Using AI for BritBase

I've started using ChatGPT for my work on BritBase. It has been a revelation, reminding me of the first time I started using the internet back in the 1990s.

BritBase is around 30 years old. One reason I started it was because I had noticed how inaccurate some of the data was on commercial chess databases, particularly the identity of players. For example, I had noticed that ChessBase seemed to think the Belgian grandmaster Alberic O'Kelly had played in the British Championship. He hadn't: it was his British namesake Rory O'Kelly. It struck me immediately that this sort of error could at least be lessened if there was someone from this windswept archipelago on Europe's west coast who was more familiar with its resident chess players and could act as curator of the games played in our vicinity. So I immediately appointed myself to the job and BritBase was born.

That's not to criticise the commercial database company who created the database. They had a software product to market and needed a database to accompany it. In fact, in the 1990s they did a remarkable job of inputting millions of games from all over the world, from a myriad of tournament bulletins and magazines. However, the necessity for speed in getting the product to market meant that inputters and editors weren't necessarily familiar with events and players in our part of the world. It also meant that the quality of the scores was less than ideal.

BritBase started life as a repository of game scores and nothing much else, but it has grown into something more ambitious in terms of tournament and match records, featuring tournament reports, biographical material, photos, etc. Although the technical side is just me and my increasingly aging web skills, it includes many valuable contributions from other people who have been kind enough to collaborate with me and lend support. Without them I would have given up years ago.

USING AI TO CREATE PGN FILES FROM SCANNED IMAGES

But I'll try and get to the point (like many a septuagenarian I am prone to lapse into memories and nostalgia!). The two most time-consuming areas of my self-imposed function are (a) inputting large numbers of games and (b) preparing big crosstables. Recently it struck me that I should see if AI could help to share the load. The short answer is, it can - big time. I thought it might be interesting to share my first thoughts about this, having only dipped my feet into the AI water.

First question: can AI be used to input games? Yes, it can but it requires good hardware and software as well as some IT savvy. 

The primary difficulty is the same as it would have been 30 years ago: OCR (optical character recognition). Some years ago I tried to use software to scan material from printed sources and use OCR to interpret but soon ran into a snag. The software I was using, ABBYY FineReader 12, which I have to say is excellent for most purposes for which I use it, couldn't be 'taught' to interpret chess figurine notation. In theory it can do this but in practice it simply doesn't work well enough to be worth the bother. (Despite this drawback, I strongly recommend this reliable and useful software.)

OCR

The other problem with OCR is its (lack of) accuracy. To be fair, its accuracy percentage is actually very high but it can struggle to differentiate between certain printed characters, notoriously 'e' and 'c'. Even when scanning printed sources which pre-date the use of figurines there can be problems. Here's a simple fictitious example...

White to play. Let's suppose that the OCR software generates the move sequence 1 Ke2 Re7+ 2 Kd3 and the game continues. A chess player of almost any standard manually inputting the game would have spotted the problem immediately and realised that move 1 was probably 1 Kc2, not 1 Ke2, leaving a whole rook en prise, but OCR could easily make this mistake unless it has been carefully programmed to flag or correct such egregious errors. I have yet to find a good way to build a blunder-checking facility into the AI-driven process.

IT'S NOT ALWAYS OCR'S FAULT...

Having said which, such terrible moves do show up in printed bulletins. In only the second game I processed via AI to create a PGN file I came across this real-life example...

Here Black played 1...Rd6?? and the game concluded 2 Rb8+ Bc8 31 Rxc8+ Rd8 32 Rxd8 mate. I was suspicious and checked the printed page but found it really was 1...Rd6. OCR had not made a mistake. Those moves did get played (or, at least, were recorded as played in the bulletin). But in mitigation it was an Under 8 tournament!

READING (OR NOT READING) FIGURINE NOTATION

My second attempt to get ChatGPT to generate a PGN file from a series of scanned images was not immediately successful. My electronic assistant and I concluded that the resolution of the scan was not high enough and tried again at 600dpi. That worked better though AI needed a bit of help. It generated a file showing the figurines were still a problem. I decided to input one game manually, which conveniently had all the requisite figurine symbols in it, as an example for AI to use. It professed itself very happy with that approach and started work on processing the 205 games in the bulletin. It is still working on them as I write this... one hour and counting. But inputting 205 games manually would have taken me in excess of 10 hours, so it is still well in credit.

