The British Championships, which concluded in Hull earlier this month, saw a notable achievement for 15-year-old Shreyas Royal, whose stellar performance was his third and final qualifying result to earn him the grandmaster title. He becomes the youngest British player to reach that milestone, beating David Howell’s record which had held since 2007 (and before that, my own!).
Royal’s win against Howell was one of the best games of the event, although the Alexander Best Game Prize (named for C.H.O’D. Alexander, the Bletchley Park codebreaker and Spectator chess columnist) was awarded to Howell, for the precision in his endgame against Ameet Ghasi.
Below, Royal made the courageous decision to jettison his knight and fight for the initiative, avoiding the obvious but passive 23…Nf5-e7.
David Howell-Shreyas Royal
British Championships, Hull 2024
(see left diagram)
23… fxe5!? 24 gxf5 e4 25 Ne1 25 Ne5 Qg5+ sheds the e3-pawn, and perhaps d4 too.
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