2010 British Championship

I'm not sure whether it is just me, but the British Championship seems to have started a little earlier than usual this year. I missed the first couple of rounds as a result of this, but there are still plenty of rounds to go before it finishes. The top seed (by a long way) is GM Michael Adams, who is making a return to the British. He out rates the second seed GM Nicholas Pert by a good 150 points.
Interestingly the championship is using an accelerated pairing system, which is a little surprising for an 11 round event that only has 80 odd players. Clearly the intention is to avoid 'junk' pairings in the early rounds, rather than the necessity of finding a winner. Overall there are 730 entries for the whole event, noting that supporting events include various Junior and Senior Championships, plus rapidplays held on rest days, which players in other events can, and have, entered.