Back to News

Masters Round 3 Report

Jan 24, 2020

John Saunders reports: Round three of the 2020 Gibraltar Masters took place on Thursday 23 January 2020 at the Caleta Hotel. By the end of the round, the number of players sharing the lead on a maximum 3/3 had been whittled down to five: Ivan Cheparinov (Georgia), Vasif Durarbayli (Azerbaijan), Maksim Chigaev (Russia), Pier Luigi Basso (Italy) and Leandro Krysa (Argentina). The round was disrupted by a power cut which kicked in around two hours into the round and lasted for just over an hour.

Power outages are a fact of life all over the world and it’s not the first time we’ve suffered one here in Gibraltar. It affected a large part of the town and not just the venue. Of course, every cloud has a silver lining, and it has to be confessed that we photographers took full advantage as it gave us a chance to show off our creativity in low light situations, with the only illumination in some parts of the main playing hall being battery-powered lamps supplied by the hotel. I mentioned how much I enjoyed this photo op to chief arbiter Laurent Freyd during dinner later and he showed his excellent sense of humour by not killing me on the spot.