The 2016 British Chess Championships were held at Bournemouth Pavilion between 23rd July and 6th August.

Congratulations to Surbiton juniors Koby Kalavannan, who won the U-14 British title with 5.5/7 and then jumped up one age group to grab the U-15 British title too with 6/7, and Ranesh Ratnesan, who captured the U-12 British title with a score of 6/7.

Koby (5/11) also featured in the main Championship as one of Surbiton's usual suspects at the British, alongside Steven Jones (6.5/11) and Oliver Gill (5.5/11). Some highlights amongst them were Steven's draw against GM John Emms, Oliver's draw against GM Keith Arkell, win against IM Jack Rudd, draw against IM Dietmar Kolbus and a further couple of draws against 2 FMs and Koby's win (also) against IM Jack Rudd and two draws against FMs.

Ranesh also re-appeared in the Week 2 PM Open and got an impressive, unbeaten, joint second place amongst much higher rated opponents.

Meanwhile Radha Ratnesan made plus scores in both the U-9 (which also featured Hari Stewart (4.5/6)) and U-10 events.

There was also Surbiton interest in the Blitz tournament. Mike Basman was highest from our club with 8/11 with Chris Briscoe (6/11) and Paul Durrant (who told me he only expected to get half a point!) (4.5/11) also featuring.

Great efforts by our Surbiton members at the 2016 British! Well done!