HOW GOOD IS YOUR SCANNER?

The previous paragraph highlights another problem: the quality of the scan. Or indeed the scanner. In my case, scanners, plural. I have a Canon R30 document scanner and a much older but still reliable Canon 9000F Mk II flat-bed A4 scanner. For multi-page documents such as tournament bulletins, the document scanner is a must, though it sometimes means having to unbind the bulletin in order to feed sheets separately. It scans at 600dpi which I'm beginning to think is essential for scans that are to be processed by AI. 

CREATING AND REFORMATTING CROSSTABLES

The second area of work I intend to process via AI is the production of crosstables. So far ChatGPT has done a great job with these, processing scans from 1990s tournament bulletins, some of which have very small print, spread over two or more pages, and turning them into the standard BritBase crosstable format. It barely requires telling me how to do this in detail as it accesses BritBase pages directly and simply copies the format it finds there. Really very simple. It is very good at validating the data and checking player totals, etc.

So far, so good! Here's a final piece of advice for anyone thinking of doing something similar: before even thinking about using AI to do all these good things, buy a good quality scanner - and learn how to use it.

5th Kingston Invitational: Round 9 (21 August 2026)

The 5th Kingston Invitational tournament has concluded and we have a winner. Congratulations to 20-year-old Henry Adams who came through to score 7½/9 ahead of a field which included one GM and three IMs as well as plenty of other strong players. For an untitled player rated 2174 that is a splendid achievement. His performance rating was 2391 and it gained him 47.6 rating points. 

2026 Kingston Invitation tournament winner Henry Adams

Henry first gave indications of his chess strength when he drew in the first round of the February 2023 Cambridge International with his legendary namesake, GM Michael Adams. Since then his academic studies have occupied most of his energies. He achieved four A* grades in his A-levels at Brighton College in 2024 and he's just completed his first year at New College, Oxford, where he is studying PPE. He played for Oxford University in the 2026 Varsity chess match and will be their captain in next year's match, in which it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that he will face his brother George (2100 ECF) who is going up to Trinity College, Cambridge, in a few weeks' time.

Henry Adams receives the trophy and first prize cheque for £500
from John Foley, president of Kingston Chess Club

Inspired by his result in Kingston, Henry tells me he hopes to devote more time to studying and playing in the near future and building on this achievement. We hope so, too, Henry.

Pre-game handshake: Jai Kothari (right) and Henry Adams

The Kothari-Adams game started with the players knowing that one of them would be the tournament winner (possibly shared). Last round pressure on the top board of a tournament is always tough, as if chess isn't hard enough anyway. After a steady start the game came to life. The opening was a line of the Caro-Kann which Bobby Fischer championed more than half a century ago. Adams advanced his pawns boldly on the queenside but when Kothari chose to do something similar on the kingside, in front of his castled king, it may have been a little too risky. Adams carried on with his queenside minority attack while Kothari continued with g5 and then g6, hoping to menace the black king. But it proved to be too gung-ho. Adams jumped in with 24...Qd4! and when White eventually played gxf7+, simply hid his king behind the f7-pawn on f8 where it was relatively safe. Not so the white king: once Adams' rook swung in at c3, there were too many threats and the game was soon over. Kothari-Adams (LiChess)

Commiserations to Jai Kothari who also had a great tournament and is once again the proud holder of the Barden Cup on tie-break from Rock Yu.

Rock Yu and Jai Kothari receive their £150 prizes for the best scores by under 18s from John Foley...

... while Jai Kothari picked up the Barden Cup for the second year in a row (on tie-break)

Joint third in the under 18 category were Raman Vashisht-Pigem and Danbe Luk on a very creditable 5½/9.

Raman Vashisht-Pigem and Danbe Luk received £25 each for finishing 3rd= in the Under 18 category

Back to the tournament proper: Graeme Buckley secured the second prize of £250 after beating Mikhail Sedykh. As on the top board, this was a Caro-Kann (Buckley had White) but with the 3 e5 advance line to which Black responded with 3...c5. Without looking it up, I think this became fashionable in a Botvinnik-Tal world championship match, but it has also been played by modern-day elite players. Black's development looked a little slow compared to Buckley's who typically didn't stop to defend a loose pawn while completing his own development. Then he let a second pawn go, which I didn't readily understand. 

