Author: Sue Maroroa
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Torquay
It’s been 4 years since I’ve last been in Torquay and a lot has changed. I guess when I first came over it was my taster of what the UK was like and I don’t have particularly fond memories of Torquay. Last time the weather wasn’t particularly nice and our flat was small strange and…
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100th British Chess Championship
Gawain left on Saturday to go and defend his title in Torquay. This year’s line up include 12 Grandmasters including just 2 former champions – Can you guess which ones? Also this year we see 9 other countries represented in the Championship! I’m not including the 4 nations (England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland) or Guernsey.…
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A Scottish Break… Glasgow, Edinburgh and Helensburgh.
Wow. It’s been forever since we’ve written an update. Life gets busy doesn’t it? Well I for one haven’t forgotten about our readers there’s been lots of ideas but no real sit down time to write something but since Gawain’s played in the Scottish Championship and we had a holiday in Scotland I feel it’s…
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4NCL Final Round Today!
Today is a bank holiday and it’s also the final round of the Four Nation Chess League. Guildford play Wood Green Hilsmark in what is the match we have all been waiting for! Here’s the lineup for today. In the demotion pool we have another Guildford vs Wood Green Hilsmark line up! You can watch…
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I’m a bit of a loser.. and more so after not learning from my (same) mistakes!
I started my new job last week and I’m loving it! I’m having so much fun but I’m now working a 50 hour week which means that my updates will be even more sporadic. I’ve paused my Mandarin studies for now as I don’t have enough time to study which I think I need to…
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Malaysia.
Thursday 22nd of March at 10pm was my flight time from Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur. I had booked my ticket in December with air miles (thanks to me flying from here to NZ), I got my flight for £350 (which are just the taxes). It was a bit touch and go whether I’d actually make…
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Newham Chess Project Lauch Sponsored by East Village
The joint operation from Chess in Schools and Communities, East Village London, Newham Council launched a programme which aims to introduce chess into every school in the borough. On Wednesday 13th of March, we woke up at 4am to be driven to East London where Gawain, Malcolm and Sabrina were going to be live on BBC Breakfast at Ravescroft Primary…
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Back from holiday
Since I last wrote on the 17th of March so many things have happened. Gawain wise, he was the star player at an event which was held to celebrate the launch of an Urban Chess funding initiative from London’s newest neighbourhood – East Village, in partnership with the charity Chess in Schools and the Communities…
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Bundesliga Round 11 and 12
Gawain is at Bundesliga again, today he had a boring draw today against his last FIDE rated opponent from the Icelandic league (also a draw), Tomi Nyback who is the top Finnish player. Gawain is playing for Solingen who unfortunately lost today’s match to Werder Bremen It was a very close match with the final…
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Work work and then “play”?
For the first time in a while I worked a full day and then played a game of evening league chess. I do have a very great lifestyle (Thanks hubby) which allows me to work part time and occasionally full time but it’s been a while since I’ve done a 7am bootcamp, an 8.5hour day…
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Reykjavik Open
The Reykjavik Open started yesterday and there were quite a few upsets! The young Norweigen Sebastian Mihajlov 2059 held GM Ling Diren 2709 to a draw after the Chinese GM missed a win in the middlegame. Some other upsets include Ingibjorg Birgisdottir beaing IM David Miedema a 581 point difference. Gawain started off yesterday with a win…
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The Stronger Opposition
You’ve just arrived at your board and look up at who you hope to be your next victim only to find that it’s a Grandmaster. Do you A) freak out with fear and start to sweat or do you B) feel no pressure and think you have nothing to lose? Many chess players, whether they are…
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Bundesliga
After Gib, Gawain flew into Heathrow where I managed to see him for 2 hours then he was off to Dusseldorf for Bundesliga. Unfortunately, he loss yesterday to an up and coming junior. Sometimes things just don’t click. You can follow the live games here. He plays for Solingen and is Board 3 against Polischuk. Games…
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A Sleepless Night
I know this is Gawain’s website and being a professional player most of our readers will probably just want to hear the insights to a life as a professional but I, as his wife most of the updates and now I’m on a mission to improve myself as a player. I started playing chess when…
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Gibraltar Chess Congress
Rd 1 started yesterday and even though London had (some) snow which caused major transport problems, Gawain after a delay in his flight made it into Gib yesterday afternoon. I’m still not sure why this country is ill prepared for snow and their were major disruptions at Heathrow with lots of flights being cancelled but…
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4ncl Round 3 and 4 Update
We left Friday evening to make it up to Daventry but while we were on the train we realized we weren’t sure which hotel we were going to. Since we don’t have smart phones we couldn’t just google it so we had to call up our flatmates and learnt it was the De Vere hotel…