After some consideration the BCC Organisers and the ECF have decided that the 2021 British Chess Championships will not go ahead as a single event in Torquay in July/August due to the risks involved with holding a large event at this time. We have agreed with Torquay Council that the venue booking will be carried forward a further year to summer 2022, for next year’s British Chess Championships.
We can confirm that we will be organising a second British Online Chess Championships for the end of July/beginning of August 2021, with the same set of qualifiers, championships and rating-limited events as there were in the first, and very successful, BOCC held in December 2020/January 2021.
Although the Torquay 2021 Over the Board event is cancelled with the venue booking deferred to next year, we are still planning on holding a 2021 over-the-board British Championships at a number of different and smaller venues in the Autumn in a slightly different format.
Over-the-board Finals
The ECF hopes to hold over the board finals for Open, Women’s, Seniors’ and Juniors’ Standardplay Championships in early October, subject to Covid-19 restrictions in place at the time. Players who qualify for the online finals will be invited to take part in the OTB finals as well, once we are in a position to confirm the events. We will contact all qualifiers as soon as possible after the Online Championships to confirm details. Play will take place in hotels with accommodation available at the venues. Prices for accommodation, venues, prizes and entry fees will be announced as soon as possible. The current schedule is as below. Further details will be posted on the British Championships website here – https://www.britishchesschampionships.co.uk/
Open Championship Final – 2nd-10th October
Womens Championship Final – 11th-17th October
Senior Championships Finals – 4th-10th October
Junior Finals – 2nd-3rd October
Qualifications will be based on the 2021 Summer Online competition with those who qualify for a final invited to play. For the Championship we are also considering whether or not we can invite those who qualified for the 2020 OTB or if these should be deferred to the 2022 Championship in Torquay. There may also be a Major Open and rating limited competitions at an additional venue alongside the other events, or possibly in February 2022, and dependant on player feedback and level of interest.
This means that we can resume with an over-the-board British Chess Championships in a different format after last year’s interruption. We will keep you posted with a detailed schedule, dates and entry forms for the online and over-the-board British events over the coming months, and look forward to the various British events later in the year.’
2022
The 2022 British Chess Championships will be held in Torquay. We hope to hold a Major Open in February 2022 which will allow players an opportunity to qualify for the 2022 Championship. Players who qualified for the 2020 Championship are qualified to play in the 2022 Championship.