This annual international chess event seems to be the biggest of its kind on British territory in the broad sense of the term. The top section is called the “Masters”, but that is something of a misnomer in that it is open to all and sundry, and so would be better termed an “Open”, and is not really what the epithet “Masters” conjures up. Alongside the 10-round Masters event were four 5-round events; in the first week were held the “Challengers A” and “Amateur A”, while in the second week were held the “Challengers B” and “Amateur B”.

The strongest two participating English players, Michael Adams and Gawain Jones, who were initially ranked 10th and 12th among the 247 Masters entrants, started on the same colour sequence as each other, and so stood a very good chance of avoiding playing each other.

Not too surprisingly, the “Yorkshire” contingent was not very numerous, with six players, three playing in two sections:

Section	Duration	“Yorkshire Players”	Place	Score	Entrants
Masters	21/01/2020 to 30/01/2020	Gawain C B Jones (Yorkshire-born and resident) Tim P Wall (Newcastle‑resident but plays for Leeds) Mitchell R Burke (Calderdale) Kevin Winter (Bingley)	8-23= 11-145 198-217 218-229	7/10 5/10 3½/10 3/10	247
Challengers A	20/01/2020 to 24/01/2020	Martyn Hamer (Calderdale) Mitchell R Burke (Huddersfield)	11-14 34-42	3½/5 2½/5	78
Amateur A	20/01/2020 to 24/01/2020	nobody, seemingly			68
Challengers B	25/01/2020 to 29/01/2020	Martyn Hamer (Calderdale)	21-38	3/5	82
Amateur B	25/01/2020 to 29/01/2020	Richard L Bowman (Leeds)	12-16	3½/5	82

The writer has been out of touch with international chess for so long that most of the few names he recognised in the Masters were top players from decades ago. Thus Tim Wall’s first-round game was more interesting and amusing than the others played that round. Tim was playing 66-year-old Alexander Beliavsky, who the older generation remember as a top-ranking GM of their youth. In the final position, White (Beliavsky) has mate on the move (if given the chance), while Black (Wall) promotes a pawn next move to give winning material (if it were not for the mate). The game ended in a forced perpetual check, to which each player had to acquiesce to avoid losing! (Click here to play through the game on screen.)

One of the Masters participants was 13-year-old Dommaraju Gukesh, who in March2019 became the second youngest player ever to achieve a GM title. After reaching 3 points out of 4 (2 wins and 2 draws) he was paired, as Black, against Gawain Jones. The latter was apparently following a game by Magnus Carlsen with which young Gukesh was apparently unfamiliar. The result was a game in which Black’s king early on sought refuge at f6, whence it had to flee to g5 where on move 26 it faced mate in a few moves on h4, h5 or g5, according to the line selected. (Click here to play through the game on screen.)