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Grand Slam 2026 - It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over!
Harshan Lamabadusuriya becomes the first double winner in Grand Slam history, defeating Andy Goodwin by just 6 points in a dramatic final game to claim the title. Anne Ashmore took the side event victory, winning the Adrienne Berger trophy.
This year's Grand Slam saw a bumper crop as the side event expanded to 24 to maximise entries out in total to 60 which is the maximum at the venue.
Initially it seemed there may have been a shortage of qualifiers but with a few tweaks to the wildcards, there were 36 main event players. The field was incredibly strong with 28 of the players above 160 and as previous events have shown – anything can happen!
The theme of the event was winter into spring with some convoluted mechanism for determining the spot prizes available, but while the seasons may have been changing, the start of the event looked like we were going to get our first repeat winner.
Harshan Lamabadusuriya racked up 6 wins on the bounce to be leading on spread from Andy Goodwin who was also unbeaten. Both players lost in Round 7 and Natalie Zolty came to join them on 6 wins.
In the final game of the first day Natalie and Harshan drew to let Andy go ahead.
The Sunday morning saw a lot of toing and froing between Harshan, Andy, Natalie and Paul Thompson at the top. After lunch Harshan lost two in a row and was down in 7th with 3 games to play.
The field then got gradually tighter as some contenders fell away and Harshan fought back. The final game was Harshan v Andy and Natalie v Mark Nyman. If Andy won he would win the title, but if Harshan won it was not guaranteed as the draw previously with Natalie, put them on 10.5 wins each and similar spread. Mark couldn't actually win from this point but could still get second.
As it happens, Mark had a blowout against Natalie so it was all down to Andy v Harshan and what a tight game it proved to be. By just 6 points Harshan won to come back from a shaky middle of the day and be the first double winner in the 4 events so far. Hearty congrats to him for holding his nerve and commiserations to those in contention for making it an exciting finish.
Harshan also won the new trophy, named officially the Wayne Kelly trophy, though actually sponsored by Elie Dangoor.
Main Event Results
| W–L | Spread | Player |
|---|---|---|
| 11½–4½ | +662 | Harshan Lamabadusuriya (GM) |
| 11–5 | +1051 | Mark Nyman (GM) |
| 11–5 | +316 | Paul {Halifax} Thompson |
| 11–5 | +234 | Andy Goodwin (Exp) |
| 10½–5½ | +431 | Natalie Zolty (Exp) |
Ratings prizes were won by Stewart Houten and Colin Nicol, with consolation Saturday prize going to Robert Richland and Sunday prize to Piotr Andronowski.
Side Event
The side event first day was a 3 way struggle with Paul Coyle, Anne Ashmore and Steve Perry all being in pole position at some point. Like Harshan, Anne slipped a little by game 13 but came back, with Paul losing 3rd to Kim Hands. Paul managed to claw back to 3rd and in the final game between Anne and Steve, Anne powered through to get the side event victory and taking home the Adrienne Berger trophy, kindly donated by Syd Berger.
| W–L | Spread | Player |
|---|---|---|
| 12–4 | +726 | Anne Ashmore |
| 12–4 | +718 | Steve {Oxford} Perry |
| 11–5 | +1107 | Paul Coyle |
The ratings prize was won by Syd Berger.
The event is always a joy to curate and direct but there were a few little niggles with player behaviour – a couple of bad losers and some less than patient attitudes in the side event. I don't want this happening again at this or any event on the ABSP Calendar.
Next year's event already has a lot of qualifiers, so the side event may have to shrink back down again especially as there is a plethora of new and revived day events in 2026!
Wayne Kelly
Thanks to Beverley Robertshaw for the pictures of Harshan receiving his winner's cheque and trophy from Wayne, and Anne receiving her trophy from Syd.