Author: Gawain

August – September 2006, Hereford International, England. This was a closed tournament with gm and im norm chances. I came 2nd with 5.5/9 losing only to top seed Danny Gormally who won the tournament. This was Max Devereaux’s first tournament as an organiser and it went very smoothly. The website is: http://www.deversoft.co.uk/hict/

August 2006, British Championships, Swansea, Wales. Here I managed my best ever performance in the British and came 3rd= with 7.5/11 and also won the U18 title (due to a recent rule change I wasn’t able to win the U21). I started off slowly with 3.5/6 losing to GMs Nick Pert and Jonathan Parker but…

June 2006, South African Open, Port Elizabeth. This was my first tournament after my final Leaving Certificate exams and my last days of school ever! I went to this tournament more for a holiday than for the chess. I travelled over with a couple of friends and we managed to see some of Africa, a…

 May 2006, Four Nations Chess League, England. The last three rounds of the 4NCL were played on the May bank holiday weekend. I was challenging for a GM norm but unfortunately lost to GM Matthew Turner on the Saturday. I finished the tournament with 7/11 and my team Slough Sharks came 3rd in division one. …

April 2006, North Munster Championships, Ireland. This was played in Ennis, my local town and so I was able to play without having to travel. I won the tournament for the second time in a row scoring 4.5/5.  

March 2006, Cork, Ireland. This was a weekend tournament held in the centre of Cork. I was top seed and won it with 5.5/6. 

February 2006, Bunratty, Ireland. This is perhaps the most well known of the Irish tournaments. Again it was held over a weekend. I got 3.5/6, losing to top seed John Nunn GM and then lost to Simon WIlliams an English IM from a promising position when I went low on time. This tournament strangely had…

January 2006, Cork, Ireland UCC Mulcahy Cup. This was another small weekend tournament. I stayed with a friend and enjoyed the weekend. I came 1st= again here with 5.5/6 drawing with Alex Lopez the other winner of the tournament (and incidentally the guy I was staying with).  

December 2005, Dublin, Ireland. Leinster Chess Championships. This was another strong tournament held over a couple of days. I came 3rd with 4/6 losing to Alex Baburin, Ireland’s top rated player and drawing two other games. The tournament was disappointingly small however.  

November 2005, Limerick, Ireland. Another weekend tournament. This was a fairly small open where I was 1st seed and came 1st= tied with Rory Quinn, another Ennis chess player, with 5.5/6.   

November 2005, Galway, Ireland. This was a very strong weekend tournament where I managed to come 1st= with GM B.Socko. It was played in a very comfortable hotel and was organised very efficiently. I made 5/6, drawing with Socko who was top seed and a fide master and winning the rest of my games inclunding…

September 2005, Herceg Novi, Montenegro. I played in the European U18 Championships here but unfortunately did noy perform as well as I was hoping to. I achieved 4.5/9 and finished in around the middle of the 60 player field. However it was an enjoyable tournament to play in the beautiful settings of the old town…

August 2005, Bratto, Italy. When you think of Italy in the summer you think of sweltering heat in the hot sun. This tournament however was played in the mountains in the north near Bergamo and so temperatures were respectable! I played here with the intention of going on holiday with my Italian friends and also…

April 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark. Here I played a closed IM tournament. I also played this tournament last year. Last year I came 2nd and this year was very happy with my 6.5/9 which got me 1st place. The websites for this tournament are www.k41.dk which is the club in which the tournament was played and…

March 2005, Cork, Ireland. This year Cork hosted the first European Union Chess Championships. The website is www.corkchess.com I got 6/10 and gained some rating points. I lost just two games, both with black to two very strong grandmasters, one of which won the tournament. 

November 2004, Kilkenny, Ireland. I played in the famous weekend tournament here getting 4.5/6 and 3rd=. The field had many international players.