Danny Gormally, the top seed, fought back from a fifth-round blunder to claim the British Rapidplay title (one-hour games) after 11 rounds in two days at Peterborough last weekend and so continued a surge of form and creativity in his late 40s. His victory came after he tied for first on 9/11 with Ireland’s No 1 woman, Trisha Kanyamarala, and won their two-game blitz playoff 1.5-0.5.
Gormally was already one of England’s best players in the early 2000s, but after he missed out on the national title he played less for a few years. Then he made his name with the books Play Like the Pros and Calculate like a Grandmaster, both aimed at tournament competitors, and by successful coaching of pupils including the top-10 England woman Zoe Varney. His latest titles, Tournament Battle Plan and Chess Analysis: Reloaded, again focus on a pragmatic approach for ambitious competitors.
