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 adapter for mine but now it’s back thanks to the nice engineer from dell.
Today Gawain won his game with the black pieces against GM Erwin L’Ami. He was worse but his opponent allowed him to get some play! If you want to see relays of any of the games you can go to http://howardstaunton.com/hsmt2009/09_Games.html .
This morning we left our accommodation early to go in search of the Kiwi Shop in London – unfortunately I got my bearings wrong so we decided to go to another in Covent Garden getting lost again and having to stop in Walkabout (an Aussie bar chain) and him having a Steinlager (NZ brewed) and playing Quiz Machine. He was a little bit late for his game so I had to go and find him some Bundaberg as they ran out of L&P. We’ll try again tomorrow.
P.S – Our stay in the UK has been extended until September 13th before some time in Malaysia and then back in NZ for the George Trundle IM Tournament.