Keith Arkell

2014 Euro Senior Champ, 1= World Senior Champs (2nd on buchholz). English Champion 2008. Brit Online Champ 2021. Brit Senior Champ 2023,4,5. Author, teacher.

[Keith Arkell @Atomrod]

I’ve just received an extraordinarily generous anonymous donation to my GoFundMe appeal and, quite honestly, I’m rather overwhelmed by it.

To the donor - whoever you are - thank you so much for your remarkable kindness and support. It means a very great deal to me, far beyond the financial help itself.

More generally, I would also like to thank everyone who has donated, shared the appeal, sent encouraging messages, or simply wished me well. The goodwill and support people have shown has been genuinely touching and enormously appreciated.

Representing England in these events means a great deal to me, and your support is helping to make it possible.

[Keith Arkell @Atomrod]

@garylanechess @pinkpantheress2 In case she wants a game, Gary, I thought it only fair to direct her to the best of the available opponents, by some 100 rating points ;-)

[Keith Arkell @Atomrod]

@garylanechess @pinkpantheress2 And her aunt's first husband was 2008 English Champion, 2021 British Online Champion and 2014 European Senior ( 50+) champion 😎

[Keith Arkell @Atomrod]

I'm raising £3400 to support a sports project. Check out my @JustGiving page and please donate if you can. Thank you! #JustGiving https://t.co/J7TIOzCu4i

[Keith Arkell @Atomrod]

This is a perfectly reasonable viewpoint, shared by those who are angered by junior championships and women’s segregation in chess, so fair play to you for your bravery in voicing it.

However, the majority in the chess world don’t have a problem with these segragations.

In my opinion you are doing the right thing in taking your place in the England Senior team, despite that its selection has nothing to do with merit, and everything to do with the old boy’s network.

Learn from the experience and do let me know how it went.

[Keith Arkell @Atomrod]

@eternalhopeoaks I know what you mean, but I guess winning the Euro senior twice and the world ( including ties) cushions me from the full impact of the loser I am in sinking to such depths.

[Keith Arkell @Atomrod]

It is not easy to write this while emotions are still raw.

Jonathan Hawkins and I were the closest of friends. He was kind, thoughtful and deeply empathetic, with an easy-going temperament, a sharp intelligence and an absolutely ingenious sense of humour. His company was always a pleasure. We shared similar views on many of the characters we both encountered, which only strengthened our camaraderie.

Jonathan helped me in more ways than I can properly express.

Although he later relocated close to me in Torbay, much of our contact - often an hour or two each day - took place online. Even so, in a rare foreign tournament for him, we travelled together to compete in the exceptionally strong Vienna Opens of 2014 and 2015. In the first, Jonathan scored 7½/9 to my 7; the following year, our scores were reversed.

There is little need to dwell on Jonathan’s achievements as a grandmaster, or on the quality of his writing, both of which will be rightly highlighted elsewhere. Those accomplishments, impressive as they are, tell only part of the story. To those who knew him well, it was the generosity, warmth and decency of the man himself that mattered most.

I have lost many friends over the years, often far too young, but I have never before felt quite so hit for six.

Farewell to one of the good guys.

Photo credit: John Upham.

[English Chess Tracker @EngChessTrack]

It was a dominant performance from GM Keith Arkell in the 50+ section of the Ill Open Internacional de Ajedrez Cap Negret. 1.5 points clear! #chess #englishchess

[Keith Arkell @Atomrod]

I've ended my 12 year Senior (50+) career with a 1st place at Cap Negret. I scored 8.5/9, a point and a half ahead of GM Rogelio Antonio in 2nd place.

Next year I'll be hunting down 65+ titles...

[Keith Arkell @Atomrod]

@askavrukh Missing the trivial Rf2 lol

[Keith Arkell @Atomrod]

@FIDE_chess I think a counter-balance to so much deflation needs to be introduced. A one-off donation of 50 points to everyone would feel good and not overly affect the maths.
Another idea is to remove the 400 point maximum gap when calculating rating change for the lower rated player.

[Keith Arkell @Atomrod]

@EmilSutovsky My tuppence worth: If you play between 0 and 20 games in a year your rating decays by 1 point per missed game.
So, eg, if you play 7 games your rating decays by 13 points.
Games in which the gap is more than 400 don’t count.

[Keith Arkell @Atomrod]

@SusanPolgar @LozHCooper I absolutely agree in principle, but it’s still surprising to see it happen in just one month.

[Keith Arkell @Atomrod]

@ChessExcellence Typo: Teplice.

[Keith Arkell @Atomrod]

1sts this year, as I train for the World 65+ Ch. next year:
Marienbad Rapidplay.
Marienbad Blitz.
Marienbad Senior.
Cheadle.
Wells.
Bristol.
UKCA Easter.
Dublin Rapidplay.
Dublin Senior.
Earlsfield.
Earlsfield (again).
Bad Bertrich Senior.
British Senior Ch.
Manchester Summer.
Swindon.

[Keith Arkell @Atomrod]

Thanks Nicholas. Wells is a cute little City, and Bad Bertrich is a wonderful Spa town surrounded by woods. From the chess point of view I was delighted to rack up 8.5/9 at Marienbad, 2 points clear of the field. At teplice I scored 7.5/8 but didn’t win the tournament as I wasn’t well enough to play the last round.