Category: Tournaments
-
Hastings Chess Champion
If you haven’t heard by now, I’m pleased to say that Gawain won the Hastings Masters outright with 7.5/10. 8 other players followed in 2= with 7/10 which shows how important converting points are at the top. Gawain’s decisive result was in the penultimate round against the Spanish GM Daniel Alsina Leal where he ground down Daniel…
-
Happy New Year/Hastings Round 1-5
Happy New Years to all our readers. Hope you enjoyed having your holiday break and had lots of fun. Ga and I had a quiet night in as guess who was lucky enough to get the norovirus! Yes, us two. I got it first and unfortunately passed it on to Ga who managed to draw…
-
London Chess Classic – A personal retrospective
Now we’ve had a bit over a week since the end of the London Classic I decided it was the right moment to look back at the tournament and take stock. My final score was somewhat disappointing; my aim was to pick up at least one win and, while I knew it would be difficult…
-
Round 4 &5: World Number 1 and World Champion
Gawain’s score from these two days were 0-2 but Gawain played “proper” chess which unfortunately is quite doubled edged. Against Magnus as I mentioned, he sacrificed his queen for two pieces which with accurate play would have put any player under pressure but unfortunately short on time Gawain choose the wrong course. Of course, if…
-
Round 3: The Defender King!
I’m now back at work so my updates may be briefer than normal but I did manage to be at Olympia for the start of the round and took some photos. The light in the auditorium isn’t fantastic so my photos are a bit dark. I don’t know much about photography but my camera is…
-
Round 2 – 313 moves. You’re getting your money’s worth 🙂
All games were still playing at 7.30pm and I was getting very nervous and hungry. Gawain’s opening didn’t go to plan as such and he’d been defending a worse position for the majority of the game and I feared déjàvu especially when Judit started to repeat position twice several times but Gawain held the position…
-
Round 1 – Explosions and two very long endgame.
For the opening ceremony, we had two musicians,Jason Kouchak on piano and Alf Wilheim Lundberg who played an eight string guitar, played some lovely tunes for us. I figured out that Alf’s interpretation of a Christmas song was “Silent Night” where as Gawain thought it was “Away in the Manger”. The ceremony was broadcast live this year…
-
London Chess Classic
Yesterday, all the players alongside Chief Organizer Malcolm Pein came to Olympia and attended the press conference. There were questions from the floor as well as questions submitted online. Ga was asked “What is your expected score” and his answer was something along the lines of “Just wanting to play proper chess and hopefully…
-
Kilkenny Masters 2012
Last weekend I made my usual November trip to Ireland to play the Kilkenny Masters. As there had still been no decision on Sue’s appeal, she still had no passport and thus was unable to accompany me. However my Mum came out of chess retirement and played her first tournament in 18 years – competing…
-
Metropolitan Congress
On the weekend of the 20th/21st, I decided to play in a local London Congress. I knew I needed to play more games and when you normally have to pay the cost of travel and accommodation a local tournament would be relatively cheap to attend! We had to play 3 rounds on Saturday and then the remaining…
-
London Grand Prix/Chessboxing
Saturday was a busy day when Gawain and I went to visit two chess events in London. The next day we were meant to go with his Aunt to see the Chess exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery but completely forgot and unfortunately that finishes tomorrow. You can check out a review on Chessvibes where the players from…
-
São Paulo/Bilbao
On the other side of the world at the moment (Brazil to be exact) the Chess Masters Finals is happening. With a massive FIDE event happening in London at the moment it’s easy to forget what other chess is happening especially if we are sleeping while they are playing. I’ve never been to Brazil…
-
The Paralytic Games
Yesterday evening my flatmates Tom and Pete and me headed into Central London to The Plough, the pub that hosts the home matches of the Drunken Knights in the London League. Nevil Chan had organised their annual blitz tournament, nicknamed the Paralytic Games – see their name! After a tough Olympiad I wanted to play…
-
Istanbul Olympiad continued
I left off the last report after four rounds when I had drawn every game but the team was on a very creditable 3.5/4 (or 7 match points). Round Five we were paired against India, another very close match. I had White against Pentala Harikrishna and decided to surprise him with the English. The game…
-
London Chess Classic – Playing with the big league!
Hi guys, Just in case you didn’t know (being on the front cover of CHESS) or haven’t kept up-to-date with the latest tweets from the London Chess Classic, I’m pleased to say that Gawain will be playing the the upcoming London Chess Classic. As you know by the previous editions, the field is extremely strong…