![Commonwealth Championship: Gawain Jones first on tie-break](https://www.chess.com/bundles/web/images/image-default.445cb543.svg)
Gawain Jones won the Commonwealth Championship on Sunday with a score of 9.5/11. The English grandmaster finished shared first with his compatriot Nigel Short, but had a better tie-break.
Gawain Jones wins in South Africa | Photo © Günther van den Bergh, more hereGeneral info
The Commonwealth Chess Championships took place from June 25th to July 4th in the Emperors Palace Hotel Casino & Convention Resort in the City of Ekurhuleni in Gauteng, South Africa. The event, an 11-round Swiss, also functioned as the South African Open Chess Championships. There were over 700 participants with more than 40 titled players, headed by three times past champion GM Nigel Short from England. There was also a strong Indian contingent present including former World Junior Chess Champions GM Abhijeet Gupta and IM Harika Dronovalli.
More info here.
Rounds 8-11
Gawain Jones was leading the tournament after seven rounds, but eventually Nigel Short managed to catch him and in the final standings they shared first place with 9.5/11. Australian GM David Smerdon finished third. He
wrote:
Gawain won the title from Nigel Short on tie-break, due to, bizarrely, me beating one of Nigel’s previous opponents in the last round. In an even crueller and more unfair twist of fate, I finished in third. Justice did not prevail, not only because my opponent, Watu Kobese, was beating me severely, but also because I played some of the worst chess of my life and I was worse in all eleven of my games. Well, I guess there’s no accounting for luck in these big opens…
As we mentioned before, unfortunately the organizers were having trouble getting the games live online or saving them correctly. We assume that Mark Crowther of TWIC is still trying to get the games correctly. In the game viewer below we show a few from rounds 8-11 but it's clearly incomplete data...
Selection of games rounds 8-11
Game viewer by ChessTempoCommonwealth Championship 2011 | Round 11 (Final) Standings (top 30)
Rk. |
Fed. |
Ti. |
Name |
Group |
Sex |
FED |
Rtg |
Pts. |
TB1 |
TB2 |
TB3 |
1 |
ENG |
GM |
Jones Gawain CB |
|
|
ENG |
2596 |
9.5 |
56.5 |
74.25 |
2254 |
2 |
ENG |
GM |
Short Nigel D |
|
|
ENG |
2682 |
9.5 |
55.5 |
73.00 |
2286 |
3 |
AUS |
GM |
Smerdon David |
|
|
AUS |
2520 |
9.0 |
54.0 |
63.00 |
2117 |
4 |
GER |
IM |
Huschenbeth Niclas |
U20 |
|
GER |
2502 |
9.0 |
53.0 |
64.25 |
2095 |
5 |
IND |
GM |
Kunte Abhijit |
|
|
IND |
2526 |
9.0 |
50.5 |
63.00 |
2131 |
6 |
ARG |
GM |
Lafuente Pablo |
|
|
ARG |
2555 |
8.5 |
55.0 |
63.00 |
2191 |
7 |
ZAM |
FM |
Jere Daniel |
|
|
ZAM |
2344 |
8.5 |
54.0 |
62.00 |
2182 |
8 |
IND |
IM |
Grover Sahaj |
U20 |
|
IND |
2485 |
8.5 |
53.5 |
61.75 |
2154 |
9 |
IND |
GM |
Laxman Rajaram |
|
|
IND |
2446 |
8.5 |
51.5 |
59.75 |
2099 |
10 |
BEL |
IM |
Ringoir Tanguy |
U18 |
|
BEL |
2399 |
8.5 |
50.5 |
59.00 |
2090 |
11 |
IND |
IM |
Karavade Eesha |
|
W |
IND |
2343 |
8.5 |
48.5 |
58.25 |
1992 |
12 |
IND |
GM |
Gupta Abhijeet |
|
|
IND |
2604 |
8.0 |
54.5 |
57.25 |
2269 |
13 |
RSA |
FM |
van der Nat Nicholas P |
|
|
RSA |
2308 |
8.0 |
54.0 |
55.50 |
2183 |
14 |
IND |
IM |
Harika Dronovali |
|
W |
IND |
2520 |
8.0 |
53.5 |
57.00 |
2164 |
15 |
RSA |
IM |
Kobese Watu AKW |
|
|
RSA |
2355 |
8.0 |
52.0 |
56.50 |
2126 |
16 |
IND |
WGM |
Ghate Swati |
|
W |
IND |
2317 |
8.0 |
52.0 |
55.75 |
2099 |
17 |
IND |
IM |
Mokal Prathamesh S |
|
|
IND |
2405 |
8.0 |
51.5 |
57.00 |
2095 |
18 |
RSA |
CM |
Bouah Lyndon |
|
|
RSA |
2147 |
8.0 |
49.5 |
53.50 |
1992 |
19 |
IND |
WGM |
Subbaraman Meenakshi |
|
W |
IND |
2317 |
8.0 |
49.0 |
54.50 |
1980 |
20 |
RSA |
|
Dole Anant |
U18 |
|
RSA |
2103 |
8.0 |
49.0 |
53.00 |
1987 |
21 |
RSA |
IM |
Mabusela Johannes M |
|
|
RSA |
2272 |
8.0 |
49.0 |
52.75 |
2059 |
22 |
ZIM |
|
Makoto Rodwell |
|
|
ZIM |
2166 |
8.0 |
48.0 |
53.00 |
1957 |
23 |
RSA |
|
Anderson Gavin A |
|
|
RSA |
2157 |
8.0 |
47.5 |
52.25 |
1943 |
24 |
RSA |
CM |
Cawdery Daniel J |
|
|
RSA |
2274 |
8.0 |
47.5 |
51.00 |
1986 |
25 |
ZAM |
FM |
Phiri Richmond |
|
|
ZAM |
2165 |
8.0 |
47.0 |
48.25 |
1991 |
26 |
ZAM |
|
Simutowe Musa |
|
|
ZAM |
2119 |
8.0 |
46.5 |
50.50 |
1958 |
27 |
RSA |
|
Ovcina Denis |
|
|
RSA |
2248 |
8.0 |
46.5 |
49.00 |
2069 |
28 |
BOT |
CM |
Notha Moakofi |
|
|
BOT |
2123 |
8.0 |
44.5 |
50.25 |
1777 |
29 |
IND |
IM |
Sachdev Tania |
|
W |
IND |
2416 |
7.5 |
50.0 |
50.75 |
1953 |
30 |
ZIM |
|
Takawira Erick |
|
|
ZIM |
2035 |
7.5 |
48.5 |
46.50 |
1995 |
Links