Two British Championships on the trot for David Hodge. Chess solving Championships, that is. He was the winner at last year’s Winton British Chess Solving Championship, and he retained his title this year.
David only won narrowly, both times, because the evergreen Professor Jonathan Mestel came very close to overtaking him. Mestel has himself won the title many times and is also a former World Chess Solving Champion.
Third place – one of the regulars? No, a newcomer. Audrey Kueh, with no previous experience at solving championships, although a strong over-the-board player, achieved a superb score. Audrey narrowly edged ahead of Kamila Hryshchenko for the bronze medal position. Kamila did get a major prize, however – that for the best solving performance over the last 12 months. During 2023/24, she won multiple prizes, had a massive increase in solving Elo rating, and became a regular member of the British solving team at international competitions.
In parallel with the British Championship there is an Open held, at the same time and with the same problems to solve. This was won by one of the world’s best solvers, Eddy van Beers from Belgium, with Vidmantas Satkus of Lithuania and Abdelaziz Onkoud of France in silver and bronze positions.
The competitions were held at the splendid site of Harrow School, on February 17th. They were sponsored by Winton, the quantitative investment management firm (winton.com).
In chess solving events, competitors try to solve chess problems, such as White to play and force mate in three moves, against the clock. Points are awarded for how much of the solution the solver finds. You can find all the problems on this site (and you can publish them too) – https://solving.wfcc.ch/tourneys/2024/2024-02-17-E4E628/2024-02-17-GBR-Harrow-on-the-Hill-Champ-Solutions.pdf
The only problem that none of the competitors fully solved correctly was the second endgame study (by Zachodjakin), so you might like to challenge your publication’s readers to try it!
The full results can be found at https://solving.wfcc.ch/wsc/2023-2024/2024-02-17-GBR-Harrow-on-the-Hill-Champ-Results.pdf