Gawain Jones began playing chess at age four, competing in his first tournaments at six. In early 1997 he was featured on the front page of The Guardian newspaper when he became the youngest player ever to beat an International Master in an official tournament game. Since 2008, he has been one of England's highest-rated players.
An active player on the tournament circuit, he secured his Grandmaster title with successful results at the 2nd EU Individual Open Championship in Liverpool in 2006, 2006 European Club Cup in Fügen and 4NCL 2006/7 season. Elsewhere in Europe, he took first place at Porto San Giorgio and La Laguna (both 2007). During his stay in Australasia, there were many more tournament successes, including a share of first place at the Sydney International 2008 and creditable second places at the Doeberl Cup 2008 and Queenstown Classic 2009.
Jones shared first place with Simon Williams at the London Chess Classic FIDE Open 2010. In 2011, he won the Bunratty Masters, ahead of Nigel Short, whom he defeated in their individual encounter, and the Commonwealth Chess Championship in Ekurhuleni. Jones finished clear first at Hastings (2012/13).
In December 2014, he won the Challenge Match, held concurrently with the London Chess Classic, against Romain Édouard by 4–2. In 2016, Jones won the New Zealand Open in January, and the Dubai Open in April, edging out Vladimir Akopian on tiebreak. The next year he won at Dubai Open (2017) for the second time, becoming the first player to do so. This time he edged out Mustafa Yilmaz, Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli, Ahmed Adly, Sergei Zhigalko and Aleksandr Rakhmanov on tiebreak score.
In team competitions, Jones has played for England in the Chess Olympiad, the World Team Chess Championship, the European Team Chess Championship and the World Youth Under 16 Chess Olympiad. At the World Team Chess Championship (2019), England took the silver medal and Jones also won an individual silver playing on board four.
Upon participating at the British Knockout Championship (2019) Gwain lost in the semifinals to David Howell -15 +13. At the Gibraltar Masters (2020) Jones ended with a very respectable 7/10 (+5 -1 =4).
He placed very well at the European Championship (2021) with 5/8 (+4 -1 =2). In the summer between Aug. 28th and Sep. 5th, he participated at the European Championship (2021) in Reykyavik, Iceland. He got 6/11 (+3 -2 =6). He also took part in the 8 player Sigeman & Co (2021) tying 2-4th (+2 -1 =4). At the European Team Championship (2021) Jones scored an impressive 5.5/7 (+4 -0 =3). Then at the London Chess Classic ENG - RoW (2021) he was third with 3.5/6 (+2 -1 =3).
Jones is the author of the books Starting Out: Sicilian Grand Prix Attack (2008); Dangerous Weapons: the Benoni and Benko - Dazzle Your Opponents! (2008) (with co-authors Richard Palliser, John Emms, and Chris Ward); How to Beat the Sicilian Defence - An Anti-Sicilian Repertoire for White (2011);
The Dragon, Volumes One and Two (2015); and Coffeehouse Repertoire 1.e4, Volumes 1 and 2 (2021).
Jones was married to WIM Sue Maroroa. Tragically, she died on May 11, 2023 of complications following the birth of their second child, Daniel.
Jones' website: http://gawainjones.co.uk/
Wikipedia article: Gawain Jones
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