South Wales International 2022, Round 1

Well, it's been a long time, but I have finally returned to over-the-board tournament play. From the 7th to the 12th of July, I was playing in the South Wales International, an event which I play every year if I can.

This event has moved around a lot; over my time playing in it, it's been held in Caerleon, Treforest, Penarth, and two venues in Cardiff; this year, like in 2019 when it last ran, it was held in Bridgend, at the Best Western Heronston Hotel.

This has never been the strongest of events - my rating of 2331 this year gave me a starting seeding of 6 - but it has a wonderfully friendly atmosphere, and has a great track record of its competitors coming back year after year.

Round 1, as is the way of seeded Swisses, featured rating differences of at least 400 points on every board, and the inevitable bloodbath mostly came about, but there were a few lower seeds who escaped - three managed draws, including young Welsh player Hugo Fowler managing a draw against top seed Andrei Maksimenko, while one, Anuurai Sainbayar, won a spectacular game against Nicolas Skettos.

My game was an unspectacular but solid enough victory against tournament regular Paul Bridges; a reasonable way to ease myself back into play at this level.




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