Author: Sue Maroroa
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Zalakaros Open – Quick update
My plane from London was delayed so it meant I got to Budapest about 1am. Gawain caught an earlier flight in and I caught a shuttle bus to our hotel which is about a 10 minute walk from the bus station. Trying to prounounce Zalakaros isn’t as easy as it seems and at our hotel…
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Zalakaros Chess Festival
Today we are off to Hungary and before you go thinking I’m not playing a First Saturday! I found the Zalakaros Chess Festival on the FIDE Other tournaments, it has a good prize fund and is very strong! The A Group is meant for 2400+ but I’ve asked the organizer if I could play in it…
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4NCL – A Success
NB: I wrote this on the 8th of May but Gawain hasn’t yet proofread it.. so now I am attempting to 🙂 So last week, my team captain Paul Townsend sent me an email saying he did some calculations and thought that I was on for a WGM norm. Ga & I were walking back…
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Cork – Amateur Point of View.
So I had to book a 10pm flight (which meant a half point bye in the first round) from Heathrow to Cork as I left it quite late to book and the prices for earlier flights had shot up! It’s really easy for me to get to Heathrow and my bosses invited me to stay for…
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Dubai Open
Gawain’s now in Dubai arriving last night. He plays in the 16th Dubai Open(Official Website in Arabic). Last year, I saw this tournament was quite strong but he already had something in his calendar so we decided to make it a priortiy. Little did we know that I would go to Dubai in February with…
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4NCL Round 7 & 8
White Rose has been performing well in the 4NCL. I put it down to good team spirits. This is the second time I have played for White Rose, the first being in 2008 when I was a replacement for Anya Corke who had a family emergency. Since then I’ve switched teams every year, playing for…
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Wellywood, Otaki & Raumati.
I hadn’t explained before but our trip was divided up into 3: time with family, then with friends and a mini moon! After spending the first week in Auckland with my family we then headed down to Wellington, the capital, which we both love. We lived here while I studied and we made great friends there…
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Aotearoa
So after the fancy London Chess Classic dinner the next morning we started our journey heading towards New Zealand! Tania Sachdev invited us out to Mahiki (the joint where the Royal Princes use to party) but we had to decline as I wanted to get a good night’s rest before starting our 27 hour journey!…
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Holiday Blues & 4NCL
So now we are back in the UK. We arrived at Heathrow on Thursday afternoon then we had a day to rest before coming up to Hinckley Island for the 4NCL. Am I looking forward to playing? I think so, but let’s see how I get on in my games. Yesterday at 2pm I was…
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Round 3 & 4 of the Super 16.
I can’t figure out what to call the “London Chess Classic”, how about “the Super 16 (though we only knew the names of 14 until a couple of days ago, or simply “the Classic”. The event this year isn’t your “classical time control” but instead obviously a rapidplay. I think that “the Super 16” is…
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London Chess Classic Rounds 1 & 2
So yesterday came and went so quickly! I was at work but I managed to bring my kid along for the end of Round 1 and she was well behaved. Whenever I ask her “What is Ga doing?” She replies “Playing chess” and when I ask “What does that mean” she very sweetly puts her…
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PRO-Business Cup & London Chess Classic Starts Today
Today is the the day, Round 1 of the Rapidplay! I’m so excited!!! The qualifiers have been confirmed with only 2 players from the FIDE Open getting to 4/4. Istratescu and Sutovsky have now joined Groups A & D respectively. Istratescu played 84 moves to get the full point, but if he had halved out…
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2013 London Chess Classic
So it’s been a long time since I’ve last written and I’ve been meaning to, but does the thought count in this case? A lot has happened since, chess wise I was on a bad streak, 0/7! I was going to write a post about it soon after it happened, but I decided to take…
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Citizen of the World
I think I wrote previously about my change in federation from representing New Zealand to England. Why did I do it? Well, for several reasons. Last year I had some goals about my chess, I wanted to play more, get better and learn! I have played more and I think I’m now a better player…
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World Cup Exit and another Zero Tolerance Controversy.
After drawing the Rapid playoff Gawain succumbed to his Russian opponent in the Blitz playoff. Gawain played against Alexander Shimanov a young Russian GM who I’ve never heard of but then again I don’t follow chess that often. His opponent to me seemed well prepared and I think that helped him get through the first…
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World Cup 2013
Gawain is now in Tromsø,Norway competing in the World Cup. Now what kind of tournament is it? A 128 player knock out with a schedule of 2 long play games then a rapid tie break. before commencing to Round 2 e.t.c – Why play in such a tournament? Well it qualifies you for the Candidates…