven himself to be an expert at taking photos, winning two narrow tie-breaks, and his current unbeaten tournament record stands at 39 wins and 24 draws.
In the decisive showdown, Adams defeated Jonah Willow in a match that saw the 21-year-old Nottingham master need to win his first GM Standard, but he was defeated by the Spider’s subtle skills Gradual wear and tear.
Sergei Tiviakov looked set to win the event, but the 51-year-old general manager of the Netherlands and former Soviet Union spoiled the victorious ending in the penultimate round, which was dominated by He’s at his mercy. Other England players also missed opportunities. General manager Daniel Fernandez was unable to deal with Adams, and 15-year-old Shreyas Royal failed to win the tournament on his way to becoming England’s youngest grandmaster.
With the exception of Adams, the star performers are all prepubescent schoolgirls. Ruqayyah Rida, 12, of Colchester County High School, won the top prize in the girls category with a rating of 5.5/9 and a performance of nearly 2200 ratings.
Defeating GM Mark Hebden, one of the British chess explosion legends of the 1970s, in the sixth round, Rida could become the third youngest female player ever to defeat a grandmaster , second only to 10-year-old Carissa Yip (now an American chess player). Women’s Champion) against GM Alexander Ivanov at the 2014 New England Open, 11-year-old Judit Polgar against GM Lev Levy in Brussels, 1987 GM Lev Gutman.
What came next was even better, as Rida tied the famous chess writer Peter Wells in the seventh round, becoming the youngest female player to score against two chess grandmasters in consecutive classical matches. Wells wrote: “I was so impressed by Rukaya – not only with her touching performance, but also with her post-match reaction and contribution to commentary. It was an incredible achievement.”
Rida said Bobby Fisher was her chess hero, John Nunn was her favorite British chess player and Glenn Freer was her coach. She aims to go on to feature for England at the 2025 biennial Under-16 Olympics.
Bodhana Sivanandan continued her excellent recent form to finish second with 4.5/9. The eight-year-old performed well in a blitz against Europe’s top women’s players in Monaco in January and followed that up with strong results in the 4NCL League and the Gonzaga Open.
Following his success at Cambridge, the IAF March Classical Ratings ranks Sivanandan as the top-ranked player in the world for under-10s, with a rating of 2088 points, higher than the nearest The opponent is 97 points higher. Two British boys, Kushal Jakhria and Ethan Pang, were fifth and tenth respectively.
It was during the blitz that Sivanandan’s performance was truly unparalleled. In the latest March Fide Blitz list of 100 girls born since 2003, she has been ranked 20th with a rating of 2185, despite being the youngest contestant on the entire list by at least four years.
This stat reflects her impressive performances at the European Blitz in Warsaw and the European Women’s Blitz in Monaco. In the first edition, she was the top women’s player, the top junior player, and the top British player; the second time, she was ranked 15th out of 105, winning or drawing with multiple elite players, and was defeated in the final round 2023 World Cup finalist.
The top two women in history, Polgar and Hou Yifan, never competed as eight-year-olds, despite reports that Polgar beat the master in a home blitz. Polgar had a record 2555 classical rating at age 12, while Hou competed in a women’s world championship event at age 14, so the pair’s 2185 performances at age 8 may be achievable, albeit very unlikely. difficulty.
Among the new crop of eight-year-olds learning and taking up chess during the pandemic lockdown, the best may be Singapore’s Ashwath Kaushik, the youngest ever to beat a chess grandmaster players, then just eight years and six months old, and Roman Shogdzhiev, the Russian who in December defeated five grandmasters at World Rapid and Blitz.
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Both have competed in fewer Classics than Sivanandan, and their ratings still lag behind their true prowess. Kaushik played against Australian chess player Morton Lee in Thailand in July. According to reports, Kaushik has a photographic memory, is tactically sharp, can quickly solve endgame studies, and plays two to seven chess games a day. Hour.
The Singaporean boy rings true, and so does Shogogiev, who spent two years competing against the masters in Moscow before winning the World Rapid/Blitz Championship. In the just-released March IFI Blitz list, among players 9 years old or younger, Shogjiev ranked first with a rating of 2198, ahead of Sivanandan with 2185. Argentinian player Faustino Oro, who already has the youngest 2300 rating and the youngest IM standard at the age of 9, is another talented player who stands out. go out.
Realistically, it will be difficult for anyone else to compete with this nascent super-GM trio, but the progress of Sivanandan and now Ridha still opens up a different opportunity. Continued rapid progress could make them serious contenders for England’s women’s team at the 2026 Uzbek Women’s Olympic Games.
The annual British Rapid Championship moves to Peterborough this weekend, with 11 rounds of one-hour action over two days.
There were over 200 participants across 4 GMs and 13 IMs, and the new book “Chess Analysis – Reloaded” by top seed GM Daniel Gormally was very popular. Sivanandan ranked 66th overall and 7th in the women’s category. One question this weekend is whether she can transfer the top skills of a five-minute blitz to the slower pace of a one-hour blitz.
To watch Rapidplay UK live, visit lichess.org, click ‘Watch’ and then ‘Broadcast’. Competition starts at 12.30pm on Saturday and 10am on Sunday.
3909: 1Qa4! If c3 2 Qe8 c3/cxb2 3 Nh3 pair. If cxb3 2 Bg1! Kxf4 3 Be3 partner.
