Hello there,
I’m Sue, Gawain’s girlfriend – Gawain isn’t the most let say hard-working guy in the world so instead he has me updating his blog as we’re usually attached to one another (I tag alongside him to various tournaments). Instead of being in NZ as we are supposed to be we’ve decided to reside in the très chic city of Melbourne. Chess folks should visit the State Library which has an amazing collection of books which Gawain will be studying from. Recently he played in two tournaments back to back –
The Doeberl Cup in Canberra and Sydney International Open (SIO) coming 1st= in both with 7/9 even though he did not play another GM!
In Canberra we were invited to a lovely dinner held by our friend and great cook IM David Smerdon which included various guests such as WIM Arianne Caoli & The Australian women’s team captain Andras Toth, Tristan Stevens as well as some local Canberrans – Sherab, Caitlin and Fitzy. Anywhere over Easter isn’t anything to be too fussed about and Canberra was no exception. After the tournament organizer Charles Bishop hired a bus and drove us all the way to sunny Sydney. I decided not to play in the SIC (Challengers tournament) instead my plan was to site see, catch up with friends, shop but instead I patiently waited daily for Gawain to finish his games and feed him during it (which was quite often!). Both organizers were very helpful and we’d recommend anyone who is thinking about coming to do so! And hope both tournaments continue as we would like to be back next year.
We were thinking of visiting a couple of friends in Newcastle after SIO but instead decided to head back to Melbourne on the overnight sleeper – (TIP don’t do it… sleeper was a bit of a misnomer). We spent the week moving into our new house and shopping who knew it would be so difficult to drag Ga around trying to find the perfect quilt cover and blanket that would keep us warm at night.
Back to chess we both then played in a Melbourne Chess Club tournament over ANZAC weekend to get to know the local chess scene. Gawain came 1st= along with our friend David Smerdon on 4.5/5. While I finished on 3/5, both of us beating our new flat mate GB :).
Our currently plans are :
· To sort out internet
· Get Gawain to take the train into Melbourne and study for a few hours at the library
· Get myself a job!
Now that I’ve taken over (it’s more collaboration) I hope to update it more but our next tournament should be late May playing in the Waitakere Open in Auckland, New Zealand seeing as Gawain’s visa will expire. Back to Melbourne – Vic Open during Queen’s Birthday weekend. Then I’ll be playing in the Oceania Zonals in the Gold Coast in late June with Gawain coaching me.
That’s the plan for now. We’ll try and keep you posted
Sue & Ga.
P.s We will try and upload some photos.