The Caplin British Online Championships kicked off on the Chess.com platform. The event stretches over two weeks from 18th December 2020 to 3rd January 2021. The Championships are being run by the English Chess Federation in collaboration with the Welsh, Scottish, Irish, Ulster, Jersey, Guernsey, and Isle of Man Chess Federations/Unions. The British Online includes separate Championships – Open, Women’s, Junior, Senior, and Rating Limited. The format is based on one week of qualifier events followed by a week of finals for each Championship.

Each Championship consists of a qualifier and finals stage with a number of separate events at four different time controls (Standard, Rapid, Blitz, and Bullet) as shown in the table below.

Players may take part in one or more championships for which they are eligible (e.g. Open, Women’s, Junior, etc), and one or more events within their selected championship(s) (e.g. Standard, Rapid, Blitz, etc), subject to the entry conditions and playing schedule.

All standard play events will be based on a game a day with 7 rounds of qualifiers and 9 rounds of finals each in Swiss format. Standard play games will be based on direct challenge matches on Chess.com, started by an arbiter. Faster time controls (Rapidplay, Blitz, and Bullet) will be run as platform Swiss tournaments.

The Open tournament brought together 37 players (7 GMs). In the Women’s tournament 20 participants, including GM Ketavan Arakhamia-Grant, are vying for the title.

Official website: https://www.englishchess.org.uk/british-online-chess-championships/