The 98th British Chess Championship gets under way in Sheffield, England today. Although Michael Adams won the event last year it’s often been ignored by the top British players, but not this year. Funding arranged, and in part provided, by the President of the English Chess Federation, CJ de Mooi (oddly enough, a UK TV celebrity!), has meant almost all the top players are competing, including Adams’ great rival, Nigel Short.

The event runs from today, Monday 25 July, to Saturday 6 August. It’s an 11-round Swiss event, with 86 players taking part. One of those, GM Gawain Jones, fresh from winning the Commonwealth Championship in South Africa, wrote a preview on his blog, including:

Only Luke McShane is missing from the top five and with twelve GMs in the field the winner will have to both play magnificent chess and also have a decent slice of luck.

I’m really looking forward to playing and hoping I can continue where I left off in South Africa. I feel decently prepared for a change but one can never tell the vagaries of chess; one blunder will change the whole tournament dramatically. Mickey Adams as top seed must be favourite but Nigel Short can’t be far behind while David Howell has just come off a solid 2nd in Leiden. Further down the field Pete Wells is always a match for anyone in the world and he seems in good form after winning the South Wales International. Adam Hunt too will be in the running after coming 1st in an Open in Greece last week and I’m sure he’ll be on the hunt for another GM norm.

Although there are no crucial encounters in round 1, the pairing system in use means the top players don’t start off with the very weakest opponents – for instance, Michael Adams on top board is playing IM Dietmar Kolbus.

Live broadcast of the top boards (starting 14:15 UK time, 15:15 CET)
Tournament website (a model of how these things should be done!)