The 2026 Club Championship concluded on Thursday after six rounds of competitive standardplay chess at the Cumberland Lawn Tennis Club. Congratulations to Gautam Jain, who produced a flawless performance to become the 2026 Hendon Chess Club Champion!
Gautam won all six of his games, completing the tournament with a perfect 6/6. It was an emphatic and thoroughly deserved victory in a strong and varied field. The Championship had remained competitive throughout its six weeks, but Gautam gradually established himself as the player to beat. He reached the final round on 5/5 and completed his clean sweep to secure the title in style.
Congratulations also go to Tom Garcia, winner of the David Jones Memorial Trophy. The trophy is named in honour of Hendon’s former chairman and is awarded to the highest-scoring player in the designated rating category, which this year was for players rated below 1675 ECF.
Tom scored an excellent 4/6, finishing sixth overall and recording a performance rating of 1848. It was an outstanding result against a field containing many considerably higher-rated opponents and made him a very worthy winner of the trophy.
This was a landmark event for Hendon, as the Club Championship was FIDE-rated for the first time, as well as being submitted for ECF rating. The tournament was played at a time control of 60 minutes plus a 30-second increment per move.
We are extremely grateful to International Arbiter Lance Leslie-Smith for his work during the Championship. Lance served as Deputy Chief Arbiter and played an important part in ensuring that the tournament ran smoothly and professionally. His experience, careful organisation and calm approach were invaluable throughout the event.
The response from the players was extremely positive. They were very happy with the organisation, playing conditions and friendly atmosphere, and it was particularly pleasing to see established Hendon members competing alongside newer members and visitors.
Following the success of this first FIDE-rated edition, we very much look forward to repeating the Hendon Chess Club FIDE Championship next year.
Here are the Round 6 results and final standings (full cross-table and round-by-round results are available here):
| White | Black | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Macneil, Elliott | 1908 | 0 — 1 | Jain, Gautam | 2027 |
| 2 | Atulugamage, Saniru Lohan | 1826 | 1 — 0 | Bhaduri, Aviraj | 1764 |
| 3 | Alster, Robert | 1840 | 1 — 0 | Epstein-Lightman, Yishai | 1801 |
| 4 | Amior, David | 1986 | 1 — 0 | Dhinsa, Nav | 1295 |
| 5 | Garcia, Tom | 1641 | 1 — 0 | Ben-Nathan, David | 1975 |
| 6 | Murphy, Nick | 1724 | 0 — 1 | Paulins, Michael | 1830 |
| 7 | Pepe, Salvatore | 1631 | ½ — ½ | Funk, Alexander | 1777 |
| 8 | Rubeck, Jonathan | 1895 | ½ — ½ | Piccininno, Alessandro | 1539 |
| 9 | Booker, Jack | 1753 | 0 — 1 | Rogal, Chris | 1830 |
| 10 | Pride, Stephen C | 1656 | 1 — 0 | Bansal, Ronak | 1320 |
| 11 | Jacobs, Stanley | 1457 | 1 — 0 | Shiran, Yoni | 1571 |
| 12 | Kuzmich, Alexander | 0 | 1 — 0 | Goulbourne, Nick | 1526 |
| 13 | Gordon, Marcus | 1747 | 0 — 1 | Ben-Eshak, Djad | 1682 |
| 14 | Hulstrom, Tony | 1358 | 0 — 1 | Bansal, Rineesh | 1608 |
| 15 | Kapur, Gul | 1692 | 1 — 0 | Upreti, Arjun | 1430 |
| 16 | Abraham, Abe | 1200 | 0 — 1 | Wong, Damian Anthony | 1518 |
| 17 | Ramchandani, Kunal | 1589 | ½ — ½ | Thompson, David Nigel | 1497 |
The Championship was the centrepiece of a busy programme of FIDE-rated events held by Hendon Chess Club during 2026.
We staged two four-round FIDE Rapid tournaments. The January event was won by Ben Keohane, who achieved a perfect 4/4, while the February tournament ended with CM Harry Bryant and AIM Ethan Sanitt sharing first place, also with perfect scores of 4/4.
Our popular monthly FIDE Blitz tournaments also continued throughout the year:
| Date | Winner(s) |
|---|---|
| 8 January | Sarang Ponkshe, 6/6 |
| 5 February | IM Maciej Czopor, 6/6 |
| 5 March | Ilya Iyengar, 6/6 |
| 9 April | GM Petro Golubka, 5½/6 |
| 7 May | CM Manmay Chopra, 6/6 |
| 4 June | Mohammad Hossein Mozaffari, 6/6 |
| 2 July | David Amior, CM Denis Dupuis, Sebastian Mokhber-Garcia and CM Avyukt Dasgupta, 5/6 |
These events have brought a tremendous range of players to the club, from newcomers playing their first internationally rated tournament to experienced titled players. They have provided regular competitive chess for Hendon members while also raising the club’s profile within the wider London chess community.
The success of the rapidplays, monthly blitz tournaments and our first FIDE-rated Club Championship demonstrates the strength and enthusiasm of chess at Hendon. Thank you to everyone who played, assisted with the events or helped create such a welcoming atmosphere during the year. We look forward to building on this programme next season.