Rudy in Gibraltar

Rudy recently played in Gibraltar, scoring 3.5 out of 10,against a strong field, only two weaker opponents. Full details available in reports to main Welsh Chess Union website. An accompanying evening entertainment was a Team Blitz,played at four minutes plus thirty seconds increment. Mark Talbot(ex-Aberystwyth) and his brother, Nathan, were playing in the Challengers' U2300(where both scored 2.5 out of 5). Therefore a team, E4Effort, was formed of Rudy, Nathan, Mark and their father Paul Talbot (2043 FIDE, 2098 ECF correlate, 2130 also and 1850 also). The highlight was in the first round when the team played against 4 Queens, consisting of IM Valentina Gunina (2490) from Russia, IM Elizabeth Paehtz (2482) Germany, IM Salome Melia (2403) Georgia & GM Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant(2405) from Scotland, originally Georgia. To our surprise we got a draw, both Rudy and Nathan winning their games. On examining further it transpired that Valentina Gunina (who gained a GM norm in the main Masters daytime) actually has a FIDE blitz rating of 2614! (Our team went downhill after that.)

Valentina Gunina - Rudy van Kemenade 0-1