Graeme Buckley vs Mikhail Sedykh: signs of last-round tiredness in this strange game

However, there must have been something catching in this profligacy with material as Sedykh, in what seemed to be a reasonably defensible position, played a couple of incomprehensible bishop moves that left him a piece for a pawn adrift. Buckley, having previously been cavalier with his pawns, changed tack and became a materialist, mopping up a series of pawns that were left in his wake. By now Black's position was a ruin and he duly fell on his sword, allowing a mate. A baffling game in some ways, but perhaps typical of a last round when tiredness always plays a major part. Buckley-Sedykh (LiChess)

A draw against Jack Rudd brought Danny Gormally the third prize.

Rudd vs Gormally was a Nimzo-Indian with an early f3. Tiredness perhaps played a part here too, though manifested in a slightly different way. A lot of material was exchanged in the early middlegame with Black rounding on White's isolated d-pawn without being able to find a convincing way to annex it for free or in a way that promised more than a pawns-on-one-side drawn endgame. Thus thwarted, Black acquiesced to a draw on move 34. Jack Rudd was happier with his performance than at the British Championship, while Gormally went through the tournament unbeaten but conceded too many draws to get into contention. Nevertheless he went home with a cheque for £100 for finishing third on his own. Rudd-Gormally (LiChess)

White's opening in Rock Yu vs Peter Finn may not have surprised Black but it surprised me: 1 c4 c6 2 Qa4. A database check showed me that it has been played a number of times. The queen retreated to c2 a few moves later which suggests that it isn't the sharpest of lines. Things became a little more spicy when White gave up a pawn for some pressure along the d-file. A second pawn was offered but Black thought better of that one and instead offered White the chance to get the pawn back. The game didn't last much beyond that, being drawn in 19 moves. The half-point earned Yu a share of the Under 18 first prize money Yu-Finn (LiChess) 

Avyukt Dasgupta and Raman Vashisht-Pigem shared the best game prize (£25 each)

Last but not least, there was the matter of the best game prize. Last year we had GM Daniel King on hand to pass judgment but this year, after inviting players and tournament followers to make recommendations, it came down to a joint decision between the chief arbiter Paul McKeown and me. We had a lot of fun sifting through the submissions, finally settling on a game that we both agreed was totally bonkers but hugely entertaining, played by two young men overflowing with youthful exuberance and imagination. They are pictured above. Whether the game was sound or not... well, frankly, who cares. It was a lot of fun and played in the right spirit. Do play through it - there are 97(!) moves to enjoy. 

It was a great tournament, expertly organised and run by Stephen Moss with his superb team of arbiters and helpers. I had great fun preparing these reports, hope you enjoyed them.

Players who finished with 5½ or more points (click here for the complete crosstable)

Round 9 Results (chess-results)

Round 9 Games (LiChess)

Henry Adams, 2026 Kingston Invitational winner. We salute you!

5th Kingston Invitational: Round 8 (21 August 2026)

As the final day dawned on the 5th Kingston Invitational, with two rounds to go, Henry Adams was the overnight leader with 6/7 and paired against second-placed Graeme Buckley who was half a point behind on 5½. Eight other players on 5 still had a realistic chance of taking the top prize.

By the end of round eight, the Adams-Buckley game was drawn which meant that Henry Adams retained his sole leadership on 6½/8, and four players had 6 points: Graeme Buckley, Danny Gormally, Jai Kothari and Mikhail Sedykh. The ultimate winner(s) will therefore come from the above-named.

But first let's celebrate the arbiters, without whom there would be no chess...

Chief arbiter IA Paul McKeown, flanked by Alex Chmelev (left) and Kai O'Neill who received FIDE Arbiter norm certificates for their excellent work at this event.

The fourth member of the arbiting team, deputy chief arbiter IA Jake Hung

A great feature of the tournament has been the wallchart: a retro touch employing 21st century technology. Very classy: every tournament should have one.

