The 2019 British Chess Championships started on the 26th July and came to an end on the 4th August 2019. The winners for this year’s championship for both male and female category are Michael Adams and Jovanka Houska respectively.
Michael Adams is an English chess grandmaster and is holding the position for the British chess championship for the 7th time. Michael Adams gained his final IM norm and took the best junior prize at the British Championship of 1987. He proceeded to win the full Championship title in 1989, at just seventeen years old. He won again in 1997, jointly with Matthew Sadler. He won the Championship again in 2010, 2011, 2016, 2018 and now in 2019.
Jovanka Houska, on the other hand, is a Woman Grandmaster and an eight-time winner of the British Women’s Chess Championship. In 2015, she was the third British woman to be awarded the IM title. In 2016, she was voted English Chess Federation Player of the Year, becoming the first female to receive the accolade since its inception in 1984.
Houska successfully defended her British Championship title at 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 events. By July 2010, her sustained good form had elevated her to an Elo rating of 2433, making her England’s second-ranked woman player (behind Harriet Hunt) and number fifty-one in the world among active female players. Further British Championship victories were achieved in 2016, 2017, 2018 and now in 2019.
A big thumbs-up to Michael Adams and Jovanka Houska!
