The year’s Hope Valley tournament which originated from an event of such a format run by the now-extinct Hope Valley Chess Club and open the S&DCA players, was held on Monday the 18th of May 2026, at Sheffield Chess Centre, and organised by Jonathan Arnott. The arbiter was Andrew Drabble.

The initial Swiss stage, from which the top four progressed to the knock-out play-off, ended as follows:

No	Name	Rtg		1			2			3			4			5			6		SPS

1	Thomas Wills	1989	1	W	12	1	B	6	1	W	3	1	B	2	½	W	4	1	B	10
	Woodseats			1			2			3			4			4½			5½		20
2	Jonathan W Arnott	2067	1	B	14	1	W	8	1	B	9	0	W	1	1	B	5	½	W	3
	SASCA			1			2			3			3			4			4½		17.5
3	Jim Burnett	2072	+	W	18	1	W	5	0	B	1	1	W	8	1	B	7	½	B	2
	Ecclesall			1			2			2			3			4			4½		16.5
4	Robert Starley	1924	1	B	11	1	W	7	0	B	5	1	W	9	½	B	1	1	W	8
	Ecclesall			1			2			2			3			3½			4½		16
5	Alexandr Klimchik	1846	1	W	13	0	B	3	1	W	4	1	B	6	0	W	2	1	B	14
	Worksop			1			1			2			3			3			4		14
6	Paul Fletcher	1785	1	B	10	0	W	1	1	B	15	0	W	5	1	B	11	1	W	7
	Hillsborough			1			1			2			2			3			4		13
7	Mark S Allison	1696	1	W	15	0	B	4	1	W	13	1	B	12	0	W	3	0	B	6
	Woodseats			1			1			2			3			3			3		13
8	Seth Woozeer	1771	1	W	16	0	B	2	1	W	12	0	B	3	1	W	13	0	B	4
	SASCA			1			1			2			2			3			3		12
9	W (Bill) Ward	1749	1	B	17	1	W	14	0	W	2	0	B	4	0	W	10	1	B	13
	Woodseats			1			2			2			2			2			3		12
10	Joshua McCreadie	1443	0	W	6	0	B	12	1	B	11	1	W	14	1	B	9	0	W	1
	SASCA			0			0			1			2			3			3		9
11	Ian Barker	1549	0	W	4	1	B	16	0	W	10	1	B	17	0	W	6	1	-	bye
	Darnall & Handsworth			0			1			1			2			2			3		9
12	Nathaniel Holroyd‑Doveton	1594	0	B	1	1	W	10	0	B	8	0	W	7	1	B	15	1	W	16
	Rotherham			0			1			1			1			2			3		8
13	Andrew Nettleship	1451	0	B	5	1	W	17	0	B	7	1	W	15	0	B	8	0	W	9
	Darnall & Handsworth			0			1			1			2			2			2		8
14	Ben Findlay	1631	0	W	2	0	B	9	1	W	16	0	B	10	1	-	bye	0	W	5
	SASCA			0			0			1			1			2			2		6
15	Jia Ouyang	909	0	B	7	1	-	bye	0	W	6	0	B	13	0	W	12	1	B	17
	SASCA			0			1			1			1			1			2		6
16	Theo Sahu	1366	0	B	8	0	W	11	0	B	14	1	-	bye	1	W	17	0	B	12
	SASCA			0			0			0			1			2			2		5
17	Adam P Fairclough	1251	0	W	9	0	B	13	1	-	bye	0	W	11	0	B	16	0	W	15
	Darnall & Handsworth			0			0			1			1			1			1		4
18	Rico-Bradley Ellis	1650	-	B	3
	SASCA			0			0			0			0			0			0		0

The play-off then proceeded as follows (first to score a win in each pairing wins the mini-match):

Semi-finals

White		Black	White		Black
Thomas Wills	½-½	Robert Starley	Jim Burnett	0-1	Jonathan Arnott
Robert Starley	½-½	Thomas Wills
Thomas Wills	0-1	Robert Starley

Final

White		Black
Jonathan Arnott	½-½	Robert Starley
Robert Starley	0-1	Jonathan Arnott

Thus Jonathan was the winner.