Category: Events
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Hastings Chess Congress 2012
I’m pleased to announce that Gawain will be playing in the 88th Hastings Chess Congress which will be held from 28th December 2012 to 6th January 2013. This will be our first year back since 2008, when I had a horrible start of 0.5/5 in the Christmas morning tournament which gave me a starting ECF Grade…
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The Tortoise and the Hare
Last week the London Grand Prix came to a close and the closing ceremony was not as spectacular as the opening ceremony held at Somerset House but nevertheless it was a nice affair. There were rumours that Mr. Stephen Fry was going to attend and present some awards but that didn’t materialize which was a pity as…
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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…
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Photos from the Opening Ceremoy
Sorry for the bad photos but all I had was a small camera and the lighting was very dim. Again you can check out the good quality stuff from Ray Morris Hill and if you go right to the end you’ll see a photo of yours truly with Gawain. You can read the write up from…
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London Grand Prix Opening
Opening night, I didn’t now what to expect. It was a very fashionable affair (to my knowledge) and everything ran smoothly. If this is anything to go by, I believe the chess world is in very good hands. In the crowd, I even spotted some celebs Sophie Ellis Bextor (murder on the dance floor fame)…
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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…
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World Rapid and Blitz Astana, Kazakstan
If you didn’t know, well now you do. The World Rapid and Blitz is currently being played in Astana, Kazahstan. The first 5 rounds of the rapidplay took place earlier today and the remaining rounds will be played out tomorrow. 1st= with 4.5/5 is World Number 1 and Supermodel Magnus Carlsen with Sergey Karjakin. Featuring…
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Site Changes and Benasque Open
Sorry if today you tried to check out the website but failed, I changed a password which meant the Web Host Server got confused! You’ll see some website changes over the next week and hopefully you’ll enjoy the layout more. Fingers cross there won’t be any problems with the website and it’ll be a smooth…
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What’s On
MAY 2012 TWIC is very good at keeping up to date with the latest tournaments on calendars, but there are some that are still missed. From now on, at the beginning of each month, I’ll include a list of up and coming tournaments that you should keep an eye out on. This will be mainly…
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Back in New Zealand!
Hello again everybody. After a few days in Malaysia eating delicious noodles and pork buns, we arrived into New Zealand very early Wednesday morning. A day spent with Andrew, Sue’s brother in the Sylvia Park shopping mall and some Burger Fuel before Sue and I flew to Wellington for the start of our roadtrip down…
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The London Classic – A delayed posting
UPDATE: Sue figured out the problem and now we have a pgn viewer back. I’d be in a lot of trouble without her! EDIT: At the moment I can’t get any of my pgn viewers to work so I’ll have to wait for my admin (Sue) to get back from work. Please bear with me!…
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European Team Championships – Porto Carras
Hello all. Apologies for not updating during the tournament but I had very little time and the internet was sporadic at best. I started this before the last round, which I didn’t think I was going to play, but the situation changed and in the end I played all nine. I had the 4ncl straightaway…
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Corsica – Round nine and knockout
Friday morning I had White against Bulgarian GM Ivan Cheparinov. I again used the repertoire in my How to Beat the Sicilian. We actually followed a line from the first game in the entire book! He deviated at move nine but I followed the same plan. I reached a position with more space and a…
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Corsica – Round One
This evening I played the opening round of the Corsica Masters. I was up against a kid from Switzerland: Alexis Skouvaklis, which sounds like he has Greek roots. I was Black and wheeled out the Dragon. This was actually my first pure Dragon since the draw with Mickey Adams at the British but I keep…
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My Bundesliga Début
This weekend I travelled to Cologne-Bonn airport to make my first appearance for SC Remagen. Our manager, Peter Noras, kindly met me at the airport despite feeling unwell and gave me a lift to our headquarters in Andernach. We stayed the night there and then were ferried across the 120km or so to Mulheim where…
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Mátar
We arrived back in England earlier today and, after a slight delay at the airport picking up an errant scarf, I travelled home and Sue off to work. We were both rather exhausted as we managed less than five hours sleep last night (in search of the errant Northern Lights but Sue will expand on…