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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:
31 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.
Eight English teams (a total of 38 players) are currently participating in the European Senior Team Championships at Hersonissos, on the Greek island of Crete. Round 1 was played on 27th August, and the ninth and final round will be on Friday 4th 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. The England Women's team in the 50+ are the only all-female squad here so presumably will win something.
In the 50+ championship, England-1 and Italy have nearly identical records after drawing their match yesterday. Today England-1 beat England-2 to keep pace with the Italians. Both are well ahead of the contenders for bronze, with Netherlands and Slovakia (who have not yet played) in joint third after four rounds.
Unfortunately England are probably heading for only second place in the 65+ championship, having lost to Slovenia in round 4. A good 3-1 win today against the other main contenders, Italy, means the silver medal is on track with still a chance of gold.
Today Slovenia (who are headed by former USSR grandmasters Beliavsky and Mikhalchishin) only drew with Switzerland so England and Slovenia are level on 8MP while Italy are on 7. Slovenia and Italy already played a drawn match. Unfortunately the result of the head-to-head match may prove decisive in tiebreaks at the end.
Team lists, results, and pairings can now be seen 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 sent a team with an average rating almost as high.
There are in all four 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 have also sent one team each in the 50+ and 65+ tournament. Unfortunately Scotland and Wales are not participating.
The new British 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.
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