The 33-year-old thought he had ‘blown it’ but beat Alexei Shirov in the final to finish top of field of 353 competitors
Gawain Jones, the 33-year-old
England No 4, scored a career-best success when the Yorkshireman won the online European blitz championship. The €12,000 tournament, organised from Katowice in Poland, had 353 entrants from 40 countries, among them 134 grandmasters.
The time limit was fast for blitz, three minutes per player per game with a two seconds per move increment. An 11-round qualification stage reduced the field to 16, who played a knockout with best of four- game matches followed by an Armageddon where White had five minutes and Black four, with no increment and draw odds for Black.