FIDE awarded Arkell the title of International Master in 1985, and he became a Grandmaster ten years later, after gaining norms at Ostend 1990, Parthenay 1993 and at the final leg of the French League Championship in 1995.

At Gausdal (2002), he beat GMs Stelios Halkias, Vasilios Kotronias and rising star Magnus Carlsen, to finish joint fourth, only a half point off the shared first to third places.

[4] He also won tournaments, shared or outright, at the famous Marshall Chess Club in Manhattan, at Saratoga Springs, and at the Blackstone Open, near Boston.

[5] Also in 2008, he tied for first place at the British Championship with GM Stuart Conquest, but lost the overall title after a two-game speed chess play-off.

[7] Arkell won the 2021 British online Championship with 7.5/9, a point ahead of runners up Michael Adams and Bogdan Lalic.

https://fide.com/news/1839 Later that year the team won the European title, with Arkell again collecting the gold medal for his board 2 performance.

In the same interview, he laments that a reputation for keeping a tight rein on games and grinding out wins on the UK weekend circuit to support an existence as a professional chess player has negatively influenced coverage of his achievements by chess journalists and harmed his chances of selection for the England national team by overshadowing his record in international events.