Congratulations to Patrick Flores on his victory in the Bath chess championship this year. He wins the title for the second time, having previously been victorious in 2018/2019. It was a well deserved victory with five wins and a draw against strong opposition.

Key moments included a win against Clive Walley, when he managed to mate his opponent’s king in the middle of the board in what seemed to be a fairly level endgame. Moreover, Patrick managed to hold an endgame against Steve Riley when he had a bishop against a number of dangerous pawns.

Steve Riley put in a strong performance overall coming second, but he missed out on the title due to defeat against Matthew Timbrell. This was an excellent result for Matthew, and his best performance in his short chess career to date. Matthew also played out an exciting draw against Clive. As one of our talented juniors, his third place is a demonstration of his potential, and we look forward to his progress in the years ahead.

This report should also mention a very creditworthy performance by Andreas Stalidis. Playing in his first ever tournament, he performed really well with three wins and a draw.

Out of thirty games, there were only three draws, which shows that people were pushing for victory throughout. The full crosstable is below.