The Farmer

 I normally avoid talking about my QC work on this blog, mainly because this is not the forum for official discussions or press releases. However, there are times when internal discussions are of a less 'classified; nature, and are of sufficient interest to share.

At the moment a discussion concerning the 'farming' of rating points from events (blitz and rapid mainly) is ongoing. As part of this, I've proposed a definition of 'farming'

It is when a player does the following

(1) Plays a minimum of 5 games in an event

(2) Plays  66% of opponents who are rated 400 points below them

(3) Scores 100% against these opponents

(4) and does not lose any games against the remaining players (wins or draws are OK)

Forfeit wins, byes and default losses do not count

Does this make sense, or is there a better definition?

Who shaves the barber?

 During a tournament game, spectators are not allowed to interfere. They cannot point out illegal moves, alert players to flag-fall, or remind players to press their clocks. If they notice an illegality, they instead can inform the tournament arbiter of what they have seen, and allow the arbiter to take the appropriate action.

So what happens if a spectator sees an illegal move played by a "playing" arbiter, and the illegality isn't noticed/claimed by the opponent? 

Castling very short

 I've only been back two and a half days, and I have already been the arbiter at 2 events. Yesterday was my normal Street Chess event, while today was the ACTJCL Spring Rapid.

As it was a junior event (with some new players), I was trying to keep a close eye on the games, in case anything weird happened. So when I wandered past a game where it was still in the opening, and the White King was on f1 and the White Rook was on e1, I began to suspect something had gone wrong. However the two players seemed unconcerned (despite the rook on e1 pinning a piece to the Black King) so I waited until the end of the game to check what had happened.

It turned out I as right not to involve myself, as the game actually began 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.Nxe5 Qd4 6.Nf3 Qxe4+ 7.Qe2 Qxe2+ 8.Kxe2 Nf6 9.Re1 Be7 10.Kf1 , which matched the position I saw

Sweet home Amaroo

 I am now back in Canberra, and looking forward to running Street Chess tomorrow. The 3 months away certainly had a number of highlights, but to spend the next 3 weeks writing them on this blog would be a little boring. Nonetheless, if you run across me in person, I'm always happy to share a story or two.

Topics may or may not include:

• Sharing a flight to Warsaw with Magnus Carlsen and Hans Neimann
• Running into Hikaru Nakamura and Kris Littlejohn at a London railway station
• Making around 240 chess players very happy at one time
• Making 1 FIDE President unhappy at another time
• Being asked 'Did you used to be a FIDE Master?'
• How I thought I was going to be murdered 'Jonathan Creek' style?
•   How I made an elderly lady's day when discussing Australian immigration policy
• Why there are teeth marks at St Martins Theatre
• How to win $1000 writing about chess

The end of the tour

 After 3 months away from Australia, it is time to head home. Most of my chess activity was related to being an arbiter, as I worked on or ran 5 events over the last 3 months. However I did squeeze in some actual games, playing both tournament and casual chess as I went.

If my memory hasn't failed me I played 18 tournament games during my time away. I managed to win 8, draw 7, and lose 3. I probably played another 10 or so casual games, where I think I won 5 and drew 5. So while not on the same scale as Capablanca's first tour of Europe, I was happy with the results I achieved.

Overall I spent around 30 of the 90 days away engaged chess activities, most of them as a tournament arbiter. While working at the Olympiad was the centerpiece of the trip, playing in the event at Appletreewick was definitely the highlight as a player.

After I get back, I will be straight back into arbiting and playing, with Street Chess this coming Saturday the first event on the calendar.

Stroud Rapidplay

 As I am coming to end of 3 months away from Australia, I thought I would get a little bit more chess in.

Today's event was the Stroud Rapid, played in of all places, Stroud (UK). It was a single section event played with a time limit of 15m+5s. There were around 56 players taking part, and it was a 6 round tournament.

I was seeded 11th in the event, and played to about my seeding, at list in terms of finishing position. In terms of opponents, it was a slightly different story, as all my opponents were rated below me. I started off with a draw and a win, but 3 more draws followed, as I was unable to grind out wins from pretty equal positions. A final round win in a dynamic position lifted me to 4/6. which was enough for a tie for 7th.

The tournament was well run, and played in a pretty relaxed manner. The time control meant there was around and hour between rounds, and with a lunch break thrown in, went for around six and a half hours. Interestingly, the prize structure was pretty flat, with 90 pounds for first, but a lot of 30 pound rating prizes.

If you want to see the final standings you can do so at https://chess-results.com/tnr986767.aspx?lan=1

Road tripping

 Absolutely nothing to do with chess.

I had a great time yesterday taking a road trip with my brother and my niece up to Liverpool to visit the Cavern Club, Strawberry Fields, St Peter's Church Woolton, and various other locations related to the early years of The Beatles.

The weather was dismal, and it was tempting to rush into the barbers shop at the top of Penny Lane, but I resisted the urge to do something so cliched!

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.