GRANDMASTER Keith Arkell has continued his excellent recent tournament form with several good performances in Wales.

The Jubilee International was held in Swansea over the five days of the Jubilee weekend.

Five Englishmen were pitted against four Welshmen and a Scotsman, including some promising juniors.

And in a pattern followed recently in football, cricket and boxing, the English came out on top!

Keith scored 6.5/9 to tie for first with fellow English Grandmaster Jonathon Levitt, winning his final four games in the process.

He attributed his slow start to the effects of a four-hour car journey.

This followed a clean sweep of five wins in the Rhyl weekend tournament in May, plus two good performances in simultaneous events in North Wales scoring 26/27.

He even managed to find time to climb a mountain!

Locally, Keith won the recent Manchester Chess Federation spring congress at Leigh with 5/5.

At the halfway stage of theTerence Chapman Group Grand Prix 2002, Keith has amassed 180.6 out of a maximum200 points and leads by over 40 points.

He returns to Bury this weekend to play at the Heywood chess congress, where his strongest opponent may be Heather Richards, Woman International Master and England International, one of our most promising juniors.

A good performance would extend Keith's lead in the Grand Prix.

He has also been selected as England coach for the European Junior Championship later this year.