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Editor: Dr Tim Harding |
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Editor: Dr Tim Harding |
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© Dr Tim Harding
Last modified:
2 November 2026
This page for British senior chess news was created in order to leave the main Seniors news page free for international chess news for the over-50s. For more information about chess for over-50s, please see our Seniors calendar and our Seniors introduction page. We also now have an Irish seniors page separate from other Irish news.
Congratulations to Ian Snape (65+) and Philip J. Crocker (50+) who are the new English Senior Champions, after winning the tournaments held recently in Peterborough alongside the Open English Championship and Women's Championship.
These events were open only to ENG-registered players. You can find the full results on chess-results and other details on the English Chess Federation website. You can also read Tim Spanton's impressions of the event and see his games on his Beau Chess blog.
The seniors events were played over seven rounds from Monday 26th October (when two rounds were played) until Saturday 31st. (The Open events were on the same days over nine rounds so they had three double-round days.)
We believe that this is the first time in recent years that the English Seniors have been run alongside the Open English championships. Previously they were played in late Spring at a different venue. The changed date meant a clash with the popular Guernsey congress that strated last weekend and this probably affected entries.
There were 16 players in the 65+ championship. Ian Snape from Bromley in Kent won all his seven games and finished two points clear of Norfolk man Roy Hughes who was outright second. The decisive game between them can be seen on Tim Spanton's blog.
There were also 16 entries for the Over 50s section, but two people did not turn up and defaulted their first round games, so there are only 14 players in fact. Philip J. Crocker won with 6/7, a point and a half ahead of joint runners-up Russell James amd Andrew Brett.
Senior players who are interested in playing on a team at the 2027 World Senior Team Championships (in Magdeburg, Germany, just after Easter) should be making plans and contacting their federations without delay.
The event is likely to be very popular and accommodation at the venue hotel could book out. Federations will probably be wise to enter teams in early January and not delay until the official closing date.
It is expected that Scotland and Ireland, as well as England of course, will be well represented in Magdeburg. Probably Wales and Guernsey will also support the World Team event as in recent years.
The near-clash of dates, reported on our main senior news page, with the European Senior Team Championships is likely to mean England will send much-weakened teams to the latter event and the other federations may not send teams to Italy at all.
Eight English teams (a total of 38 players) participated in the European Senior Team Championships at Hersonissos, on the Greek island of Crete in late August and earlY September. England won the 50+ tournament and finished as runners-up in the 65+, also taking home the women's 50+ title in the absence of any opposition.
As usual, entries were much smaller than for the World Senior Teams which were held in April, but in the absence of any teams from Germany, the low number of 32 was disappointing especially as the venue and organisation of the event were especially good.
The ECF and their senior organiser IM Nigel Povah need to be congratulated on fielding 25% of the teams that played in Crete. As Nigel admitted to us afterwards, the top English teams could and should be stronger but they can only send players who are willing to play, and several of the stars of the past no longer play much chess.
In 2027 England will be probably be trying to get back in the medals at the World Senior Teams and the ECF probably will not fund teams for the European event.
England went into the Creetan event as defending champions in both the 50+ and 65+, and in 2025 England-2 also won bronze in the 50+ tournament. This time England-2 were fifth in the 50+ while England-2 and England-3 in the 65+ finished fifth and sixth.
Slovenia's victory in the 65+ was less surprising when you see that they outranked the English squad on all but top board and Italy were higher ranked on ine board. GM John Nunn led the team as usual, supported by GM Tony Kosten and IMs John Pigott, Nigel Povah and Peter Large.
In the 50+, the average rating of England and their main rivals, Italy, was very close and it was the superior English performance against the Dutch that decided the gold and silver medals, with all the other teams being rather weaker on some boards at least.
England-1 lined up in the 50+ as GMs Stuart Conquest, Danny Gormally, Mark Hebden, and captain John Emms. They all went through undefeated though Irish FM John Delaney was close to beating Stuart in the last round (and drew). It should also be noted that Hebden could have played on the 65+ team.
The England-1 reserve in the 50+, 2262-rated IM Graeme Buckley had an outstanding tournament, scoring 6/6 for an amazing Rp of 2766 and a rating gain of about 10. Buckley did not play against Slovakia or Italy but was just too good for the board four players on other teams.
Team lists, results, and pairings can still be seen at the chess-results site.
The 2026 British 65+ Champion is GM Keith Arkell and the British 50+ champion is FM Stephen Dishman.
These tournaments were played from 3-9 August as part of the British Championships (which ran from 1st-9th August). Full results can be seen at chess-results and on the English Chess Federation website.
Arkell scored 6/7 in the 65+ championship. He finished a clear point ahead of a group of 7 players on five points who included Welsh IM John Cooper, FM Terry Chapman, former winner FM Andrew P. Smith (Ireland) and Mike Dougherty (Canada) who is currently researching a chess history PhD at De Montfort University in Leicester. There were 66 competitors.
In the 50+ championship, which had 58 players, Dishman scored 6/7 ahead of IM Neil Bradbury and untitled Martin Burrows who were half a point behind.
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