This year’s British Championships run from July 22 to August 4 and take place in North Shields — as far north as this peripatetic event has been since the Edinburgh championships of 2003.

Judging by the entries received so far, we will see Englishmen David Howell and Gawain Jones battling for the top honour — the title of British Champion — before joining forces as part of the English team in the Chess Olympiad, which starts on August 27 in Istanbul.

Oxfordshire has representation at ‘the British’ in the form of Bicester Club’s Marcus Harvey competing in the main event and Cowley’s Chantelle Foster in the British Under-16 Championship. Marcus — only 15 years old himself — had a superb run for Bicester in the league last season. He scored a magnificent 9.5/11 on top board and won the prize for the best individual score in division 1. This award was presented on June 25 at the Cowley Summer Blitz tournament where Marcus again was the star with a winning score of 9/10. Marcus won’t have it as easy in North Shields. The young England stars Howell and, particularly, Jones are a class apart as you can see from this week’s game.

It was played on board 1 in the Oxford —White Rose match from this season’s 4NCL tournament. Oxford’s board 1, Ravi Shanmugam plays the opening slightly inaccurately and this is enough for Gawain Jones to grab the initiative, after which the England star is quite ruthless.

White: Ravi Shanmugam Black: Gawain Jones 1.e4 c5 2.d3 Nc6 3.g3 Nf6 4.Bg2 d5 5.exd5 Nxd5 6.Nc3 Nxc3 7.bxc3 g6 8.Ne2 Bg7 9.0–0 Bg4 Probing for weaknesses rather than just tamely castling.

10.Rb1 Perhaps Ravi should have called the Grandmaster’s bluff here with 10.h3!? — since after 10...Bxe2 11.Qxe2 Bxc3 12.Rb1 Qd7 13.Bh6 he has good compensation for the pawn.

10...Qd7 11.Be3?! Very natural — but it sets White on a dubious path. Again, sacrificing the c3 pawn with 11.Qe1 should have been seriously considered.

11...b6 12.d4 Rc8! 13.Re1 cxd4 14.cxd4 0–0 By playing simple positional chess, Black is already better.

15.c4 e5! White’s c pawn is very weak and this move stops White playing c5 to swap it off.

16.dxe5 Qxd1 17.Rbxd1 Nxe5 18.h3 Bf3! 19.Bd4 Bxg2 20.Kxg2 Rxc4 21.Nf4 Nf3!? Jones is a superb tactician and this cleverly simplifies things without allowing any muddying of the waters.

22.Kxf3 Bxd4 23.Re4 Rc3+ 24.Kg2 Bc5 25.Rd7 b5!? The more natural 25...Rc2 run into 26.Nd3! Rxa2 27.Nxc5 bxc5 28.Ree7 and Black has taken refuge in a rook ending. He may still be lost — but the drawing possibilities inherent to rook endings offer him hope.

26.Rc7 Rd8 27.Ne2 Rc2 28.Re5 Bd6! Jones shows his tactical prowess again.

29.Rxc2 Bxe5 30.Rc5 Bf6! 31.Rxb5 Rd2 32.Nc1 Rc2 33.Rb1 Bd4 34.Nd3 Rxa2 35.Kf3 Kg7 36.Rb7 Bb6 37.h4 Rc2 38.Ke4 Rc7 39.Rb8 Rd7 40.Ne5 Re7 Having reached the time control and in a hopeless position, Ravi resigned. 0–1.