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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:
9 August 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.
After today's seventh and final round of the British Senior Championships, the new 65+ Champion is GM Keith Arkell and the new 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.
GM Michael Adams, who is still eligible for the 50+, tied joint second in the main championship with GM Luke McShane, both half a point behind teenage sensation GM Shreyas Royal who becomes champion for the first time. The ECF, who worked hard a few years ago to help Shreyas's family gain right of residence in Britain, deserve a pat on the back.
For more details please see the English Chess Federation website.
Later this month several English teams will participate in the European Senior Team Championships at Hersonissos, on the Greek island of Crete, which take place from 26th August to 5th September. As usual, entries are much smaller than for the World Senior Teams which were held in April, but there will still be some strong competition.
England are defending champions in both the 50+ and 65+, and last year England-2 also won bronze in the 50+ tournament.
Provisional team lists can now be seen on a new link at the chess-results site.
There are 14 teams in the 50+ including three Open and one Women's team from England. England-1 will be GMs Stuart Conquest, John Emms, Danny Gormally and Mark Hebden with IM Graeme Buckley as reserve. Italy are sending a team with an average rating almost as high.
Slovenia are provisionally top seeds in the 65+ where there will be two England teams in the field of 18. GM John Nunn leads the first team as usual, supported by GM Tony Kosten and IMs John Pigott, Nigel Povah and Peter Large.
Ireland will also be sending one team each in the 50+ and 65+ tournament and we look forward to meeting many old friends at this event again. Unfortunately Scotland and Wales are not particpating.
Back to our Seniors introduction page