It was a feat worth celebrating, from a player worth celebrating. One of the most extraordinary records in British chess ended this month—and initially, it was underestimated.
When 18-year-old IM Svyatoslav Bazakutsa defeated English great GM Michael Adams in round four of the 2026 British Championship in Coventry, it was Adams’ first defeat in the event since 1988.
Initial reports put his unbeaten sequence at 87 classical games. But a reconstruction of 54-year-old Adams' British Championship record using the BritBase archive shows that the true figure was: 118 consecutive classical games without defeat.
The incredible sequence stretched almost 38 years, from the 1988 British Championship in Blackpool, when Adams was just 16, to Coventry in August 2026. During that time, Adams was crowned national champion nine times.
His last defeat came in round seven against GM Stuart Conquest, known nowadays for keeping the historic Hastings Chess Congress alive. Adams then went unbeaten through his final four games.
A year later, the 17-year-old Adams scored 8.5/11 without losing a game to win his first British Championship. He returned in 1990 and again completed all 11 rounds undefeated.
As Adams became one of the world's leading grandmasters, the British Championship became an occasional rather than annual part of his schedule. There were long gaps between appearances.
Away from the British, Adams reached the semifinals of the Candidates in 1997, 1999 and 2000. He reached the final at the 2004 FIDE Championship, narrowly losing out to Uzbekistan's first World Champion GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov in the tie-break games.
But whenever Adams returned, the streak survived.
He went undefeated through the 1997 Championship, then returned after another long absence to score 9.5/11 without defeat in 2010.
Another 11 unbeaten games followed in 2011, and another 11 in 2016, when Adams scored a remarkable 10/11.
When the Championship later moved to nine rounds, Adams remained unbeaten in 2018, 2019, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Rapid and blitz playoffs are excluded from the calculation.
The full classical sequence is:
By the start of this year's Championship, Adams had reached 115 consecutive classical games without defeat.
He then won his first three games.
In round four, Bazakutsa finally ended the sequence after 60 moves.
Conquest, who inflicted Adams’ previous defeat in 1988, was still competing against him 37 years later. In the 2025 British Championship, Adams and Conquest finished level on seven points before Adams beat him 2–0 in a nail-biting rapid playoff to claim his ninth British title.
Conquest, now 59, was brilliant at the 2025 event, but wilted at the last hurdle. A year later, it appears to have been the last hurrah, perhaps, of the Golden Oldies of British chess.
When Adams’ unbeaten run finally ended in 2026, British chess was experiencing another generational change.
GM Shreyas Royal went on to win the Championship with 7.5/9, becoming the British champion in history at 17.