I had to curtail my usual over expenditure on books while travelling, as the excess weight charges on my luggage may have killed me. However there a no such restrictions on what I can take on the bus, which is good news, as the Canberra Lifeline Bookfair is on tomorrow.
While I did not deliberately time my return from overseas to make sure I could attend, it is indeed fortuitous scheduling. So I'll be up early in the morning, hopefully to snap up whatever chess books are on offer. If not, the fall back is always IT and maths, and failing that, whatever randomness peaks my interest.
Thursday, 9 February 2017
Wednesday, 8 February 2017
Back to base
After 2 moths away, Harry and I are finally back in Australia (although our luggage may not be). We seem to have missed the absolute worst of the summer, although it is forecast to be 38 degrees in Canberra, just in time for my return to Street Chess.
The trip back was quite good, aided by some good luck. For the Abu Dhabi leg, Harry and I ended up being upgraded to Business Class, which was a practice that I had assumed was almost extinct (as airlines often offer business class upgrades on an auction basis). This made what is normally the toughest part of the trip quite pleasant, as we were able to sleep for a lot of the trip.
Now that I'm back there is a lot of catching up to do. A couple of big events are coming up in the near future (ACT Championships, Dubbo and O2C Doeberl Cup), as well as some other chess activities (ACCQ, ACTJCL). And of course now the holiday is over, work starts again on Monday. But for now, some sleep, some writing and a lot of recovering.
The trip back was quite good, aided by some good luck. For the Abu Dhabi leg, Harry and I ended up being upgraded to Business Class, which was a practice that I had assumed was almost extinct (as airlines often offer business class upgrades on an auction basis). This made what is normally the toughest part of the trip quite pleasant, as we were able to sleep for a lot of the trip.
Now that I'm back there is a lot of catching up to do. A couple of big events are coming up in the near future (ACT Championships, Dubbo and O2C Doeberl Cup), as well as some other chess activities (ACCQ, ACTJCL). And of course now the holiday is over, work starts again on Monday. But for now, some sleep, some writing and a lot of recovering.
Monday, 6 February 2017
Last day away
Today is my last day in the UK. Flying out of London this evening, and will be back in Australia in around 40 hours. Its been an interesting two months away, with a lot of chess, a lot of travelling, and a lot of full English breakfast's. I made a number of new friends, while catching up with a lot of old ones.
Of course regular readers of this blog have had an idea of how the last two months went (from a chess point of view). I did get to a number of events I've always wanted to attend, and while my results weren't great, I did enjoy being there.
Speaking of results I think I ended up with 4 wins, 10 draws and 8 losses in my long time control games. I dropped around 60 rating points as a result, which I've decided to blame on turning 50! I did a little better at blitz, scoring 4/5 in the one tournament I played in to come 2nd.
I also directed (or helped direct) a few events. Being an assistant arbiter at Hastings was a highlight, while being part of the team at the LCC Rapid (450 players) was informative. I also picked up a different perspective on how events can be organised, and may try and bring some ideas back to Australia.
Overall it was a worthwhile trip and one I can recommend to other players. Based on the results of my son Harry, for young Australian players, try it before you turn 18 (to pick up the 40 k factor for your rating), while for older players, remember, it is still a holiday.
Of course regular readers of this blog have had an idea of how the last two months went (from a chess point of view). I did get to a number of events I've always wanted to attend, and while my results weren't great, I did enjoy being there.
Speaking of results I think I ended up with 4 wins, 10 draws and 8 losses in my long time control games. I dropped around 60 rating points as a result, which I've decided to blame on turning 50! I did a little better at blitz, scoring 4/5 in the one tournament I played in to come 2nd.
I also directed (or helped direct) a few events. Being an assistant arbiter at Hastings was a highlight, while being part of the team at the LCC Rapid (450 players) was informative. I also picked up a different perspective on how events can be organised, and may try and bring some ideas back to Australia.
Overall it was a worthwhile trip and one I can recommend to other players. Based on the results of my son Harry, for young Australian players, try it before you turn 18 (to pick up the 40 k factor for your rating), while for older players, remember, it is still a holiday.
Sunday, 5 February 2017
2017 Gibraltar - Best Game
One tradition that still continues in some the UK events I visited or played at was the awarding of a "Best Game" prize. This was done at Hastings, and was also done at Gibraltar. In Australia it used to happen on occasion, but fell by the wayside as there were often not enough nominations, and not enough qualified judges.
