We arrived safe and sound Friday afternoon in Bratislava. We got a bus to Gyor from the airport

(about an hour and a half journey I think). After booking in to Hotel Rába, we had our dinner and

were off to the opening ceremony at 20:00. I really liked it, particularly the dancers representing all

the chess pieces. I haven’t any complaints about the food either so far and there are plenty of

market stalls lining the streets selling all sorts of products: from sweets, jams and dried meat to

ornaments, soaps and jewellery. The weather has also kept up nicely, with only patches of fog on

one or two days.

Our first game was against Croatia. I missed one or two chances to take the advantage in my game

against Muha Miljenko on board 4 and unfortunately lost in the end, but was still happy with the

way I played. At the start of each of our games we got something small, for example, in the first

round every player got a type of Hungarian bar that comprises of a cheese stick with a chocolate

coating! Unfortunately (and probably for the best!) I forgot to take it with me at the end of the

I rested for the second round and got to see one or two places of interest in Gyor namely the

Basilica, Benedictine buildings, Carmelite Church and Radó Island.

We played South Korea II in Round 3 and I must say we were all delighted with our 4-0 outcome. I

won a piece at the start of the middlegame in my game against Jeewon Ohn and just simplified into

a winning endgame. I was so happy to get a win in the competition it meant so much to me! It kept

me happy for the following days.

Next up was Finland who had an average rating of 1982 and we were all outrated against our

opponents. We managed to pull off a great 3-1 win which was absolutely amazing! I really enjoyed

my game against WCM Anastasia Nazarova on board 3 and I had a tough time trying to break

through her kingside. When I did, I ended up with a rook against her knight with each of us having

about 6 pawns. I still had to test my own knowledge in King and Queen versus King endgames when

eventually my opponent resigned a move away from mate. I was absolutely thrilled - over the moon.

Round 5 had our neighbours Scotland sitting on the opposite side of the table to us and we got a

respectable 2-2 draw against them. My game against Euan Gray on board 3 ended up being a very

messy type of middlegame/ endgame position coming from a Dutch Defence with Euan having a nice

kingside attack and me having nice queenside play. Eventually, I broke through on the queenside

and even managed to queen a pawn before the endgame really started! Euan respectfully resigned

and once more I went away delighted with everything.

On the day off myself, my Dad and Daniel went to one of the zoos in the city and saw lots of

different animals like spiders, snakes, monkeys, bats, owls and an armadillo. Afterwards, we saw

Bishop’s Castle and went to the top of its tower which overlooked all of Gyor. We proceeded to have

lunch at the hotel and at 15:30 we met Paul, Michael and Daniel in reception ready to play some 3-

aside soccer against the other countries. We won our first game against Slovenia 1-0 but

unfortunately lost our other two to Israel and one other country. The goals were absolutely tiny! It

was great fun - you can’t beat a good bit of indoor soccer. I got to play in goals and outfield

throughout the three games.

Tomorrow morning is Canada II and I am really looking forward to it. Overall so far, my time in

Hungary has been brilliant and I don’t want it to end, and I’m sure I’m speaking on behalf of the

entire delegation when I’m saying this.