British championship

This year’s British Championship starts on Saturday and is endowed with an outstanding prize fund supplied by Capital Developments Waterloo Ltd. The first prize alone is £10,000 and this has attracted a field which includes many of the UK’s leading grandmasters. This week, a game and a puzzle by two of the leading contenders. Gawain Jones won the championship in 2012 and this week’s game is taken from that event. The puzzle position is by Luke McShane, a hugely talented player who has been somewhat distracted from his vocation as a chess grandmaster by his day job in finance.
 
Jones-Turner: British Championship, North Shields 2012; Petroff Defence
 
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Nxe5 d6 4 Nf3 Nxe4 5 Nc3 Nf6 This is a fashionable line in the Petroff. If Black accepts the invitation to double White’s pawns then 5 … Nxc3 6 dxc3 allows White to play 0-0-0 and storm forward on the kingside.