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.
He made a very good speech (which I managed to video but I’m not sure if I can convert it for online viewing and now I dropped my phone into the toilet) where he talked about how much he enjoyed his time in NZ and gave thanks to our Wellingtonian friends Alan, Ross, Lin, Bill & Maria for making our trip so much fun. We want to also mention a special thanks to my family for putting us up and especially my little brother for putting up with us!
It’s now Monday morning 6.51am and we are both awake. We managed to get some REM sleep at Hong Kong Airport but once we got home into London (9am) set an alarm for 1pm but slept until 7pm. The next few days will be interesting!
I’m also pleased to announce that Gawain will be playing in Bunratty the Irish weekender Feb 19th-21st.