Gawain Jones, the British and English champion, who turns 37 on Wednesday, completed a remarkable year of recovery from tragedy when he won the £25,000 first prize in the XTX Markets London Classic, played at the Emirates Stadium.
Last year Jones’s wife, Sue Maroroa Jones, died following complications after the birth of their second child, and he withdrew from competitive play for several months.
Returning this year, he won the English title at Kenilworth in June, and the British crown at Hull in August, then scored 5.5/9 for the England team at the Budapest Olympiad in September, before completing his treble last Saturday.
Jones scored an unbeaten 5/7 and finished a full point clear of the field. The veteran eight-time British champion, Michael Adams, 53, was runner-up on tie-break while Nikita Vitiugov, 37, the former Russian who emigrated to north London last year, was third. All three Englishmen finished ahead of the tournament favourites and world title candidates Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, of Azerbaijan, and Vidit Gujrathi, of India.
Jones’s best win came in the final round, where his white knight proved superior to the black bishop of the women’s world champion Ju Wenjun, who resigned at move 41 when faced with a lost rook ending.
England’s only failure at the Classic was Shreyas Royal, 15. Britain’s youngest ever grandmaster had a rare setback, scoring only 1/7, and will hope to do much better when he competes at the £10,000 Caplin Hastings Masters, which starts on 28 December.
The Fide Open, for experts and masters rated over 2200, finished with the top seeded Indian, Raunak Sadhwani, winning on tie-break from the No 2 seed, Israel’s Ilya Smirin.
For Matthew Wadsworth, the Open was another near miss in his long-running quest for the grandmaster title. The 24-year-old has been trying for GM since he graduated from Cambridge, and already has two of the three norms, with a peak rating close to the 2500 needed.
Requiring 2/2 against highly rated opponents for his third and final norm, Wadsworth won impressively against a Chinese GM in the penultimate round. In the final round he was briefly winning a queen and rook endgame against GM Ameet Ghasi which would have secured his third norm, but allowed a queen swap which rescued the draw.
The event concluded with the Super-Blitz, possibly the strongest speed tournament ever staged in England, in which the Classic GMs were joined by qualifiers and wildcards led by Alireza Firouzja and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
Firouzja, rated 2871 and world No 2 to Magnus Carlsen in blitz, duly scored 5.5/7 but only after losing to an ancient opening trap in round one. Adams v Firouzja: 1 e4 c6 2 d4 d6 3 Nc3 e5 4 Nf3 Nd7 5 Bc4 Be7 6 dxe5 dxe5 7 Ng5 Bxg5? 8 Qh5 Qe7 9 Qxg5 Qxg5 10 Bxg5. White has a fine two-bishop ending while Black is passive, and Adams won without problems. I recognised it (with transpositions) from Barden v Ernst Klein, Buxton 1950, but never expected to see it again with such an eminent loser.
XTX Markets, which sponsored the Classic, have become significant backers of major London chess events. The algorithmic trading firm also sponsors ChessFest, the annual one-day festival in Trafalgar Square. XTX is also a major UK maths donor, supporting students from low-income backgrounds to progress to degrees.
3950: 1…f4! and White resigned. The double threat is fxg3 or Rb8/Qxb2, while if 2 Bc1 Qd6 threatens both fxg3 and Qxc5. If instead 1…Qxe3? 2 Rxe5 Qb3 3 Rxe8 and Black must give perpetual check by Qd1+/Qd5+. If 1…Rb8? 2 Qxe5 guards b2 and threatens Qxg7 mate and Qxb8. If 1…Nd7? 2 Qg6! Rb8 3 Rb5! Rxb5 4 Qe8+ Kh7 5 Qg6+ Kg8 6 Qe8+ Nf8? 7 Qxb5.
