It was a full week of chess for us in London as Tarun and I took part in the Mindsports Olympiad 2026 at Earls Court. Across the week, we played four tournaments one rapid, two blitz events and a classical tournament, giving us an incredible 41 games of chess in just a few days!
The highlight came in the classical event, where Tarun finished joint first with 7/9, sharing first place with IM Piotr Brodowski. I also had a good result, winning the Best Woman prize.
Rapid and Blitz at Earls Court
The Mindsports Rapid and Blitz tournaments were held over two days at the Mercure Hotel in Earls Court.
It was a great venue, and when we arrived, we realised just how many different mind sports and board games were taking place there. It really felt like a celebration of mind sports, with people competing in several different games throughout the venue.
For both of us, the rapid and blitz tournaments were more about getting some good practice and enjoying the games. The results didn’t quite go the way we had hoped, but neither of us had a particularly bad tournament either.
Most importantly, we had a lot of fun playing and got some useful practice before the classical event.
We also got to meet some friends whom we hadn’t seen in a long time, which made the tournament even more enjoyable.
Catching up with Cecile
One of the nicest reunions was seeing WIM Cecile again. We hadn’t seen her for around seven years!
It was really lovely to catch up after such a long time and reminisce about chess and everything that has happened over the years.
Catching up with Mark
We also had the chance to catch up with IM Mark Heidenfeld, who has represented Ireland at around ten Chess Olympiads.
Mark and Tarun were teammates at the Chennai Olympiad, and it was great to see him again. We spent some time chatting about our Olympiad memories, and, as always, it was great fun being around Mark.
Interestingly, Mark wasn’t only in London for the chess. He also came to the venue for the Backgammon Team World Championship, which was taking place the following day, where he was representing Ireland. It was quite nice to see him involved in another mind sport as well!
Tarun Finishes Joint First
After the rapid and blitz tournaments, we were both hoping to have a stronger performance in the classical event.
The IV Mindsports International Festival 2026 – Super Swiss was held at the Mindsports building in Hammersmith.
Tarun had an excellent tournament, scoring 7/9 to finish joint first, sharing the top spot with IM Piotr Brodowski, who also scored 7/9.
His penultimate-round game was particularly important. With the tournament standings tightly packed, Tarun produced a strong performance and outplayed his opponent, Florian Kaczur, to put himself in an excellent position going into the final round.
It was a fantastic way to finish the tournament and a well-deserved joint-first result for Tarun.
Best Woman Prize
I also had a good tournament, finishing as the Best Woman.
The slightly unfortunate part was that I was paired against Tarun in the final round and lost!
It’s obviously not the ideal way to finish a tournament, especially when you’re playing your own sibling, but that’s chess.
At least one of us was going to have a difficult final round!
Despite that, winning the Best Woman prize was a nice way to finish the tournament.
41 Games in One Week!
Looking back, it was quite a week. Between the rapid, blitz and classical events, Tarun and I played 41 games in total.
That’s a lot of chess in just a few days!
The Mindsports Olympiad was a great experience, not only because of the amount of chess we got to play, but also because of the atmosphere and the opportunity to catch up with so many friends.
The organisation was excellent, and Lance and his team did a great job making sure everything ran smoothly throughout the events.
Meeting GM Damian Lemos
On the final day of the tournament, we happened to meet Argentine Grandmaster Damian Lemos, who was visiting the tournament as his student was playing. Tarun immediately recognised him and went over to say hello. We used to watch Damian’s chess videos on iChess.net, so it was a nice surprise to meet him in person.
We finished the tournament with a nice dinner with some of our friends from the event.
Congratulations to FM Rishi, who also achieved his maiden IM norm at the tournament!
It was a great way to end a very busy week of chess. Hopefully, we will be back to play in the Mindsports events again next time!
Trisha is Ireland’s first Woman Grandmaster (WGM) and the 2022 Irish Women’s Champion. As Co-Founder of ICTL, she has proudly led the national team on Board 1 at two Chess Olympiads and competed in nearly 40 countries worldwide. Her mission is to empower young girls to embrace chess, build their confidence, and help elevate chess to a recognized sport in Ireland.