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Michael Adams, the 54-year-old Taunton grandmaster aiming for a record-equalling 10th British title, began with three wins but in round four suffered his first championship defeat since 1988 when he resigned a lost rook endgame after 60 moves to the rising Ukrainian talent Svyatoslav Bazakutsa, 18, who lives in Liverpool.
Adams has won nine British titles, one short of Jonathan Penrose’s record, but missed many championships in the 1990s and 2000s when he was campaigning for the world crown.
It was still a remarkable record of 87 classical British Championship games without a single defeat. The sequence included his 1989 victory, when he became the youngest ever winner at 17, a record which still stands, as well as his later triumphs in 1997, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2018 (when he won 3-1 in a playoff with Luke McShane which included a rapidplay loss), 2019, 2023 and 2025.
The 108-player 2026 British Championship, with a total prize fund of £34,000, finishes on Sunday at the University of Warwick in Coventry. There is a strong youthful challenge this year. Five of the eight leaders after the fifth round were unde-21s, while four of them were still under-18s.
Bodhana Sivanandan, 11, beat a grandmaster for the fourth time in her fledgling career in Tuesday’s fourth round and it was her most impressive victory yet, with 99% accuracy according to one computer evaluation. GM Ameet Ghasi is a seasoned performer, but Sivanandan strategically outplayed him before finishing with the smart tactic 33…Nxe2! Immediately after her victory, Sivanandan was interviewed for the live commentary by GM Nick Pert.
Sivanandan’s exceptional performance in this game arguably deserves recognition as the female equivalent of Bobby Fischer’s 1956 Game of the Century against Donald Byrne, played when the future world champion was 13. Fischer’s concept 17…Be6!! was grandiose, but the ensuing windmill tactics were relatively simple to calculate. Sivanandan, two years younger, used a more complex strategy to perfection.
The frontrunners Bazakutsa and Harry Grieve had a quiet draw in Thursday’s sixth round, but after gradually outplaying Freddy Waldhausen Gordon, McShane missed a chance on move 36 to reach a winning endgame via an elementary tactic. Much later, McShane finally triumphed in a marathon 119 moves.
Shreyas Royal was well prepared against Sivanandan’s favourite anti-Sicilian 3 Bb5 and was an hour ahead on the clock after 16 moves. Black’s pressure eventually told and he converted a material advantage.
With just three weekend rounds to go Bazakutsa (Ukraine), Grieve, Adams, McShane and Royal lead with 5/6, followed by Marcus Harvey, Peter Roberson, Simon Williams, Maciej Czopor (Poland), Siva Mahadevan (India), Stephen Gordon, and Tarun Kanyamarala (Ireland) all 4.5.
The chances of a tied championship and a playoff on Sunday have visibly increased …
4036: 1 Rg1! wins. If 1…Qd7 2 Rh3+! gxh3 3 Qh6+ Kg8 4 gxh3+ Kf7 5 Rg7+ Ke8 6 Rxd7 and wins.
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