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 (CSC) and Newham Council.
The Candidates also was a huge event and guess who made it to 11 Downing Street, yes me! Security was huge but they eventually let me through and it was quite cool to be there. Strange but fun. Delicious canapés and of course great to see Magnus getting his first prize!
Personally, there has been huge changes in our lives. I left my old job and am starting a new full time job on Monday, let’s see how it all goes especially with website updates which I fear will be even more sporadic 🙁
I also managed to get away for 2 weeks visiting my family in Malaysia. The weather was unbearably hot. For those not living in the UK, winter is still here! But today I manage to go out in a dress and a jacket so it’s becoming warmer. It’s been freezing since November but I think the sun is going to come out in the next few weeks. So I went to Malaysia to visit my family, stuffed myself with lots of yummy food and even managed a trip up to Penang where I ate even more!
Gawain during this time was still in the UK, playing in the 4NCL and he also played in the Southend Easter Congress.As some of you may know an incident happened in Southend which I won’t go into detailts now as we are in contact with the organizer but I hope to publish Gawain’s account of things in the next couple of days. Keep an eye out for this!
Last weekend Ga headed to Germany for the final weekend of Bundesliga. His team Solingen finished on a credible 3rd after a last round save of 4-4 against Katernberg. Gawain played Sebastian Siebrecht who might be the tallest Grandmaster ever. Gawain stands at 6’4 and I know that Peter Heine Nielsen is taller than him.
Check out an update about Gawain’s win from John Saunders (fomer CHESS Magazine Editor) – NB this has the game!
My own chess? It’s been paused since life has become so hectic with my job search and holiday and at the moment I feel a bit disheartened. Why? I’m not sure, falling in and out of love with my hobbies is something I’m very good at. When I love it, I LOVE IT! When I don’t, I really don’t care and at the moment, I’m not the former but rather the latter. Obviously a problem if you are trying to motivate yourself and your team to play good chess.
Perhaps I got out of the habit of playing and that meant I’m not as engaged. I was lucky enough to go and visit the Candidates before I flew out to Malaysia, the event seemed great but I wasn’t passionate about the chess. I also couldn’t make the Samsung Tab work though I think the idea is great I can’t comment on the device as the battery was flat every time I tried to use it. Unlike everyone else there who was on the edge wanting to know what was going on, I would just check Chessvibes for the latest result. I hope this phase passes quickly and I go back into chess loving, kick butt mode. In my calendar I’ve just got the final weekend of 4ncl so far but I will start to look ahead to what events I want to play in.
Another confession is I’ve been playing a ridiculous amount of 1 mimute chess on ICC. It’s not good for me or my chess and it’s so addictive. I wish I could stop… but I will for now (so I say). The issue is you just tell yourself all you need is one more win and you’ll stop but you know that’s not the case. So for me, I’ve got to go cold turkey. No 1 minute for me!! So if you see me on, please tell me off!
For the website, since this is my last free week I’ll write an update every day probably on old news that you may have heard but hopefully it’s from a different perspective!