It's been a long time

 Sorry for the delay in posting an update. A combination of travel, a bust start to the World Rapid and Blitz Teams event, and no idea how to navigate the ins and outs of Kazakhstan language web pages left me struggling to even log in to blogger.

But I am here in Astana, having arrived on Wednesday afternoon. The reason for my current location is to be an arbiter at the 2024 World Rapid and Blitz Teams event. This is an event for non-national teams, where players (or sponsors) can form their own teams. The only restriction is that for each match of 6 players, a team must have 1 female player and 1 recreational player (some who has never been rated above 2000 on Standard, Rapid or Blitz). The restriction of the format has caused some small issues for myself, as I am handling the tournament pairings, and the rules do effect how teams are seeded.

For the Rapid section (played over 3 days), 38 teams have entered. At the top are some real heavy hitters like WR Chess Team, Chessy, Decade China Team and Al-Ain ACMG UAE. At the other end are the more social, or junior heavy teams, who are here to embrace the fun of the event.

After the first day, Chessy have taken the lead on 8 points (4 match wins). They scored a big win in round 4, beating the top seeds WR Chess Team 5-1, with Richard Rapport beating Magnus Carlsen on the top board. In equal second are Decade China and Al-Ain. Chessy and Decade China will face off in Round 5 as will WR Chess and Al-Ain.

Yesterday was non stop for me. I went over to the venue at 8:30am, assuming that I would have time to get changed and have lunch before the event started at 2:30. I didn't leave the playing hall until after 9pm, once the last round was completed. The arbiting team I am working with are very efficient, making my job a lot easier. As with most events of this type, the short turnaround between rounds can leave little room for error, but in the end we managed. The real test will be on the last day when we are running the Blitz event. With 20 minutes per round (3m+2s being the time limit), it will be interesting to see how we go.