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 Junta Ikeda, IM Moulton Ly and FM Manuel Weeks – good luck to you all! Also to our fellow English players IM Jovi Houska and WIM Sabrina Chevannes.
There’s still 5 rounds to go and then he’ll have a couple of days back in London before we both head of for the Chess Olympiad in Tromsø, Norway. We have both been selected to represent England, Gawain for the 4th time and my first playing under the English flag. We will both be on Board 2. I had previously played 5 Olympiads for New Zealand and had to miss my 6th Olympiad in Istanbul due to my visa issues. I’ve got my visa now and I’m ready to play some good chess! 🙂 Did you guys know that your K Factor might’ve changed? I just noticed mine on FIDE and it’s now 20! Good that I can gain more points but bad because I can lose more. My update on Ikaria is on it’s way but I want to take my time and do a great write up as it’s the best place! And I would love to go back (even though I lost 36 rating points!) Ga also mentioned that he wrote an update from his perspective so watch this space.