Chess with Spencer Tilbrook

Aug 13 2008 by Our Correspondent, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

COLLEAGUES who have asked about my holiday destination this year have been a little taken aback by my response; Liverpool to play in the British Chess Championships.

I did not have to be Sherlock Holmes to decipher that they were thinking: ‘‘I didn’t know he was that good.’’

I’m not, but happily for me and others at the lower end of the chess food chain the English Chess Federation runs graded championships in tandem with the main event.

Thus last week was spent sitting, if not alongside Grandmasters and International Masters, then within just a few yards of them in the spectacular setting of the Merseyside city’s St George’s Hall.

This truly breathtaking building, which took 12 years to build and was completed in 1854, was reopened last year after a £23m restoration.

The controller’s pre-game warning not to risk losing on time by getting lost gazing at the splendours of its stunning vaulted ceiling was half-jest, half-warning.

Would that I could tell you that my play perfectly complemented the sumptuousness of the arena; sadly any resemblance was with areas of St George’s Hall which may have been crumbing before its restoration.

But the experience left me looking ahead already to the summer of 2009 and the 96th British Championships, to be held in Torquay during the fortnight July 26 to August 8, when once again the ECF’s magnificent team of organisers will stage events for everyone from under-eight juniors through to the Grandmasters.

For more information visit website http://www.britishchess08.com/

SPENCER TILBROOK