Tuesday 24 January 2017

2017 Gibraltar Masters - Day 0

Quite a busy day yesterday, which is the reason for the missing blog post. Most of it was taken up with settling in to the hotel, a bit of sightseeing, and working out the various ways of getting to the venue. It turns out we didn't do the last bit quite as well as we could, as this mornings round (for the challengers) necessitated a shift to taxi's so Harry didn't forfeit his first round.
Gibraltar is nice, and obviously small. For Canberran's it is about the same size as Amaroo and Ngunawal combined, although we don't have a huge rock in the middle. The rock does present a bit of a problem, as our hotel is quite close to the venue, but only if there was a tunnel drilled through it. Otherwise it is about a 55 minute walk (although a lot quicker by bus).
The Masters begins tomorrow at 3pm (1am Wednesday Canberra time), and runs over 10 rounds. Already the top seeds are arriving, as I spotted Caruana, Adams and Svidler at the Calata Hotel. There will be a lecture by GM Ray Keene at the venue this evening, followed by the opening ceremony. Indeed, every night has a different social activity for the players, including master classes, novelty blitz events, and simuls.
I'm not sure how the round times (and time zone shifts) will affect my blogging, but hopefully I will be able to report sometime after the round is finished (which is likely to be late morning Canberra time)

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