Chess: England gains new grandmaster as Ameet Ghasi qualifies at age 37

Ameet Ghasi became England’s 42nd and latest grandmaster last weekend when the 37-year-old from Birmingham shared first prize with 6.5/9 in the international tournament at Fagernes, Norway.

Ghasi, an amateur who works full-time for Biogen, is the oldest English player ever to qualify for the GM title, which requires three norms at 2600 level plus a published Fide rating of 2500. He has been trying for his final norm for a few years now, and the decisive trigger came from help from the new Department for Culture, Media and Sport grant for elite chess, which enabled him to target Fagernes as a norm prospect and to prepare for the event well in advance. His best win there was against a Norwegian GM, where Ghasi attacked, broke through with a rook for bishop sacrifice, then finished with a checkmate on the board.

Ghasi said: “It’s been a long time coming. It’s like a huge milestone, and one that was challenging for me. I can’t say I’ve been celebrating, it’s more just a relief. I’ve always been full time working, and I also took an eight-year break from chess in my late teens, so that when I look back there were reasons for getting the title to be delayed. But it’s been frustrating, and it’s good that it’s done now.”

Grandmaster titles for English players have been rare in the past decade. The successes by Shreyas Royal, who qualified last month at age 15, the youngest ever, and Ghasi, are only the fourth and fifth since 2014, following on from Jonathan Hawkins, Ravi Haria, and Daniel Fernandez.

Keith Arkell was previously the oldest to qualify, although the 10-time British champion Jonathan Penrose, whose final norm was achieved at age 35 in the 1968 Lugano Olympiad, was awarded his GM title 25 years later. In recent years Arkell has been an outstanding competitor in senior over-50 chess, with numerous team and individual gold and silver medals.

Nottingham’s Jonah Willow achieved his first GM norm with 6/9 at age 21 at Fagernes, winning a high-class game where his offbeat Ruy Lopez defence confused his opponent. The result confirms Willow’s status among the 20s generation led by Harry Grieve, 23, and Matthew Wadsworth, 24, who are also closing in on the title. Along with Royal, this trio are potentially the successors to England’s current Olympiad team, whose age averages around 40.

A common theme in all recent English successes has been the importance of DCMS financial backing for elite chess, announced last year and increasingly influential since then. In this period English and British players and teams have won gold medals in the world over-65 and over- 50 individual senior championships (John Nunn and Michael Adams),the European senior teams in both age groups, and the world problem solving championship (Nunn, Jonathan Mestel and David Hodge).

At the junior level, England has three of the world top six under-10s, while Royal’s example has sparked an upsurge in results among teenagers. In last month’s regional qualifiers for the UK Open and Women’s Blitz Championships, to be played in mid-November at Leamington Spa, 16 of the 32 finalists were juniors, including qualifiers from Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast.

Recently Royal, who a few days ago held India’s former world champion Vishy Anand to a draw in the WR Masters Cup, and Sivanandan visited 11 Downing Street to meet the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, a former national junior champion. There have since been reports that the very successful elite chess grant is in danger of being axed as part of DCMS departmental cuts, little more than a year after it was launched.

Kirill Shevchenko, Romania’s 22-year-old Ukraine-born world No 69, was defaulted and expelled from the Spanish League last weekend, after he was alleged to have concealed a cellphone in the toilet. A few days earlier Shevchenko won chess.com’s competitive Titled Tuesday, playing what was described as “impressive” chess.

After losing Wednesday’s fifth round of the US Championship in St Louis, GM Christopher Yoo, 17, is alleged to have reacted to losing to the defending champion, Fabiano Caruana, by “crumpling up his score sheet, storming out of the hall, and striking a videographer from behind”, according to the organisers. Yoo was expelled from the tournament and later charged with fourth degree assault, for striking a 24-year-old woman in the back with his fist. He was released to a parent, and the matter will be handled in juvenile courts. According to Fide regulations his results will be annulled, since he completed fewer than half of his games. Caruana would have been leading by a point had the results stood, but now shares the lead with Awonder Liang and Hans Niemann.

3942: 1 Ne6! wins after 1…Bxe6 2 Qe5+ Kg8 3 gxh7+ Kf7 4 Qh5+ Kf6 5 h8=Q+ Rxh8 6 Qxh8+ Qg7 7 Rh6+ Kf7 8 Rh7 and Black loses his queen, or 1…Nf5 2 g7+! when if 2…Nxg7 3 Qxh7 mate or 2…Qxg7 3 Qxe8+. Caruana chose 1 Rh2?