Jonathan Hawkins has emerged as the winner of this year’s British Championship, which finished last week at the University of Warwick in Coventry. Several players were in contention for the laurels as they entered the final round, but Hawkins’s rivals could only draw, and his win clinched the title.
In the past there was a clearly defined cursus honorum for aspiring players. Win the national championship, and the odds were that you would be selected for the World Championship zonal tournament. If you qualified from that stage to the interzonal then the path was clear, if you were successful, to proceed to the Candidates tournament for the world title.
Nowadays, with variegated World Chess Federation qualifying routes, the climb to the top has become more opaque. This goes some way to explaining why, since sharing the British Championship with David Howell last year, Hawkins appears to have made no impact on the international stage. After his latest victory, I hope and expect that this highly talented player will emerge into the international arena to make his mark there as well as in purely national competitions.
Hawkins-Hill, British Championship, Coventry 2015; Grünfeld Defence
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 d5 4 Nf3 Bg7 5 h4 Enterprising but not new. The primary highways of the Grünfeld are introduced by 5 cxd5 and 5 Bg5. 5 … c6 6 Bg5 dxc4 Perhaps this voracity is out of place. 6 … Ne4 is more in the spirit of the Grünfeld. As played, Black’s greed gives White’s h4 an immediate relevance. 7 e4 b5 8 e5 Nd5 9 h5 (see diagram 1) 9 … Bg4 The critical line in what has become a gambit scenario is to challenge White’s bishop with 9 … h6. However, after 10 hxg6 hxg5 11 Rxh8+ Bxh8 12 gxf7+ Kxf7 13 Nxg5+ Kg6 14 Qf3 Nxc3 15 bxc3 Kxg5 (Nepomniatchi-Giri, Beijing 2013) the continuation 16 Be2 followed by Kd2 gives a winning attack. 10 h6 Bf8 11 Be2 Nd7 12 Nd2 Be6 13 Bg4 Bxg4 14 Qxg4 f6 By disrupting his own king’s field, Black is playing with fire. 14 … N7b6 was about equal. 15 Qe6 (see diagram 2) 15 … Qb6 Black cannot play 15 … fxg5 due to 16 Nde4 Qb6 17 Nd6+ Kd8 18 Nf7+ Kc7 19 Qxd5! which gives White a winning position but not 19 Nxh8 when 19 … Nf4 turns the tables. 16 exf6 N5xf6 17 Bxf6 Nxf6 18 Nde4 Nxe4 19 Nxe4 Kd8 20 Nc5 Qc7 21 d5 Black resigns
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