In such a big event as Gibraltar I'm not sure how they found the time to check all the games, as there were a number of brilliant games played. Having on site commentators probably helped, as Simon Williams and Jovanka Houska featured the best games from each round, often bringing the winner in for an interview. Even then I saw 2 or 3 games a round that could easily have won such a prize in a smaller event, so making a final decision seemed difficult.
In the end the winner was Veselin Topalov's win over Bogdan-Daniel Deac (if I heard the announcement correctly that is). At the time I first saw it it looked spectacular, and the judge(s) obviously agreed. Topalov allowed Deac to get a black pawn all the way to c2 (forking rooks) but it was all to late as Toplaov had calculated a massive win of material due to the threat of mate on the bank rank. And all in 25 moves.
Topalov,Veselin (2739) - Deac,Bogdan-Daniel (2572) [E04]
Tradewise Masters 2017 Caleta Hotel, Gibraltar (5.12), 28.01.2017
In such a big event as Gibraltar I'm not sure how they found the time to check all the games, as there were a number of brilliant games played. Having on site commentators probably helped, as Simon Williams and Jovanka Houska featured the best games from each round, often bringing the winner in for an interview. Even then I saw 2 or 3 games a round that could easily have won such a prize in a smaller event, so making a final decision seemed difficult.
In the end the winner was Veselin Topalov's win over Bogdan-Daniel Deac (if I heard the announcement correctly that is). At the time I first saw it it looked spectacular, and the judge(s) obviously agreed. Topalov allowed Deac to get a black pawn all the way to c2 (forking rooks) but it was all to late as Toplaov had calculated a massive win of material due to the threat of mate on the bank rank. And all in 25 moves.
Topalov,Veselin (2739) - Deac,Bogdan-Daniel (2572) [E04]
Tradewise Masters 2017 Caleta Hotel, Gibraltar (5.12), 28.01.2017
Friday, 3 February 2017
2017 Gibraltar Masters - Day 10
The 2017 Gibraltar Masters had two dramatic finishes on the final day, one almost at the start of the round, and one at the end. Women's World Champion Hou Yifan (CHN) decided to protest her pairings in an unusual way, by losing against GM Lalith (IND) in 5 movers. 1.g4, 2.f3 were her starting moves, and the game was all over soon after. She was unhappy about being paired with so many female opponents in the tournament (7 from 10 games) and felt that their was something not right about how the pairings were determined. The general consensus at the event was that it was a silly protest, her claims were easily disprovable (and have been by independent sources), and that now this is what the 2017 event will be remembered for (NB The Gibraltar Masters has the largest prize pool for female players in any open in the world)
With that out of the way, interest turned to who would survive the final round. GM Michael Adams (ENG) drew with GM David Anton (ESP) to leave Anton on 8/10. Wins by Nakamura and Yangyi Yu also left them on 8, while Gelfand, Vachier Lagrave and Cheperinov fell short after drawing their games. This meant there was to be a playoff, with Yi and Nakamura playing first with the winner then playing Anton (who had the best tie-break). Nakamura and Yi drew the first 2 rapid games, before Nakamura won the blitz tie break 2-0. Then in the final Nakamura and Anton drew the first rapid games, before Nakamura claimed first prize by winning the second.
This is Nakamura's 4th win of this event, including wins last year and this. The tournament concluded with a well attended prize giving dinner, and lots of supportive speeches from the tournament sponsors, and the Gibraltar government. So for those thinking about playing this wonderful event, it will be on next year, but if you want to play in the Masters, you need to get your entry in early.
With that out of the way, interest turned to who would survive the final round. GM Michael Adams (ENG) drew with GM David Anton (ESP) to leave Anton on 8/10. Wins by Nakamura and Yangyi Yu also left them on 8, while Gelfand, Vachier Lagrave and Cheperinov fell short after drawing their games. This meant there was to be a playoff, with Yi and Nakamura playing first with the winner then playing Anton (who had the best tie-break). Nakamura and Yi drew the first 2 rapid games, before Nakamura won the blitz tie break 2-0. Then in the final Nakamura and Anton drew the first rapid games, before Nakamura claimed first prize by winning the second.
This is Nakamura's 4th win of this event, including wins last year and this. The tournament concluded with a well attended prize giving dinner, and lots of supportive speeches from the tournament sponsors, and the Gibraltar government. So for those thinking about playing this wonderful event, it will be on next year, but if you want to play in the Masters, you need to get your entry in early.