The Kingston Invitational is fortunate to have such a splendid team of officials. Before round eight began, chief arbiter IA Paul McKeown presented two assistant arbiters, Alex Chmelev and Kai O'Neill, with FIDE Arbiter (FA) norm certificates. This was Alex's second FA norm, Kai's first. Both are licensed by FIDE as National Arbiters on request of the English Chess Federation. They have both done great work here and played a key part in creating a pleasant atmosphere for the players.

The top board clash between Adams and Buckley ended in a draw so Adams remained sole leader

Adams-Buckley began with a Benoni. CHESS magazine editor IM Richard Palliser, following play remotely, commented: "I fear that few dark-squared bishops, on both sides, have enjoyed a Benoni less than in H.Adams-G.Buckley!" It did seem strange to see those bishops disappear quite so early. The Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Dark-Squared Bishops has been informed. The game was well contested but as material became depleted, so did chances for either side to win. An accurately-played game was drawn in 37 moves. Adams thus retains his half-point lead going into the final round. Adams-Buckley (LiChess)

A 500+ rating point differential proved too great a hurdle for Isaac Lam vs Danny Gormally

Isaac Lam, rated only 1884, has had an incredibly good tournament and his reward today was a pairing against GM Danny Gormally with Black. OK, "reward" might not be quite the right word. The opening was an Anti-Marshall Ruy Lopez, following theory for some 14 moves. White obtained the usual nagging Lopez pressure and the first crisis arose when Black attempted to be more activity with 35...d5 when it might have been better to continue manoeuvring. Gormally replied with 36 d4! at which point all four centre squares were occupied by pawns. After exchanges the white rooks suddenly swung into action and threatened mayhem on the seventh rank. While it was possible for Black to defend against the direst threats along the rank, in doing so he had to abandon his pawns for the white queen to gobble up. Black tried a desperate fling with his rook but it was never going to work. Gormally has had a quiet tournament so far but might yet mount a bid for first place in the final round this afternoon. Gormally-Lam (LiChess)

Peter Finn vs Thomas Villiers was well contested and ended in a draw.

Finn-Villiers started as a Catalan and calmed down after a lively start, finally reaching a queen endgame with an equal number of pawns each. Earlier in the game White could have tried a sneaky tactic with 14 Bd6!? which might have worked out in his favour. Drawn in 44 moves. Finn-Villiers (LiChess)

Mikhail Sedykh won to put him into a four-way tie for 2nd place on 6/8

Sedykh-Johnson followed QGD Tarrasch theory for some 14 moves, with Black getting some compensation for his gambit pawn. On move 20 Black had a nice trick, 20...Bxb4, followed by a rook sacrifice, 21...Rd2, to deflect the white queen and achieve a perpetual check. But maybe he was playing for more. Not an unreasonable decision at the time, but as things progressed, Black's compensation for the pawn diminished. Then, once again, the prospect of perpetual check came into view and now Black felt he had to pursue. It was achievable with best play but a misstep on move 42 cost him dear. A second pawn was lost and with it the game. Sad for Daniel Johnson, who had been tournament front-runner for so long, but a great reward for Mikhail Sedykh and his steady play. Sedykh-Johnson (LiChess)

Jai Kothari reached 6/8 in spectacular style. He is now in 2nd= place with a chance of the top prize and also leads the challenge for the Barden Cup awarded to the best scoring player under 18.

Jai Kothari was the overnight front runner for the Barden Cup awarded to the highest scoring under 18 player - which he won in 2025. He strengthened his bid to retain the cup by beating Arya Cont with Black as well as putting himself in the group of four players half a point behind the leader. The opening was a King's Indian Attack, but Black, with an early h5 and g5, was the one doing most of the attacking. White tried countering this with 13 g4 but this allowed Black to open the h-file for his rooks to invade, happily sacrificing a pawn to speed up the process. It was by no means a straightforward win and White might have done better to launch his own offensive on the queenside. With his heavy pieces massed round the white king, Black found a neat queen sacrifice to complete the breakthrough and emerge with an extra piece. Cont-Kothari (LiChess)

Round 8 Results (chess-results)

Round 8 Games (LiChess)

5th Kingston Invitational: Round 7 (20 August 2026)

With the two leaders having already played each other, round seven of the 5th Kingston Invitational saw Daniel Johnson and Henry Adams, both on 5/6, paired with players from the next score group. One of them, Henry Adams, was successful and now leads the tournament on his own with 6/7. Graeme Buckley beat the other leader and is now in sole second place on 5½.

