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Bundesliga 2011/ 2012 Round-Up
Apologies again for a long break between posting but again I’ve been very busy. I promise to update as much as possible now while I have a bit of time at home. This year I made my debut for SC Remagen in the German Bundesliga. The top division is composed of 18 teams with 8…
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Game of the Month April 2012
Apologies for missing out March’s GOTM but I’m been really busy! Updates on the Reykjavik Open and European Individual Championships will be written when I get time, but for now here’s the GOTM. After winning my first four rounds I started being paired up with the big boys. After draws with White against Nikita Vitiugov…
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A reader’s questions answered!
Hi everyone, We are still awaiting final confirmation but according to the final standings published on Chess Results, Gawain finished in 15th place therefore qualifying for the 2013 World Cup. This is an amazing achievement and I’m sure he’ll be working hard to play in Tromsø. These questions were asked by Colin Patterson last December and Gawain has…
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Express update
Today is Round 6 and again Gawain is on the top board facing with the white pieces, French GM Laurent Fressinet. Laurent is actually married to pro poker player and IM Almira Skripchenko.You can watch the live games here. Here they are together with their young daughter. So far there has been many upsets in…
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London to Sofia to Plovdiv
I arrived into Bulgaria earlier on today after a hectic week, I worked yesterday from 9am until 11pm then tried to sleep around 12am (Friday) but kept stirring. I find it so difficult to sleep when I know I need to get up in only a few hours time but then I make myself even more tired…
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Horses and Sharks..
This time our trip to Iceland was more relax. As Gawain mentioned in his last post, we both flew over early to play in the Icelandic chess league. Its size and depth is amazing for such a small country. I always feel at home in Iceland, even if the weather is greyer and colder then…
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Bundesliga Round 12 and 13
Gawain’s currently in Dresden, Germany playing in this weekends Bundesliga. His team just won their first match, in another must win situation. They will play again tomorrow so you should check out the Live games . Gawain drew his game against IM Rene Stern (2506) after it looked a bit troublesome but most likely it was…
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European Individual Championsip
It’s time again for this super strong tournament. Last year, Gawain was 104th seed!! Here’s the starting list for the 2012 edition where there are 15 2700+ players and the Top 200 players are 2450+! It’s a very tough tournament, where you need to be well prepared as there is so much strong opposition.
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Icelandic Club Championships – March 2012
Thursday evening we headed over to Heathrow for a flight to Keflavik, Iceland. The flight was a little delayed and, with very windy weather over Iceland, very bumpy but we arrived safely and were at the hotel by 2am Friday morning. Simon Williams was on the same flight but couldn’t make it onto the bus to…
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Tomorrow is the last Round..
Here are tomorrow’s pairings. Play starts earlier at 13:00 Local time (which is also the same timezone as London). Round 9 on 2012/03/13 at 13:00 Bo. No. Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name Rtg No. 1 6 GM Hou Yifan 2639 6½ 7 GM Caruana Fabiano 2767 1 2 5 GM Sokolov Ivan 2653 6½…
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Nearly halfway through the Open…
Gawain’s currently on 4/4 in the strong Reykjavik Open. I flew back to warm London on Wednesday and have been very busy juggling my three jobs. I’m sorry that there wasn’t a game of the month for March. Gawain’s schedule has been hectic as he’s juggling his travels plus his chess publishing. He’s got a…
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Reykjavik Open 2012
The Reykjavik Open starts in a week’s time. This year Gawain (so far) is 5th seed alongside 2700s GM Caruana and GM Navara. I also note that the current Women’s World Champion Hou Yifan will play – if you weren’t in the know she performed amazingly well in Gibraltar earlier this year. Hopefully she’ll be…
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Bundesliga Round 10/11
Gawain and his team are playing host this round. They are in last place in the league and need to win this weekend. Today they are up against Werder Bremen which is a formidable team (bottom board is GM Babula 2572). Here are the pairings 10th round: Saturday, 25th of February 2012, 2pm SC Remagen…
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Bunratty Weekender
Last weekend Sue and I made the trip over to Shannon airport to play in one of the big two Irish weekend tournaments (the other is Kilkenny). Thanks to Gary O’Grady’s very generous sponsorship this year’s tournament was the strongest weekender I’ve ever seen and must have been the strongest ever tournament in Ireland. Nigel…
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4NCL and NEW! Bi monthly F.E.B
I couldn’t update that about the 4NCL during the weekend as that would have given away that Gawain and I were in Sunningdale about to play! There was still snow at the venue (have you seen the temperatures in Europe?) but at least London is now a nice and balmy 7degrees. 4NCL saw both of…
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Dissapointing Bundesliga 🙁
Gawain flew back into London Heathrow early Friday morning, 5.25am then we left in the afternoon for Bundesliga. Bundesliga this weekend was held in Solingen a town famous for it’s steel. Gawain’s team unfortunately didn’t win a match this weekend. In the 8th Round of the league they drew 4:4 with Dortmund. The final game…
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