Thursday, 2 February 2017
2017 Gibraltar Masters - Day 9
All the way through the tournament I've kind of thought that GM David Anton Guijarro (ESP) was a bit of a 'surprise packet', whose time at the top was soon to end. But with 1 round left to play, Anton Guijarro is actually the outright leader of the tournament.
Today he dispatched Veselin Topalov (BUL) while his closes rivals drew. He is up against Michael Adams tomorrow, and a draw is at least a guaranteed share of first place. His current TPR is 2878 and is picking up a bag load of rating points. Hoping that Adams gets something from the game is the group of players on 7/9. With 8/10 being the minimum winning score (it could be 8.5), Gelfand, Vachier-Lagrave, Nakamura, Romain, Yu, Ju and Cheparinov are hoping both to win and for Anton Guijarro not to.
There were a couple of disappointed Australian players in this round, with IM Bobby Cheng losing to GM Andrei Istratescu and FM Zachary Loh drawing with Peter Korning. Cheng's loss puts paid to his chances of a GM norm, while even Loh's opponent thought that the fact he escaped proves there is 'no justice' in chess.
I scored my second win of the tournament after my opponent gave me too many good squares for my pieces. This puts me on 3.5/9 which was my target score at the start of my trip. While the game wasn't perfect, it was at least an improvement on my previous couple of rounds.
Tomorrow sees an early start for the last round 11am local time, 9pm Canberra time. If you haven't been able to watch any of the tournament coverage up until now, take advantage of this to catch the online commentary. It is well worth it.
Koes,Richard - Press,Shaun [C55]
2017 Gibraltar Masters (9), 01.02.2017
Today he dispatched Veselin Topalov (BUL) while his closes rivals drew. He is up against Michael Adams tomorrow, and a draw is at least a guaranteed share of first place. His current TPR is 2878 and is picking up a bag load of rating points. Hoping that Adams gets something from the game is the group of players on 7/9. With 8/10 being the minimum winning score (it could be 8.5), Gelfand, Vachier-Lagrave, Nakamura, Romain, Yu, Ju and Cheparinov are hoping both to win and for Anton Guijarro not to.
There were a couple of disappointed Australian players in this round, with IM Bobby Cheng losing to GM Andrei Istratescu and FM Zachary Loh drawing with Peter Korning. Cheng's loss puts paid to his chances of a GM norm, while even Loh's opponent thought that the fact he escaped proves there is 'no justice' in chess.
I scored my second win of the tournament after my opponent gave me too many good squares for my pieces. This puts me on 3.5/9 which was my target score at the start of my trip. While the game wasn't perfect, it was at least an improvement on my previous couple of rounds.
Tomorrow sees an early start for the last round 11am local time, 9pm Canberra time. If you haven't been able to watch any of the tournament coverage up until now, take advantage of this to catch the online commentary. It is well worth it.
Koes,Richard - Press,Shaun [C55]
2017 Gibraltar Masters (9), 01.02.2017
Wednesday, 1 February 2017
2017 Gibraltar Masters - Day 8
Normally the leading pack in chess events gets smaller after each round, but round 8 of the Gibraltar Masters saw it increase by one. All 4 of the overnight leaders drew with each other, and so were joined by Veselin Topalov, who beat Emil Sutovsky to reach 6.5. There were also quite a lot of other drawn games today. so the next group down also seemed to get bigger. The all England pairing of Adams and Short was short (and drawn), as was the Cheparinov Stefanova pairing, but the all Chinese pairing of Ju and Hou ended in a win for Ju. Fabiano Caruna also played himself back into contention with a win over GN Gopal, whole IM Bobby Cheng kept his GM norm chances afloat with a win over WGM Petra Papp. A win over GM Istratescu in round 9 will probably do it, or a draw followed by a round 10 win (depending on his opponent).
Down at the far end of the field, I'm stumbling towards the finish line with a mixtures of draws and losses. Yesterdays game was one of those late tournament efforts where I saw very little and lost miserably, while today I chose the wrong plan and had to really dig in to save half a point. While I'm still looking for 3/3.5 points (which was my target score), I may do it an a fairly ugly manner.
Down at the far end of the field, I'm stumbling towards the finish line with a mixtures of draws and losses. Yesterdays game was one of those late tournament efforts where I saw very little and lost miserably, while today I chose the wrong plan and had to really dig in to save half a point. While I'm still looking for 3/3.5 points (which was my target score), I may do it an a fairly ugly manner.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)