A win for the team

 Quite unexpectedly I was called up for a league match in the Woodhouse Cup (Yorkshire) today. One of the reasons it was unexpected as I was enjoying my holiday in London, and the venue was Harrogate which is a good 3 hours by train away.

Nonetheless I fronted up for Leeds, against the home team, for a match which was to be played over 8 boards. I landed on board 6, although my opponent was rated about the same as me. In the end we were the last to finish, and I recorded the only win form Leeds. It was a tough day our for the rest of the team, as we went down 1.5-6.5. 

My game was typical of the tough English chess I've come across in previous visits, and I had to work hard for the win. I thought I was better for most of the game, but one poor move threw the result into doubt, although in mutual time trouble, my opponent made one poor move which allowed me to set up a mating attack. I would like to show the game, but the weird time limit of G/110m+10s meant that the last 30 moves are missing. I have attempted to reconstruct them (to find the numerous missed mates) but I have been unsuccessful.

The spectator experience

 Watching live chess normally involves just wandering up to a board and standing next to it for a while. That of course is most common in weekend or casual events. It is a bit harder to have a similar experience when watching the worlds top players.

In the case of the Global Chess League, spectators could follow the games from the stands, while watching the moves displayed on a screen hanging from the roof. Unfortunately in both cases, if you were seated too far back it was a little harder to follow the action. The ban on phone usage during the round, as sensible as it was, meant you couldn't follow the moves on a personal device, which might have been better. 

Despite this I was able to follow enough of the action with my aging eyes to at least get a feel for what was happening. Fortunately the top boards were closer to the spectators so I was able to witness games such as this.

Anand, Viswanathan v Firouzja, Alireza
2024 Global Chess League

2024 Vikings Weekender

 An early call for entries for the 2024 Vikings Weekender. One of three major Canberra weekend events, this years tournament will be from the 15th to17th November at the Vikings Club Erindale. The complete details are

15th to 17th November 2024
6 round FIDE Rated Swiss*
Vikings Club, Erindale, ACT
Time control: 60m + 30s

Open and Under 1600 sections (Both FIDE Rated)
Round 1: Fri 7:00pm Round 2: Sat 10:15am Round 2: Sat 2:15pm Round 4: Sat 6:15pm Round 5: Sun 10:15am Round 6:Sun 2:15pm

1st Prize Open $1000, 1st Prize Minor $500 (All other prizes dependent upon entries)

Entry fee: $65 ($45 Junior/Concession) GM, IM, WGM, WIM free

Maximum of 60 players - Max 24 players in Open, Max 36 players in Under 1600

Erindale Vikings is a Licenced club.  Players under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult at all times in the upstairs gaming and bar areas.  Please also note that bar/meals service will not be available until 11am.

Online booking: https://www.trybooking.com/CWDSG

Lost skills

 One of the 'highlights' of Day 2 of the Global Chess League were a couple of games decided by time scrambles. With no increment for the games (G/20m being the time limit), flagging the opponent was part of the game strategy. This was combined with pieces being knocked over, players 'pre-moving' and the onsite spectators not being sure exactly what happened at the end. Online comments were generally negative, with a number of posters arguing that this wasn't 'real' chess. But I would argue that the problem isn't the format, but the age of the players.

Since the late 1990's, most chess has been played with increments, and this isn't a bad thing. But on the other hand, chess prior to that did not involve increments, and players just coped with this. Certainly the arbiters had to work a lot harder, but at the same time, the players also knew what the process was. In fact I still organise sudden death blitz and rapid events, and by and large, every (a) knows the process concerning illegal moves and positions and (b) accepts the outcome. So much so, that when it has been suggested we change to increments at Street Chess (13m+2s) this has rejected by the majority of regular players, on the well grounded reasoning of 'where is the fun in that'

Global Chess League 2

 I took the opportunity to drop into the Global Chess League event, which is currently being held in London. As I had no official role in the event, I donned my invisible tourist hat, and watched the action from the spectator gallery.

Borrowing heavily from T20 cricket (both in format and coverage) the event has a couple of interesting rules. Each team plays the other teams twice. However the colour for the first match is decided by coin toss, and then reversed for the return match. All gamed for a team are played with the same colour during the match (unlike the Olympiad), and wins with black are worth 4 points, while winning with white earns 3 points (1 for a draw, and 0 for a loss). To win a match a team just has to score more game points. And finally, there is no increment, with the time limit being G/20m.

This last point was particularly important when the Triveni Kings beat the Alpine Pipers where the games on the tops boards were decided by the Alpine players losing on time.

There are a number of other events alongside the main show, including changes to play GM's in blits, and take part in impromptu simuls. I witnessed one of these, which had the most unusual format of a clock tandem simul (G/5m!) across 6 boards. Even the GM's (including Gawain Jones) thought end in disaster, but in the end strength won out with a 6-0 win for the GM's

Zenon Franco Ocampos

 The well known author and GM Zenon Franco Ocampos has passed way at the age of 68. For a long time he was the No. 1 player from Paraguay, and there only GM. Although I first came across him as the author of some high quality chess books, I later discovered his exploits as a player (especially at Olympiads) were equally impressive.

But it was at one Olympiad he did have a remarkable escape. Papua New Guinea were paired against Paraguay in round 1 of the Dresden Olympiad (2008). On Board 1 Franco misplayed the opening an was soon down a rook against Stuart Fancy. Even after recovering a piece he was still in a position where he would have resigned against a higher rated opponent. But luck was on his side after Fancy donated back a rook to a bishop fork, giving Paraguay their expected point.

Fancy, Stuart vs Zenon Franco Ocampos
2008 Chess Olympiad, Round 1, 2008

The joy of train travel

 Post Olympiad I've been traveling back towards the UK via train. Although I have been to Europe plenty of times (for various chess olympiads and meetings), I haven't taken a proper holiday in Europe. So with that in mind, I decided to extend my stay for another month.

The itinerary was Budapest-Vienna-Prague-Berlin-Amsterdam. Each trip was by train, with each journey being longer than the previous one. For example, it is only around 2 hours between Budapest and Vienna, while my trip from Berlin to Amsterdam (today) took almost 12 hours from hotel to hotel!

Traveling by train in Europe is certainly more relaxed than flying. There is less hassle when boarding the train, and you get a better view from the windows. On the other hand it is certainly more chaotic, and often you are left on your own to work out where you need to be.

Today's journey involved changing trains 3 times, and a late arrival meant a missed connection. One of the changes was when we were told that the train we were on was being split in half at the next station, and I found myself in the wrong half. It turned out that almost everyone else was in the same predicament, as the platform was filled with two mobs of people heading in opposite directions, trying to find a seat on the right carriage.

But overall it has been an enjoyable way to see Europe. If the price is right, I do recommend going first class, although I will point out, that on a couple of occasions, no one checked my (or the other passengers) train tickets, so If your willing to risk it, then a self upgrade might work for you.