Henry Adams is now the sole leader on 6/7 with two rounds to go.

Adam Taylor arrived ten minutes for his game vs Henry Adams - and eventually lost on time.

On board one, Adam Taylor had White against the joint leader Henry Adams. The opening was an English, with an early b3 rather than d4 (which would have turned it into a Catalan. White secured a small edge by virtue of his opponent's vulnerable e-pawn. But Black defended calmly and there seemed no obvious way for White to increase the pressure along the e-file. White switched his focus to an advance on the b-file but by now he was close to living on the increment. Within a few moves Black had managed to advance his e-pawn and fully equalised. Then, calamity for White - he simply lost on time. This assured Adams of at least a share of first place at the end of the round unless Johnson was able to win as well. Taylor-Adams (LiChess)

Graeme Buckley has recovered from his first round defeat and is now in sole 2nd place.

Daniel Johnson, having led from the start, drops to joint third place with six other players.

On board two, Daniel Johnson was White against Graeme Buckley. The opening was a Classical Nimzo-Indian. On move 20 White played what looked like a temporary pawn sacrifice but, instead of recapturing, went in for a very shaky line where Black could have chosen to win two knights for a rook. Black thought for more than 20 minutes and opted instead for 21...Qa3 which also looked good, allowing him to retain his extra pawn. It also had the effect of slowing White down to the point where he was playing on the increments. This was not sustainable in a position where Black had an extra b-pawn and White had some tricky decisions to make. The end wasn't long in coming. Johnson-Buckley (LiChess)

Thomas Villiers vs Danny Gormally: drawn in 21 moves.

Thomas Villiers was White against Danny Gormally. The opening was a King's Indian defence, Fianchetto variation, but Danny Gormally chose to play the unusual 6...Bd7 which didn't strike me as a KID-y sort of move. But it has a bit of theory to it, apparently. The bishop later found its way to b5. A few moves later, on move 21, Gormally accepted Villiers' draw offer and that was that. Villiers-Gormally (LiChess)

Jack Rudd v Peter Finn was a fast and even game, with just one difficult chance that went begging

Jack Rudd v Peter Finn was an offbeat line of the Nimzo-Indian which involved a lot of exchanges. By move 23 only a pair of rooks and five pawns each were left on the board. The game sailed blithely on at pace - as always with a Jack Rudd game, but his opponent was no slouch either - until move 41 when Stockfish marked Black's move in its schoolmasterly red ink as a blunder. By now the pawns were down to two each, but the blunder cost Peter Finn one of his. It wasn't at all obvious to the human eye why the move played was significantly worse than the one recommended by the engine so you would have to be an endgame expert to make sense of it. Human chess played at such a brisk rate doesn't allow for such niceties. Four moves later White returned the compliment and the engine's numeric assessment was reverted to 0.00. On move 51 hostilities ceased. Rudd-Finn (LiChess)

THE BARDEN CUP

Jai Kothari on 5/7 is the current leader in the competition for the Barden Cup and £200 junior prize

Now we're within two rounds of the tournament finish it's time to consider the possible destination of the Barden Cup, named after The Guardian's and FT's chess columnist Leonard Barden who happens to be celebrating his 97th birthday today. Stephen Moss said a few words before the round started but there were no extravagant gestures as it is known Leonard dislikes people making a fuss about such things. I'll confine myself to a simple "happy birthday, Leonard". A reminder that the leading junior (17 or under) will receive the Barden Cup and £200. 

At the moment the challenge is led by Jai Kothari who is one of the players on 5/7, having won his game against Zain Patel in this round. He won the Barden Cup last year so is on to do the double (no pressure). On 4½ are Aayush Wadhwa (USA) who beat Rob Willmoth, and Rock Yu who beat Balahari Bharat Kumar, with no fewer than eight other juniors still in contention on 4/7.

