Category: Must Do Tournaments!
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Gawain is the New Zealand Chess Champion
I didn’t want to write any posts before he actually finished his game so here is a delayed post a few days later. Gawain drew his final round against Brazilian GM Alexandr Fier and since all other results were already played it meant that he won the NZ Chess Championship with a score of 7.5/9.…
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Happy New Year and the New Zealand Chess Open
Today is Round 2 of the New Zealand Chess Open. The tournament is being held at the New Zealand National Chess Center in Devonport (weddings can be held in the church venue) – the brainchild of NZ’s only GM Murray Chandler. You can read more about the chess center here. There are 6 Grandmasters in…
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Abu Dhabi Masters
I’m writing this from the lobby of the Sofitel Hotel in Abu Dhabi. The tournament has just finished and at least I remembered how to play a little. Scored 6.5/9 and came 8th. Results. A big congratulations to my friend, Nils Grandelius, who had a great time and won the tournament. A cool $12,000 to…
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Politiken Cup
It’s summertime and probably the peak time of year if you are a chess professional. There are many tournaments all over Europe that can be so fun to play in. Last year we went to Ikaros and spent a lovely week there. Like last year, Gawain is now playing in the Politiken Cup held in…
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Apologies! & Gawain now in Iceland.
It probably shows that we don’t update as often as we would like as I checked a couple of days ago the website but found myself unable to access it. It seems we didn’t pay our hosting fees (messages were sent to spam) and was actually very close to having our website deleted forever. I…
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Bunratty Chess Festival
At the moment, I’m in LA enjoying the sun. Today I went to Manhattan Beach and had a chipwich. What is that you might ask – another great American invention! Gawain on the otherhand is hard at work in Bunratty, Ireland defending his title. You can read his report on last year’s tournament here. This year…
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Poker Stars Isle of Man Chess International
Back in April, we found out about a strong chess tournament that was going to be held in the Isle of Man. Now it’s October and the first round starts today. The line up is impressive with Gawain being 7th seed. In the Masters the first prize is £6000 and the ladies 1st prize is £2000.…
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Ikaros Ίκαρος” Open
It’s been a busy summer time. Firstly we headed of to Ikaros where I played chess and Gawain went on holiday, then for me I headed back to London for work and Gawain went to the Politiken Cup. I have also made my debut for England at the 2014 Chess Olympiad (that will be my…
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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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Bunratty 2014
Last year I was unable to play Bunratty as it clashed with my time in Iceland but with the dates moved to earlier in February this year Sue and I were able to return to Ireland’s premier weekend tournament. I had been over at my parents’ and took the long, slow bus down the west…
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Reykjavik Open 2013 – Round up
This is my third time playing the Reykjavik Open and we again played in last year’s impressive new venue: Harpa, the picturesque concert hall in Reykjavik’s harbour. I remember last year noise was a bit of an issue but the organisers seem to have done a good job and there was only one day with…
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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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Gibraltar Masters
Sue’s been writing so magnificently on the website but I better write a post or two or we should change the address to suemaroroa.co.uk 🙂 Hastings went very well for me and I managed to get 7.5/10 with the old Soviet model of drawing my blacks and winning my whites (with one exception, beating Vocaturo…
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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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2013 Tradewise Gibraltar Festival
Gawain’s heading over to Gib for this year’s Tradewise Gibraltar Festival from the 21st-31st of January. Entries for the Masters are now closed as it has reach it’s capacity. If you haven’t heard of this tournament it’s one of the Must Do Tournaments (along with Reykjavik, Queenstown,Bangkok e.t.c).Gib is at the Southern tip of Spain but…
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London Chess Classic
Yesterday, all the players alongside Chief Organizer Malcolm Pein came to Olympia and attended the press conference. There were questions from the floor as well as questions submitted online. Ga was asked “What is your expected score” and his answer was something along the lines of “Just wanting to play proper chess and hopefully…