This time the late update isn’t my fault. Gawain wanted to wait until he had beaten a NZder (later on to find out he is scottish) before I updated this site. He’s on 3.5/5 beating 2 of the 3 Australians here and drawing against New Zealander Nic Croad. Tomorrow he plays Stephen Lukey. The weather…

Tomorrow Gawain starts playing at the Auckland Chess Centre for the George Trundle Tournament. We arrived safely, though it was quite turbulent going through Australia. A good’s night rest along with some of Ga’s fave Pepsi Max should do the trick for jet-lag. P.s I forgot to say he got glasses! He got the same…

Sorry I haven’t updated in a while. After leaving Northern Ireland we went back to the mainland Travelling from Enniskillen to Edgworth (Between Bolton and Bury) where Gawain’s grandparents live took 10 hours, including one bus, a ferry, 4 trains and 2 taxi rides. Gawain used the time to write his latest chesspublishing update. We…

Porto San Giorgio has been and gone and now we’re visiting Gawain’s parents in Enniskillen. We flew from Bologna to Dublin via RyanAir but only had to pay 20euro excess fee so it wasn’t too bad. Me, Ga and all our bags made it in one piece. The descent into Dublin Airport was quite windy…

It’s been a few more days and the weather has fortunately cooled. Today Gawain finished in about 5minutes whereas I finished in about 5 hours with the same results draw – sometimes chess is tough. Gawain’s on 4/5 and I’m on 2/5. We went to the beach today but in the summer heat it can…

We finally arrived in Porto San Giorgio after an epic journey. We woke up at 5 sleep deprived and hungry for our 6hour train journey. We went through Prato and Bologna before arriving in Ancona and getting some brunch (pizza and salad). Originally we thought there was a 12.30 train which would arrive in an…

Staunton has finally finished and now we’re in Lucca, Italy. Tomorrow we’re heading over to Porto San Giorgio by train (a bit shy of 400kms!). The UK team won the match against the Dutch 26.5 – 23.5. Gawain drew the last round against Sokolov. Overall it was a good experience and Gawain was pleased with…

Week 2 of Staunton has proved to be a much better week for Ga! England is now leading 24-21 with one round to go. Gawain has been the best performer this week with 3/4 and he keeps telling me he wished he could put his performance in the first week of the British and this…

Yesterday Gawain gained a good position against GM Ivan Sokolov unfortunately Gawain panicked and faltered. In the morning we spent time with his grandparents walking through Hyde Park and past the Marble Arch. Gawain’s laptop had broken down a few days earlier which meant he had no computer to prepare with until I bought an…

We’re now in London for the Staunton Memorial Tournament held at Simpsons-in-the-Strand. Gawain had an unfortunate finish at the British going rom 6/7 to 7/11 but we’ll have to wait for next year. Congratulations to our friend GM David Howell for winning! He also won the U18 & U21 sections. It was quite a rush…

Sorry for the late update! It’s been over a week since we arrived in a wet England. We spent the first couple of days up in Stafford spent with Gawain’s family. Since leaving there we’ve been in Torquay for the British Championships (where our usb modem doesn’t like to work). Gawain’s off to a good…

We leave Thailand tomorrow to return back to Malaysia for a day, before catching our flight to London. From there we’ll go and visit Gawain’s grandparents in Stafford where his mum and brothers will be, before heading over to Torquay to play in the British. On Friday morning we decided to get a massage. The…

We’ve been and gone to Malaysia. We spent two days with my family with Gawain mostly doing his chesspublishing work (delayed due to the South African Open) and I mostly sleeping. We woke up again at our weird times and feeling extremely hungry. Lucky for us my family owns a coffee shop which opens at…

The South African Open has been and gone. We’ve packed all our belongings (including a duvet) and are now back in Auckland. Even though we’ve been checking the site frantically we aren’t sure what Gawain’s placing was.. though the organiser recalled outright 2nd. He faced FM de Villiers in the penultimate Round and was down…

It’s been 4 day since I last wrote. If you really would like to know Gawain’s score you can go to www.saopen2009.com and find results there. He had a draw with Amon though there was a bit of a commotion. Gawain’s opponent offered him a draw but he didn’t see the offer and made a…

The South African Open started last weekend.Originally we were meant to play at ours but our flatmate was hosting his 30th Birthday party here so we had to find an alternative venue. Gawain, IM Puchen Wang (NZL) and IM Mirko Rujecvic (Aus) agreed to play in this tournament online organized by ChessCube. These will be…