The Scottish Chess Championship is organised by Chess Scotland, formerly the Scottish Chess Association. It has been running since 1884, and nowadays takes the form of a nine-round tournament played over two weekends and the week in between. Auxiliary tournaments, such as grading-limited sections and a senior championship take place over the first seven days and there is a Weekend Congress on the second weekend.
Originally, the championship was by invitation only and could only be won by players who would be eligible to compete internationally for Scotland, but sometimes a titled player of another nationality was invited to compete in order to make title norms more likely.
In 2008 the Championship was replaced by an international open. The Scottish Champion being determined by the highest finishing Scottish player. The 2009 tournament being held in Edinburgh attracted nine Grandmasters. The 2010 event took place in Hamilton with the 2011 event back in Edinburgh. The 2014 Championships was incorporated into the Commonwealth Chess Championships which was held in Glasgow. In 2015 the Event was held in Edinburgh and the 2016 event will be back In Glasgow
The current Tournament Arbiters are IA Alex McFarlane and IA Andy Howie.
Recent notable winners include Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant in 2003 – the first woman player to win the Scottish Championship, and Jonathan Rowson, who became the first Scottish player to clinch the Grandmaster title on home soil in 1999, and did the Scottish / British double in 2004. In 2013 Roddy McKay won the title some 39 years after first winning his first title in 1974. In 2018 Murad Abdulla became the youngest Double winner of the title.
