England’s Matthew Wadsworth, 24, has taken a step closer to the grandmaster title after another strong performance yesterday in the newly launched Wightlink Isle of Wight international at Ryde.
Wadsworth, a Cambridge economics graduate who plays for the reigning champions Wood Green in Britain’s Four Nations League, already has the three GM norms required by the international chess body Fide, but still has to raise his Fide world rating to the mandatory 2500.
The Maidenhead international master tied for first at Isle of Wight with the top-seeded Australian Bobby Cheng and with GMs from Denmark and Switzerland on 7/9. The quartet shared £3,050 prize money, while Cheng took the first place trophy. Wadsworth recovered quickly from a slow start, and his 15-move miniature in round two was one of the fastest wins of the event.
Wadsworth’s current journey began in the summer of 2022 when he graduated from Queens’ College, Cambridge with a first and an MSc, both in economics. A career in the City was inviting, but after giving preference to his academic studies for four years, he believed that he still had the chess skills to qualify as a GM.
Now with three GM norms and a 2491 rating, his journey is nearly complete, but the “nervous 90s”, in this case the 2490s, are a significant factor in chess. In the past decade, two other English IMs in their twenties have narrowly failed to achieve 2500 after scoring all three required GM norms.
Wadsworth’s next international tournament will be at Bad Wörishofen, Germany, in late March.
England’s teenagers also did well. Stanley Badacsonyi, 15, of Fortismere School, Muswell Hill, was in contention for his first IM norm for several rounds before ending with 5.5/9. Billy Fellowes, 13, of Warwick School, also totalled 5.5/9 despite meeting higher-rated opponents in every game, and qualified as a Candidate Master.
Wightlink was the Isle of Wight’s first major chess tournament. Long ago, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, there was a popular annual congress just across the Solent at Southsea, and then Bognor Regis, which attracted world class players.
At Southsea 1950 the future 10-time British champion Jonathan Penrose, then 16, achieved instant fame by brilliantly defeating Efim Bogolyubov in round three, to the chagrin of the player who had drawn with the two-time world-title challenger the previous day.
Ryde 2025 was imaginatively organised, attracting over 300 competitors with a wide range of ages and abilities. Hotel accommodation was at discounted prices, while the daily schedule had alternating single and double rounds so that competitors needed less than a week’s absence from work.
There were Fide-rated blitz tournaments in which GMs took part, and daily reports on social media. All that was missing was a big name or two, like the stars who competed at Southsea and Bognor long ago. Hopefully Wightlink will be encouraged to aim for a still higher profile in 2026.
England’s over-65 and over-50 teams are both in strong contention for medals at the Fide World Senior Team Championships in Prague, where the choice of the popular Czech capital as the venue has sparked a record entry of over 100 squads.
England 65-plus took a clear lead in the sixth round (of nine) when they defeated Israel 3-1 to advance to a 11/12 match points total, one point ahead of Germany-Lasker, who they have already met, and two in front of France, England B, Hungary, Israel and Norway.
Round seven pairings on Monday (2pm start, live on lichess.org with move by move computer assessments) are France v England, Germany-Lasker v Norway, England B v Israel, Hungary v Finland.
England 50-plus lost 1-3 in round four to Italy, but still share the lead on 10/12 with USA, Slovakia, and Italy, and are two or more game points ahead of their rivals. Round seven pairings on Monday are USA v Italy, Slovakia v England.
These are close run races, which may only be decided in Wednesday’s final rounds (noon GMT start, all games live with computer assessment).
Puzzle 2613
Richard Liu v David Zhu, New Zealand Open, Auckland 2025. White to move and win.
Click here for solution
