We’ve had the last few months off from playing chess and we are now in the very beautiful Faroe Islands playing in the Faroes Open held in the village of Sandavágur. Many of you might wonder where the Faroe Islands is and I’ll pinpoint it below on the map.
I have heard of the Faroes before thanks to playing in the Olympiad in 2006 where I met some guys who were playing on the Faroese team. 2 out of the 3 are playing in this tournament.
Gawain previously played in two round robin tournament so this is his third visit. He has very fond memories of the beautiful scenery, lovely people and the fresh air. It’s been a very nice change being in the cooler weather as the UK has been very dry and hot.
Playing in a small tournament in a small country meant that there would be a high likelihood that we would play and we were indeed paired in round one. The last time we played was 2011 in Ireland and before that it would’ve been a tournament in NZ.
We decided to play an opening we both don’t normally play and I went on to lose the game. We both won in Round 2 and tomorrow is the double round day! You can check out the pairings here and watch the live games on their website or on chess24.
We went out to see a couple of tourist sites this evening as the weather was quite nice and very clear. We visited Trøllkonufingur which is in walking distance from our accomodation and had a clear view of both the the finger and her head!
The Faroe Islands are full of legends passed down the generations. It’s very interesting to hear about the history of this small but proud nation. You can read about the Nix here. On Saturday the village is having it’s summer fête which I’m very excited about. Hopefully our games will finish in time and we will be able to attend and enjoy the festivities.