Round 7 Results (chess-results)

Round 7 games (LiChess)

5th Kingston Invitational: Round 6 (20 August 2026)

Round six of the 5th Kingston Invitational finally delivered the pairing that we wanted to see involving the highest rated player and the tournament leader: the two Daniels, Gormally and Johnson. The Swedish player was able to draw with Black against the grandmaster and now shares the lead on 5/6 with Henry Adams who beat Jack Rudd. By the end of the round, five players were in the next score group with 4½/6: Danny Gormally, Thomas Villiers, Adam Taylor, Graeme Buckley and Peter Finn.

The two Daniels go head to head: Gormally vs Johnson. The result was a 17-move draw.

Gormally-Johnson started with a Catalan, of which we have seen quite a number this week. It proceeded sedately but seemed on the verge of getting interesting when Black played 17...Be3, which seemed to force a position where Black would have the slight advantage of the two bishops. However, as I watched this on LiChess, it was shortly followed by the appearance of ½-½ on the computer screen. So Daniel Johnson retains his place at the top of the leader board, although he could be caught if one or both of the next two boards ends in a decisive result. This was the first of the top boards to finish, just short of two hours into the round. Gormally-Johnson (LiChess)

Henry Adams now shares the lead with Daniel Johnson

Henry Adams overcame Jack Rudd to share the lead with Daniel Johnson

A decisive result duly followed when Henry Adams defeated Jack Rudd to share first place with Daniel Johnson. Adams was White, opening 1 d4, to which Rudd replied with the Wade Defence (1...d6 2 Nf3 Bg4). After some exchanges the position became reminiscent of a line in the Caro-Kann. It all looked fairly innocuous, although Stockfish, installed in the Chess Match Special commentary box, later castigated a whole raft of middlegame moves by both players, reminding me of the way the celebrated but grumpy cricket commentator Fred Trueman used to express his disbelief at the incompetence of a younger generation of players with his catchphrase "I dunno wha's goin' off out there!" Being of a slightly more merciful nature and (more to the point) not able to understand the full scope of Stockfish's assessments, I shall draw a veil over most of them. Suffice to say that Black may have regretted playing 19...Nd5 as things became decidedly problematic when White attacked it with 20 c4 when he would have been at the mercy of White's handily-placed rook on d3. And to think that the curmudgeonly Stockfish gave 19 Rd3 a ?! - I would award it an unqualified exclamation mark. Ditto, 21 Qf3 which looks an excellent move to the human eye. Faced with a tactical vice, Rudd was obliged to surrender a knight for two pawns but never looked like saving the game thereafter. A very well played game by Henry Adams. Adams-Rudd (LiChess)

Adam Taylor ran short of time but still held the draw with Thomas Villiers. Both now have 4½/6.

Around the time the two Daniels were drawing their game, the late-arriving Adam Taylor was down to his last 12 minutes with Black against Thomas Villiers on board two, with White still having 80+ minutes at his disposal. But it didn't prove to be a problem for Taylor, even when his time dwindled down to a minute or so and he was able to draw in reasonable comfort on the board. Villiers-Taylor (LiChess)

Graeme Buckley exchanged heavy blows with Peter Sowray

Graeme Buckley vs Peter Sowray opened with a good, old-fashioned Ruy Lopez, or Spanish Opening if you prefer the more modern nomenclature: a welcome relief after an unappetising diet of queenside fianchettos, etc. It was textbook stuff, with White preserving his slight edge, until Black tried a tactical pawn capture to resolve the situation on the queenside. White's answer was to treat it as a pawn sacrifice and turn his attention to ramping up his kingside play. Suddenly it got complicated. All too predictably, nasty old Stockfish cast aspersions on some of the play, but in human terms it was clear enough as White smashed his way through the black defences. That said, it did look as though Black might have done better to try 29...Nxf1 which would have been the natural move to play as well as Stockfish's first choice, though there was still plenty of ways for Black to go wrong. Instead Black went astray with 29...Qc4 after which he didn't get a look-in. Buckley-Sowray (LiChess)

Peter Finn found a powerful way to invade Aayush Wadhwa's position

Peter Finn vs Aayush Wadhwa followed a lot of contemporary QP theory for about 16 moves, which, judging from the results found in LiChess's database, leads inexorably to a draw. Not the case here, however: Black's subsequent play started to look a little passive until he made a serious error trying to drive away an annoyingly well-placed knight with 22...f6. White replied with the excellent 23 Qe7! invading the black camp to devastating effect. Actually, make that 23 Qe7!! - I just looked at it again and enjoyed the line that goes 23...fxe6 24 Rxc7 Rf7 25 Qxe6! etc. The shock led to a further inaccuracy by Black, allowing a quick finish. Finn-Wadhwa (LiChess)

