English Chess Federation announces English Championships in May, the British Championship in August, and the relaunched ECF Grand Prix from July 2022 to June 2023, all supported by Chessable.
The first in the series of Chessable supported events will be the English Championships which are scheduled to take place in May, with the English Seniors on 4th-8th May and the English and English Women’s Championships on 19th-22th May 2022.
All of the English Championship events will take place at the Holiday Inn in Kenilworth, with what is looking like a very strong field competing for the various English titles.
Chessable English Seniors Championships 4th-8th May 2022
The English Seniors is back as the first of the Championship events with the first Seniors Championship since 2019, including separate sections for players aged 50+ and 65+.
We already have the makings of an outstanding event based on entries to date including GMs Mark Hebden and Keith Arkell, as well as IM Paul Littlewood, IM Andrew Ledger and WIM Natasha Regan.
IM Paul Littlewood and Kevin Bowmer (above, left and right) will be defending their titles in the two sections. GMs Hebden and Arkell are amongst the others competing. There will also be a trophy and title award for the top performing female player in each section. The congress will be ECF and FIDE rated with a total of seven rounds over the five days.
Further details, entry form and entries to date at https://www.englishchess.org.uk/english-seniors-championships-2022/
Chessable English Championships and English Women’s Championship 19th-22nd May 2022
The seniors’ events will be followed two weeks later by the Chessable English Championships and Chessable English Women’s Championships which will take place on 19th-22nd May 2022 at the same venue in Kenilworth.
The Open Championship will be first English Championships since Duncan Lawrie sponsored the first and, so far only, English Chess Championship competition in December 1991 in Hammersmith. The first English Championship was an eight-player knockout won by GM Nigel Short.
We have a very strong event planned with top seed GM Gawain Jones and a number of English GMs and IMs scheduled to play.
The Women’s Championship will be the next in the series of highly successful events from the first event in 2016 to the previous Championships in 2019 in Hull, won on tie-break by WGM Katarzyna Toma, with Louise Head coming second. Katarzyna (below right) and Louise (below left) will be playing again this year, as will WIM Lan Yao (below middle).
You can find a full list of entries to date for the two Championships (English Open and English Women’s) at https://www.englishchess.org.uk/english-championships-entrants-list/
The two Championships will be played as seven-round Swiss tournaments. Full details and entry forms for both events at https://www.englishchess.org.uk/english-championships-2022/