Over 100+ players from 20 different countries, participating in the Skopje Open and Balkan Championship 2023. The tournament was held in Hotel Continental in Skopje, North Macedonia. The second seed of the tournament Grandmaster Romanov, Evgeny from Norway won the Skopje Open scoring 7.5 points out of 9 rounds, and Nikola Djukic from Montenegro came second scoring 7 points and claimed the title of the Balkan Champion. https://chess-results.com/tnr832704.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=9&fed=IRL&turdet=YES&flag=30
I had a decent tournament I would say with only one loss in the event and scoring 5.5 points out of 9 rounds and winning a prize. I increased a few rating points as well.
I had two interesting Queen endgames I played in the tournament:
The first Queen endgame ended with a small stalemate trick
The second Queen ending was played on the same day coincidentally! This was a bit easier to hold than the previous round as the pawns were only on one side of the board.
Tarun had a good start to the tournament but the tournament didn’t go his way, with many missed chances. Tarun and I ended the tournament with a win in the last round which is always a nice way to finish a tournament irrespective of how the tournament went!
Coming back home was chaotic as we nearly missed our connecting flight from Gatwick to Dublin because our bus got delayed coming to Luton airport and Tarun made a smart and quick decision to book an Uber to Gatwick, which took us around three hours in the traffic. When we lost all hope that we wouldn’t be able to reach in time, luckily our flight got delayed and we made it safely to Dublin!
Next, we are playing a league match in Ireland on the weekend, and after that, we are heading over to play at Groningen Chess Festival, Netherlands.