-
Paris in the Springtime
I’m lucky enough to be able to travel in my job (not as much as Ga) and this time we headed to Paris. I didn’t know what to expect as I’ve never been before – we were meant to go for my friend Larissa’s 21st but unfortunately during this time I had my passport/visa issues…
-
Happy 24th Birthday to me
10 days ago, I turned 24. I was in a way dreading it but I’m so happy with my life. I kind of felt like now I will be heading into “proper” adulthood, that now I wouldn’t be able to do childish thing not that I’m so immature or anything. I guess most people would…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Rugby Mania
So in my last post I mentioned my new sport, rugby. It all started last year while watching the London 7s at Twickenham. We went as a big group and me and my friend thought we could out do our husbands – we were not so confident in our rugby skills so decided to try…
-
Happy (Belated) New Year
Dear Readers, I’m so sorry it has been so long since we have last written an update. Obviously life has been busy and so many things have happened! Gawain played his first match in December at Kensington Olympiad during the London Chess Classic, this was a great experience for him. He played his Guildford (from…
-
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.…
-
2014 Chess Olympiad
My last Olympiad was in Khanty Mansiysk playing for New Zealand in 2010. I missed the 2012 Istanbul Olympiad due to visa issues. I was denied a spousal visa for the UK but it sorted itself out. Unfortunately, I was without my passport for 9months but I have it back now. Since then, I switched…
-
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…
-
A sunny week in June
Early June I played in the Swiss Rapid Chess Masters, a well organised one day tournament in Pfaffikon on Lake Zurich. I received a pleasant surprise on arrival with a gift of a bag of Swiss chocolates waiting for me in my room. The weather was really good and I decided to take a walk…
-
Politiken Cup
After a week off in the beautiful island of Ikaria in Greece. Gawain is back at work in Denmark. He’s currently playing in the Politiken Cup (also known as the Copenhagen Chess Festival but not in Copenahgen) and is joint 2nd= with 4.5/5. Our Aussie friends are also playing in the tournament, GM Dave Smerdon, FM…
-
Recent developments
So my intention was to write a tournament update for each of my tournaments played since the Icelandic League but that isn’t really viable so I’ve decided to round it all up in one update. Going back to March I played the Reykjavik Open. I started with a couple of quick wins but then…
-
Zalakaros Open – Round up
Our time in Zalakaros came and went so quickly! It feels like we’ve been here forever (just over a week) but we haven’t been able to do so much. It’s weird when I’m explaining to our non chess playing friends what your schedule is like when you are playing a tournament. They really can’t believe…
-
Zalakaros Open – Quick update
My plane from London was delayed so it meant I got to Budapest about 1am. Gawain caught an earlier flight in and I caught a shuttle bus to our hotel which is about a 10 minute walk from the bus station. Trying to prounounce Zalakaros isn’t as easy as it seems and at our hotel…
-
Zalakaros Chess Festival
Today we are off to Hungary and before you go thinking I’m not playing a First Saturday! I found the Zalakaros Chess Festival on the FIDE Other tournaments, it has a good prize fund and is very strong! The A Group is meant for 2400+ but I’ve asked the organizer if I could play in it…
-
4NCL – A Success
NB: I wrote this on the 8th of May but Gawain hasn’t yet proofread it.. so now I am attempting to 🙂 So last week, my team captain Paul Townsend sent me an email saying he did some calculations and thought that I was on for a WGM norm. Ga & I were walking back…
Got any book recommendations?