Category: Must Do Tournaments!
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Faroes Open -Part 2
There were many Side Events for this tournament. I guess when you go to a tournament in the Faroe Islands or Iceland you want to see something other than the hotel and playing venue. There were visits to the various local tourist spots, a chance to play and watch the football and the blitz tournament!…
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Faroes Open 2018 – Part 1
The tournament is now finished and there’s always that weird feeling once you’ve been in a place for a few weeks with the same people and you then leave it all behind until the next time. We had a great time but as usual I’m very glad to be home and that I we have a…
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Faroes Open
We’ve had the last few months off from playing chess and we are now in the very beautiful Faroe Islands playing in the Faroes Open held in the village of Sandavágur. Many of you might wonder where the Faroe Islands is and I’ll pinpoint it below on the map. I have heard of the Faroes before thanks…
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The 25th Bunratty Masters
So first I have to post this photo I took while in St. Moritz. Since I was away from work I was unable to play in the Celebration In Memoriam Beer and Blitz which was eventually won by GM Matthew Sadler – it seemed like such a fun event and the first of a few…
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4th Purtichju Open
I’m sorry I haven’t written in so long. It’s been a busy time for us and then when we got to Corsica we didn’t really have good internet. I did try to write an update but the connection was so terrible and I wasn’t able to even go to the new post page. We left…
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Reykjavik Open 2017
After a relaxing Easter Break at home we went on to Reykjavik. While at home and looking at the calendar Gawain said “It feels so strange to not be playing chess over Easter” and I jokingly replied that “I’ve signed him up to play at the chess club!”. On our train to Birmingham Airport we received…
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Dubai Open Champion
Round 2 was a good day in our family as we scored 2/2. Unfortunately in Round 3 we didn’t do so well with Gawain playing GM Alan Pichot again and I played our friend IM Lorin D’Costa, one of four English players here! There was a 750 rating points difference between my opponents between the…
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Tata Steel Challengers Winner
I’m so happy that Gawain won the Tata Steel Challengers (on tiebreak) with 9/13 along with Markus Ragger. The tie break in use was individual result which favoured Ga as he beat Markus in Round 6. Like most of you I was watching the last game and couldn’t bear to watch the proceedings (especially not in real…
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Kilkenny
So the “main event” didn’t quite go to plan for us. We came a day early because trying to catch the early morning flight on Friday didn’t seem like a good idea for me. We were lucky that our time in Ireland coincided with our friends Chris and Amanda (Aussies but we forgive them!) and…
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A successful two weeks
On Saturday 9th April I headed back to Munich. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to play much for Munich 1836 this year but at least could drop in en-route to Dubai for the last round. We were in second place, ahead of the other Munich team (Tarrasch) by just one and a half board points, and…
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Dubai Blitz Winner & Dubai Open
Gawain is in the final stages of the 18th Dubai Open, tomorrow will be round 8 (so only 2 more rounds left) and currently he”s leading with GM Vladmir Akopian, Boris Savchenko & Ivan Sokolov ( who I think is the national UAE coach). He’ll be on Board 1 facing the Armenian GM Akopian. You…
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Reykjavik Open 2016
I’ve now been to Iceland so often that I know how to spell the capital city Reykjavik. It’s one of my most favourite places in the world to visit and it’s such a cool place to be a chess player. Obviously the city is rich in chess history with the “Match of the Century” taking…
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Bunratty Masters
If you haven’t heard of Bunratty, you have been missing out. This fun Irish weekender takes place in a small town (I’m not sure you could even call it that) alongside the N18 the main road between Limerick & Galway. There’s the Bunratty Castle, a couple of souvenir stores and Durty Nelly’s the local pub.…
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Gibraltar Masters – A good start to 2016
After our wonderful time in New Zealand we had a week to recover before I was off again. In the three weeks we were away new tenants had moved in and I spent a lot of the week tidying up after the mice and making the house habitable. Hopefully we’re starting to win the fight!…
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Gib & A Giveaway
Last weekend I managed to pop over to Gib to visit Ga (Nils & Erik too). It was roughly a smooth 3 hour flight from Heathrow and lands on the peninsula itself. It was forecast to be a beautiful day and seeing the Atlas Mountains and the Rock itself from my seat on the plane…
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Tradewise Gibraltar 2016
Today is the first round of the Tradewise Gibraltar Masters. This is such a strong event and it seems to get stronger every year! Gawain is 28th seed and is sharing an apartment with GM Nils Grandelius & GM Erik Blomqvist from Sweden. This is such a fun tournament to visit as a spectator and…