TWIC is 31. First issue 17th September 1994.111th British Chess Championships 2025 (9)
Michael Adams grabs his ninth British Chess Championship title
Mark Crowther - Sunday 10th August 2025
Adams and Conquest during their tie-break. Photo © | http://www.englishchess.org.uk/
Michael Adams won the 111th British Chess Championships which took place in Liverpool. Adams had been the long term leader but was in a six way tie for first at the start of the final round, he won but so did two of his rivals and the tournament was settled in a tie-break.
Unusually six of the top seven pairings were decisive including all the games amongst the six leaders.
Stuart Conquest won his only title in 2008, the last time the event was held in Liverpool. He pulled off a sensational win with black against Nikita Vitiugov in round 9 to go to seven points. Michael Adams beat Maciej Czopor with the white pieces and Peter Roberson won with black against Richard Pert to set up a three way tie.
There was a 10 minute + 5spm tie-break. With three players the player with the top tie-break, Adams, sat it out whilst Conquest and Roberson played an extra qualifying tie-break. Straight after Conquest won that the final was played. Adams beat Conquest 2-0 Conquest. Conquest had his chances but severe time-trouble proved fatal in both games.
Adams has now won his ninth title, just one short of the record holder Jonathan Penrose who absolutely dominated between 1958 and 1969. Adams' titles have been over a longer period. Adams' first was in Plymouth in 1989 (I was there playing the Major Open, his title was a bit of a sensation when he won at the age of 17) but he didn't prioritise playing the event for many years and his next title was a joint win in 1997, then he scored a double in 2010, 2011. Now he's won five of the last ten in 2016, 2018, 2019, 2023 and now 2025.
The event has been a resounding success and youngsters Shreyas Royal, Supratit Banerjee, and Bodhana Sivanandan are all players who look like they may be future winners. I was deeply pessimistic about the future of the British only two or three years ago but things have rapidly improved with strong juniors, more competition and strength in depth. I'd like to see more players from Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales but even that's better than it was.
Next year the event is in Coventry.
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