Round 6 Results (chess-results)

Round 6 Games (LiChess)

5th Kingston Invitational: Round 5 (19 August 2026)

 As the middle round of the 5th Kingston Invitational got underway, the leader was Daniel Johnson (Sweden) with a perfect 4/4, followed by Danny Gormally, Henry Adams and Mikhail Sedykh on 3½ and another ten players a half-point further back on 3 points.

Daniel Johnson and Henry Adams awarded themselves the afternoon off with a steady draw

The top board pairings were Johnson v Adams and Sedykh v Gormally. On board one where Daniel Johnson and Henry Adams were only separated by 20 rating points apart, the game started with a cagey line of the Catalan which elite players sometimes resort to when they play each other and fancy an afternoon off. The queens exited the board on move 8 as did a fair bit of other material. The game petered out to a draw on move 23, taking Johnson to 4½/5. Johnson-Adams game.

Danny Gormally couldn't make his higher rating tell against Mikhail Sedykh

With a rating differential of 200+ it might have been expected for Gormally to try for the full point against Sedykh in order to tie with Johnson for lead. He opted to defend a line of the Nimzo-Indian which was enough to equalise but proved not to be enough to secure a realistic chance of winning. After further exchanges the position reached was a level rook and pawns endgame and draw agreed on move 35. A good result for Sedykh who played very solidly.  Sedykh-Gormally game.

Adam Taylor's steady pressure induced a blunder from Bob Eames

With draws occurring on the top boards, Johnson maintained the sole lead but now there are seven players in the next score as a result of four decisive results on the next few boards. Adam Taylor, playing White versus Bob Eames, nursed a solid plus into the middlegame and was rewarded by a blunder from his opponent allowing a simple transition into a position with two minor pieces against a rook. After that, accurate chess was enough to win the game. Taylor-Eames game.

Jack Rudd's expert handling of a rook and two bishops clinched victory over Arya Cont

Jack Rudd vs Arya Cont was a Grünfeld which became a little complicated around move 15 but settled down after both players were understandably unable to find some abstruse moves advocated by the analysis engine. Though material was much reduced, White's possession of the two bishops became a key factor. Black committed a couple of inaccuracies which left his king under threat from White's remaining rook and bishops, followed by a more serious error which the West Country IM expertly exploited. Rudd-Cont game.

Thomas Villiers' sacrificial play was courageous and successful...

... but Alistair Hill had one fleeting chance of glory in this hugely entertaining game.

The game between Alistair Hill and Thomas Villiers proceeded in fairly orthodox fashion for about 14 moves but suddenly exploded into life from the moment Hill, playing White, sacrificed the exchange and a pawn with 15 a3. A few moves later Villiers decided to spice things up by a counter-sacrifice of a rook - or was it two rooks? Soon it was complete bedlam on the board and I won't pretend I can understand the half of it. Eventually the queens came off and the position came down to an endgame where White had bishop and two pawns against Black's seven pawns. Yes, you read that right - seven pawns. Not the sort of material imbalance you see every day. 

As you might expect from the foregoing description, the lonely cleric was no match for the horde of pawns which confronted it and Black finally triumphed. But it turns out that White, with just 2 minutes 35 seconds left on his clock, missed an astonishing opportunity to turn the tables by placing both of his remaining pawns en prise with a view to one of them sneaking through to become a queen. Now I've given you a big clue you should be able to find the right move on the diagram below - but can you analyse it all the way through to a win? I know I can't. That said, I might have punted it anyway on the grounds that everything else looks hopeless.

White to play and win

Even with a lone queen against seven pawns (the bishop has to be jettisoned somewhere along the line), it would still have been no small task for White to round up Black's seven pawns - three connected passers on the kingside and a menacing phalanx of four pawns (three of which might have been tripled!) advancing down the queenside. It would have been next to impossible to calculate given the time White had left - or indeed 30 minutes or so - but it would have wonderful to behold. 

