Gawain Jones is a Chess Grandmaster from England with Elo ratings exceeding 2600 from FIDE, making him one of the best English chess players of all time.
Full Name: Gawain Christopher Bernard Jones
Title: Grandmaster (2007)
International Master (2004)
FIDE Master (2004)
Place of birth: Keighley, West Yorkshire, England
Born: December 11, 1987
Federation: England
Ratings
World ranking: 131
Rapid: 2630
Blitz: 2657
Classical: 2632
Peak rating: 2709 (June 2019)
Peak ranking No: 32 (June 2019)
Profiles
Biography
Gawain C B Jones is an English chess Grandmaster, born on December 11th, 1987 in Keighley West Yorkshire, England. Apart from residing in England, he has also resided in Italy, Ireland, Australia, and also New Zealand. Since 2010, he has resided in London after his return to the United Kingdom to dwell on his chess profession and close projects. Jones was awarded the title of Grandmaster in 2018, the title of International Master, and the FIDE Master in 2004. As of August 2022, Jones’s FIDE rating was 2632 while his Peak rating was 2709 as of June 2019. The Chess Grandmaster is engaged to Sue Maroroa, who is also a chess competitor.
The Beginning
The Grandmaster began his chess career after he attained four years; his maiden match took place when he was six. At the beginning of 1997, Jones made headlines, to an extent of featuring on the cover page of the Guardian Magazine when he was ranked the youngest chess player in the globe’s history to defeat an International Master in a competitive championship event. Jones has also played for England in the World Youth and the World Junior Tournaments several times and beginning in 2008, Jones has been among England’s top-rated competitors.
Achievements
In 2006, the 2nd European Union Individual Open Tournament was held in World Museum Liverpool, England from 6th to 15th September. Jones took part in the tournament for which he performed exemplarily hence being awarded the Grandmaster title. The event saw Stephen J. Gordon, Luke McShane, Nigel Short, Sarunas Sulskis, and Simon K Williams emerge in the top five respectively after playing for 8 rounds. In the same year on 8th to 14th October, Jones competed in the 22nd European Club Cup held in Festival Hall Fugen, Fugen City, Austria. At the event, 56 teams comprising 406 players including; 125 Grandmasters, 84 International Masters, 58 FIDE Masters, 1 Woman International Master, and 1 Woman FIDE Master drawn from 29 countries took part in the competition. A total of 1176 games were played with the format being six board seven round Swiss. Even though Jones did not make it to the top three contenders in either of the six boards, he still managed to achieve outstanding results.
Furthermore, Jones competed in the 2006/2007 Four Nations Chess League composed of players from England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. In the event, Jones displayed his prowess with outstanding results but failed to clinch the title. Somewhere else in Europe, at the Porto San Giorgio op tournament held on August 21st, 2007, the event consisted of 98 players with an average Elo rating of 2246. In addition, there were 182 games played with 9 rounds between them. Jones won the tournament after attaining 7.5 points, 0.5 points advantage ahead of the runner-up GM Oleg Korneev- Elo rating 2565. The La Laguna op 2007 tournament, played on March 5th, 2007, was another competition of its kind in which Jones took part. The tournament included 118 players with an average Elo rating of 1481 with 468 games being played in 9 rounds. The top spot was shared by GM Mchedlishvili Mikheil, GM Bojan Kurajica, and Atanas Kolev, having scored 7.0 points, while Jones together with GM Julio E Granda Zuniga, Vladimir Epishin, and four others shared fourth place in the tournament with a score of 6.5 points.
In addition, while in Australasia, Jones achieved more championship victories, such as sharing the top spot at the 2008 Sydney International Tournament and acknowledgeable second place at the 2008 Doeberl Cup and also the 2009 Queenstown Classic.
It went further better for Jones particularly when he took the top spot at the 2010 London Chess Classic FIDE Open, sharing the position with Simon Williams. The following year, Jones attained victory at the Bunratty Masters far above Nigel Short, whom he trounced in their encounter. Furthermore, Jones emerged victorious in the Commonwealth Chess Tournament held in Ekurhuleni and the 2012-2013 Hastings International Chess Congress.
Jones encountered a tough taste in December 2014 from his opponent Romain Edouard at the Challenge Match but eventually emerged victorious by winning by a margin of two (4-2); the contest was a 6-match event staged alongside the LCC (London Chess Classic). In January 2016, he triumphed at the New Zealand Open and also at the Dubai Open held in April, defeating Vladimir Akopian in deciding set. The following year, Jones became victorious for the second time running in the Dubai Open, thus being the inaugural player to set the record. In the tournament, he soldiered on to trounce Mustafa Yilmaz, Sergei Zhigalko, Ahmed Adly, Vidit Gujirathi, and Aleksandr Rakhmanov in deciding set.
At the team contests, the Grandmaster competed for his Country, England in the Chess Olympiad as well as the World Team Chess Tournament. In addition, Jones won the European Team Chess Tournament and the U16 Chess Olympiad. Jones helped the England team to emerge as silver medalists in the World Team Tournament held in Astana and bagged a solo Silver medal while playing on the fourth board.
Apart from being a distinguished Chess Champion, Jones is a renowned Author of chess books encompassing different years including;
Starting Out Sicilian Grand Prix Attack. Everyman Chess (2008). (Authors-Jones, Gawain)
Dangerous Weapons the Benoni and Benko- Dazzle your Opponents. Everyman Chess (2008). (Authors- Palliser, Chris, Jones, Gawain, Palliser, Emms, John, and Ward).
How to Beat the Sicilian Defence an Anti-Sicilian Repertoire for White. Everyman Chess (2008). (Authors- Jones, Gawain)
The Dragon. Volume One. Quality Chess (2015). (Authors- Jones, Gawain)
The Dragon. Volume Two. Quality Chess (2015). (Authors- Jones, Gawain)
Coffeehouse Repertoire 1. E4 Volume 1. Everyman Chess (2015). (Authors- Jones, Gawain)
Notable Achievements
- Split 1st place at the 2010 London Chess Classic FIDE Open with Simon Williams
- Won at the 2011 Bunratty Masters above Nigel Short
- Won the Hastings 2012/2013
- Won a silver medal while playing on the fourth board at the 2019 World Team Chess Tournament.
- Placed third at the 12th London Chess Classic in 2021.
Did you enjoy reading about Gawain Jones? If you did, you might be interesting in reading other player profiles such as Peter Leko, Michael Roiz, and Rey Enigma.
Sources
- http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=7342
- http://www.britishchesschampionships.co.uk/prizewinners-2017/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20080219184138/http://www.fide.com/ratings/topfed.phtml?ina=1&country=ENG
- http://euro2011.chessdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ope_list.pdf
- http://www.londonchessclassic.com/2014/edouard_jones_match.htm
- https://gulfnews.com/sport/gm-gawain-jones-of-the-uk-becomes-first-two-time-champion-in-dubai-open-chess-tournament-1.2010613
- https://en.chessbase.com/post/dubai-open-2017-gawain-jones-wins
- http://www.olimpbase.org/players/yc6kyo6d.html
- https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/mar/14/chess-england-win-first-medal-for-22-years
- http://gawainjones.co.uk/wp/?page_id=2#comment-8