Michael Adams, with six championship wins already under his belt, and David Howell, with three, were the pre-tournament favourites for this week’s British title contest at Torquay and they are still locked in contention as the race, viewable free and live online, reaches its closing rounds this weekend. Sunday’s final round starts at 10am to allow for a possible tie-break.

After six of the nine rounds Adams and Howell led on 5/6, in front of a queue of a dozen would-be challengers half a point or a point behind. Adams has been ultra-solid while Howell has lived on the edge, both on the board and in handling his clock time.

Chess: David Howell and Michael Adams battle for England No 1 spot in Torquay Read more

The two were paired in Friday’s seventh round and agreed a draw after 21 moves of cautious sparring.

If Adams fails to retain his title, one unexpected reason will be because two lower-rated rivals found a chink in his opening repertoire. Back in the 1990s when Adams was first a teenage talent, then a fast rising young grandmaster, he used a variety of defences to 1 e4, mainly the Caro-Kann 1....c6 but also the French 1...e6 and the Pirc 1...d6.

From around 2000 onwards, when the Cornishman played mainly against other elite grandmasters, he began to meet 1 e4 almost exclusively with 1...e5, which defused any sharp lines his opponents had prepared against other defences. It was a good way to minimise losses as Black.

It also made Adams predictable at Torquay for a lower-ranked opponent satisfied to draw as White. Ravi Haria, the 20-year-old who already has one GM norm, opened in round four with the drawish Scotch Game 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 d4 exd4 5 Nxd4 Bb4 6 Nxc6 bxc6 7 Bd3. Adams replied 7...0-0 and they drew in 18 moves. Two rounds later Australia’s Justin Tan used the identical sequence, Adams went 7...d5 and they drew in 19.

The problem for Adams is that Torquay is a nine-round tournament with over 50 players, where at least 7.5/9 will be needed for an outright win, so these two halves plus a draw with Howell leave no margin for error.

Meanwhile Howell won an adventurous game against the Cambridge student Matthew Wadsworth, 19, who like Haria has one GM norm and needs two more for the title. White’s rook, knight and pawn were no match for Black’s roving queen.

Richard Palliser, who lost to Adams in round five, earlier set a strange record when his second and third round opponents, both grandmasters, defaulted due to illness.

There was another upset in round five when Katarzyna Toma, who learned her skills in Poland, had a winning position against GM Keith Arkell after less than a dozen moves.

Toma is already ranked No 4 among English women, and looks a sure selection for the 2020 Olympiad team.

Indian prodigy, 13, is youngest to win major tournament



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, pictured aged 12, congratulated by fellow pupils in Chennai after becoming a grandmaster. Photograph: Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty Images

India’s prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, who became the youngest ever international master at 11 and narrowly missed being the youngest ever grandmaster at 12, has set another landmark by winning the traditional Xtracon Open at Helsingor, Denmark, at 13 years 11 months. The Chennai boy scored an unbeaten 8.5/10 for a performance rating of 2741, the level of the world top 20.

Unlike the record book for youngest grandmaster, which is well documented, there is no recognised list for the youngest winner of a major tournament. Judit Polgar won in London 1988 at 12 and Henrique Mecking was Brazilian champion at 13, but their opposition was far weaker than for “Pragg”.

The nearest previous comparison is Bobby Fischer, who won the US Open and the US championship, both high class tournaments, at 14, so this is a new record for the Indian teen.

Pragg’s fastest victory, 23 moves to win a piece and the game, was in the style of Anatoly Karpov, simple play where his opponent was always on the back foot. His favourite style often leads to endgames where he grinds to victory a la Carlsen.

He also had the luck which tournament winners need in the final round when Samuel Sevian, one of a trio of young US grandmasters groomed for the top, was a pawn up in a marathon queen endgame and missed more than one winning chance. In that same final round, the Norwegian champion Aryan Tari missed a simple tactic which would also have won the tournament.

Pragg’s sister Vaishali, 18, also had the result of her life, scoring her first GM norm and defeating Sevian in a major upset by an imaginative attack.

3630 White’s plan was 1...Bb6+ 2 Ke5 Bf2? 3 Bxf2 Kxf2 4 Kf4 and draws, but he missed 2...Bc7+! 3 Kf5 Bg3 4 Bc3 h4 when the h pawn queens: 5 Bd4 h3 6 Bg1 Bf2 7 Bh2 Kg2 8 Be5 Bg3 followed by h2-h1=Q.