Harry Grieve, a Mathematics student at St Catharine’s College, has won this year’s British Chess Championships.

Grieve emerged unbeaten from the nine-round tournament, winning six matches and drawing three, giving him a score of seven-and-a-half points out of a possible nine — just enough to edge out his nearest competitor.

His victory was something of an upset given that he entered the tournament as 16th seed, and has a worldwide ranking of 1622.

His final game came against Matthew Wadsworth, an Economics student at Queens’ College. Wadsworth is an International Master, a rank above Grieve’s FIDE Master status.

Nonetheless, Grieve overcame Wadsworth in a 75-move thriller. The game took several hours, and featured Grieve sacrificing a rook for a bishop early on in a bold gamble. That eventually paid off when Grieve made a queen sacrifice on move 73 that forced checkmate two moves later.

Wadsworth, seeded eighth, finished in fifth place having accumulated six points overall. This was a point behind reigning champion Nicholas Pert, who was top seed and ultimately finished in second place.

Grieve’s nine games included five against grandmasters, of which he won two and drew three. One of these draws was against Pert.

In addition to the bragging rights — and the boost to his FIDE rating — that these successes will bring, Grieve scoops £5000 in prize money for his efforts.

The Chessable British Chess Championships 2022 took place in Torquay 08/08 – 21/08.