This year’s Northumbria Masters was held from Wednesday the 20nd to the Monday 25th of August at its usual venue, The Dolphin Centre, Horsemarket, Darlington, DL1 5RP. Alongside the congress, the 1st Darlington ChessFest, run in conjunction with Chess in Schools and Communities, was to take place in Horse Market Square on the Sunday afternoon.

This year’s Northumbrian Masters consisted of three 9-round FIDE-rated Swiss tournaments of which the top one afforded opportunities for FIDE title “norms", and one invitational round-robin norm-qualifier event named the Gavin Wall Memorial IM Round Robin in memory of Richmond-based Gavin Wall who died very recently. (See at end.)

Tournament	Entry Limitation	Pairings	Entrants
Open	none	Swiss	34
Challengers	under 2000 rating	Swiss	34
Major	under 1700 rating	Swiss	16
Round Robin	invitation	all‑play‑all	10

The numbers of entries look disappointing when compared with last year.

The games of the Round Robin were to be broadcast live.

Pairings for the Gavin Wall Memorial IM Round Robin were as follows:

		Rd. 1			20/08/2025
2361	FM	Kenneth Hobson	v	FM	Supratit Banerjee	2242
2434	IM	Maciej Czopor	v	CM	Chopra Manmay	2188
2309	FM	Stanley Badacsonyi	v	IM	Peter G Large	2291
2323	FM	Koby Kalavannan	v		Ieysaa Bin-Suhayl	2217
2394	IM	Aaravamudhan Balaji	v	FM	Ioan Rees	2280
		Rd. 2			21/08/2025
2242	FM	Supratit Banerjee	v	FM	Ioan Rees	2280
2217		Ieysaa Bin-Suhayl	v	IM	Aaravamudhan Balaji	2394
2291	IM	Peter G Large	v	FM	Koby Kalavannan	2323
2188	CM	Chopra Manmay	v	FM	Stanley Badacsonyi	2309
2361	FM	Kenneth Hobson	v	IM	Maciej Czopor	2434
		Rd. 3			21/08/2025
2434	IM	Maciej Czopor	v	FM	Supratit Banerjee	2242
2309	FM	Stanley Badacsonyi	v	FM	Kenneth Hobson	2361
2323	FM	Koby Kalavannan	v	CM	Chopra Manmay	2188
2394	IM	Aaravamudhan Balaji	v	IM	Peter G Large	2291
2280	FM	Ioan Rees	v		Ieysaa Bin-Suhayl	2217
		Rd. 4			22/08/2025
2242	FM	Supratit Banerjee	v		Ieysaa Bin-Suhayl	2217
2291	IM	Peter G Large	v	FM	Ioan Rees	2280
2188	CM	Chopra Manmay	v	IM	Aaravamudhan Balaji	2394
2361	FM	Kenneth Hobson	v	FM	Koby Kalavannan	2323
2434	IM	Maciej Czopor	v	FM	Stanley Badacsonyi	2309
		Rd. 5			22/08/2025
2309	FM	Stanley Badacsonyi	v	FM	Supratit Banerjee	2242
2323	FM	Koby Kalavannan	v	IM	Maciej Czopor	2434
2394	IM	Aaravamudhan Balaji	v	FM	Kenneth Hobson	2361
2280	FM	Ioan Rees	v	CM	Chopra Manmay	2188
2217		Ieysaa Bin-Suhayl	v	IM	Peter G Large	2291
		Rd. 6			23/08/2025
2242	FM	Supratit Banerjee	v	IM	Peter G Large	2291
2188	CM	Chopra Manmay	v		Ieysaa Bin-Suhayl	2217
2361	FM	Kenneth Hobson	v	FM	Ioan Rees	2280
2434	IM	Maciej Czopor	v	IM	Aaravamudhan Balaji	2394
2309	FM	Stanley Badacsonyi	v	FM	Koby Kalavannan	2323
		Rd. 7			23/08/2025
2323	FM	Koby Kalavannan	v	FM	Supratit Banerjee	2242
2394	IM	Aaravamudhan Balaji	v	FM	Stanley Badacsonyi	2309
2280	FM	Ioan Rees	v	IM	Maciej Czopor	2434
2217		Ieysaa Bin-Suhayl	v	FM	Kenneth Hobson	2361
2291	IM	Peter G Large	v	CM	Chopra Manmay	2188
		Rd. 8			24/08/2025
2242	FM	Supratit Banerjee	v	CM	Chopra Manmay	2188
2361	FM	Kenneth Hobson	v	IM	Peter G Large	2291
2434	IM	Maciej Czopor	v		Ieysaa Bin-Suhayl	2217
2309	FM	Stanley Badacsonyi	v	FM	Ioan Rees	2280
2323	FM	Koby Kalavannan	v	IM	Aaravamudhan Balaji	2394
		Rd. 9			25/08/2025
2394	IM	Aaravamudhan Balaji	v	FM	Supratit Banerjee	2242
2280	FM	Ioan Rees	v	FM	Koby Kalavannan	2323
2217		Ieysaa Bin-Suhayl	v	FM	Stanley Badacsonyi	2309
2291	IM	Peter G Large	v	IM	Maciej Czopor	2434
2188	CM	Chopra Manmay	v	FM	Kenneth Hobson	2361

William Gavin Wall (his full name) was born on 05/12/1968 at Richmond-upon-Thames, and was associated with the chess club there since about 1976. His father had been born in Tipperary, in Éire. When Gavin realised that having at least one parent born in Ireland, be it in the North or the Republic (i. e. in The Island of Ireland), qualifies one to compete in the Irish Championship and to represent Ireland in international events, he developed a fondness for chess in Ireland, even playing for Ireland in the 2004 Olympiad and then again in 2012. That is why, despite being a stalwart of Richmond and Twickenham chess club, his FIDE affiliation was from 2000 or earlier to Ireland. He tragically died on 28/07/2025, from a suspected heart attack. As he’d been a regular participant in the Northumbria Masters and was counted as a friend by organiser and namesake Tim Wall, the Round Robin event was turned into a memorial event in his honour. He seems to have been universally liked as a person. A tribute to him on the Irish Chess Union website ends with the Irish saying commonly used in such contexts: Ní bheidh do leithéid arís ann, which translates to English as “There will not be the like again”.