100th British Chess Championship started

A record-breaking number of over 1000 players will be entering the 2013 British Championships, attracted by a combination of the beautiful venue and the fact that it’s the 100th in a series stretching right back to 1904. There are 23 different sections catering for all ages and abilities, as well as a number of extra events, some traditional and others never tried before.

The venue is the Riviera International Centre, Chestnut Avenue, Torquay

But the main focus of interest will be on the Championship itself. There will be at least 100 players taking part, of whom 33 are titled players, including twelve grandmasters so far. The defending Champion is Gawain Jones, and former champions Chris Ward and David Howell will be testing him to the full, not to mention the other nine GMs Arkell, Emms, Flear, Gordon, Gormally, Hebden, Kosten, Lalic, and Wells, all wanting to claim their first championship.

Top ranking after Round 1

Full pairings, results and rankings of 106 players

Andrew Martin's GB CH 2013 Game of the Day Rd 1

To really appreciate how far the event has come in its 100 years, one needs to take the opportunity to look back at some of the milestones on the way – the great characters, the champions and their games. To do this, IM Andrew Martin is using his computer skills to pick out some key games from the past and run his expert eye over them.

Andrew Martin: British Chess Championship 2013 Preview

Similarly, Bob Jones, local chess history writer, is compiling a set of ten pages, each on a past champion and one of his/her games. These will appear, one at a time, in the daily championship bulletins. Here is the first of them.

Historic BCF Championship Games - No. 1.

1904 - Hastings

William Napier was born in Dulwich in 1881 but moved to the US at the age of 5. At 15 he won the Brooklyn Club Championship beating Marshall en route, and shortly after beating him again in a head-to-head match 7-3. The following year he beat Steinitz in a level game. He came over to enter at Hastings, not with everyone’s agreement apparently, and drew with Atkins on 8/11 pts, both receiving £45. The tie was broken the following January in a match of 4 games in which Napier won one, the rest being drawn. He retired from tournament chess almost immediately, something his great friend Harry Pillsbury was also hoping to do. Napier married Pillsbury’s sister-in-law’s daughter, Florence Gillespie and concentrated on a successful career in life insurance. He died in Washington DC in 1952. His biography, Napier – The Forgotten Chessmaster was written by John Hilbert and published by Caissa Editions in 1997.

His opponent here, Capt. Chepmell, was born in Paris in 1869, son of a prominent London physician. Commissioned into the Royal Artillery, he played many friendly games against Churchill's father, Lord Randolph. He died in Bristol in 1930. Although not in Napier’s class (few were) he enjoyed a life-long chess career, his BCM obituary filling a whole page.

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.