It was a great game anyway: I salute both players for their courage and ingenuity which provided me with rich entertainment. Be sure to play through this game on LiChess.

Sanjit Selva Kumar lost to Alfie Onslow.

Sanjit Selva Kumar v Alfie Onslow opened with a Nimzo-Indian which White transformed into something a bit off the wall, particularly after he developed his dark-squared bishop on b2. Not something you see every day in a Nimzo, and it left White's kingside dark squares very weak. There seems to be an epidemic of early queenside fianchettoing in this tournament. Onslow soon took advantage of the open diagonals to clinch the point and join the squad of players half a point behind the leader. Kumar-Onslow game.

Round 5 Results (chess-results)

Round 5 Games (LiChess)

5th Kingston Invitational: Round 4 (19 August 2026)

 At the start of round four of the 5th Kingston Invitational, Daniel Johnson of Sweden was the one remaining player with a 100% score, with 12 players half a point behind him on 2½, one of whom, Alfie Onslow, chose to sit out the fourth round with a half-point bye. That meant that all twelve players on the top six boards had hopes of being in the lead by the end of the round.

Round 4: players on the top six boards vying for the leadership

Daniel Johnson was perhaps relieved not to be facing the tournament's one grandmaster in this round. Instead he played Black against M R Sooraj. The 28-year-old Indian-registered, UK-based chess coach played a conservative double fianchetto opening which started to fray at the seams around move 19 and he soon found himself the exchange down. A dozen or so moves later Sooraj tried a tactic which backfired. Johnson was able to add to his material advantage and free his pieces for a straightforward win, cementing his place at the top of the leaderboard for a further round. Sooraj-Johnson on LiChess.

Daniel Johnson won again and now leads the tournament with 4/4

M R Sooraj faced the tournament leader

GM Danny Gormally was sitting next to M R Sooraj, with White against Jai Kothari. It was only when I processed the photos that I spotted a weird coincidence...

Danny Gormally

... namely that Messrs Sooraj and Gormally were both sporting Tommy Hilfiger hoodies (other brands are available). Is that what the well-dressed chess player is wearing this season? I would have thought that Danny, as befits a member of England's forthcoming senior international squad, might have gone in for something more age-appropriate such as a tweed jacket with leather elbow pads, a style made popular by geography teachers the length and breadth of the country back in the good old days.

Returning reluctantly to the chess: the Gormally-Kothari opening was a fairly orthodox QGD Tarrasch Defence, but Jai Kothari allowed a queen exchange which doubled his pawns and made the Gormally d-pawn into a passer. That said, Black made a very decent job of blockading it à la Nimzowitsch even after White had snaffled one of the doubled pawns to make it a true pawn plus. After it came down to a knight endgame, the analysis engine was still defiantly proclaiming Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité (well, one of those anyway). But one always fears for the less experienced player in these circumstances. Sure enough, on move 57 Kothari unwisely abandoned the defence of his h-pawn and the grandmaster was able to win and reach 3½/4. Gormally-Kothari game on LiChess.

Two of the other confrontations between leaders, Arya Cont v Adam Taylor and Peter Finn v Sanjit Kumar ended in draws, but there were full points for Henry Adams and Mikhail Sedykh, enabling them to share second place with Danny Gormally. In both of these decisive games it proved to be a case of "he who dares, loses."

Henry Adams beat Gabriel Sherwood to move into joint second place with Gormally and Sedykh

Henry Adams versus Gabriel Sherwood began with a Catalan with Black going in for an early and unusual ...f5. Things seem to be progressing evenly until Black blundered with 28...Ra2, threatening White's queen, but overlooking an unusual double intermezzo tactic where White had two captures threatening Black's queen, ultimately netting him a piece for a pawn. Adams-Sherwood on LiChess.

Mikhail Sedykh, 51, is a member of Lewisham CC and a qualified arbiter

Balahari Bharat Kumar v Mikhail Sedykh started sedately with a near-symmetrical Q-side fianchetto system but gradually grew livelier as White started to attack the castled king position. However, he became over-optimistic and his tactical attempt at a mating finish backfired calamitously. Kumar-Sedykh on LiChess.

Round 4 Results (chess-results)

Round 4 Games (LiChess)