The Russian commute

I've realised than when I travel to overseas chess events, I'm more of a commuter than a tourist. This was certainly the case in getting to Khanty-Mansiysk, which took around 2 days of planes, trains and airports.
The trip itself was largely uneventful, except for a bit of a detour on the Moscow Metro system where I confused north and south and started by heading away from Sheremetyevo Airport, before realising what I had done!
The 1am flight from Moscow to Khanty was full of sleeping chess players, including Ian and Cathy Rogers, who are here to cover the first week of the World Cup. For anyone who played at the 2010 Olympiad, the Olympic Hotel (where most teams stayed) is still the same as it was, including the downstairs bar that was popular with a lot of us.
The opening ceremony for the World Cup is this evening, with the first round starting tomorrow. According to the schedule the rounds are at 3pm, which is 8pm Canberra time. I face top seed Ding Liren in the first round, although the drawing of colors has not taken place yet, so I do not know if I am white or black. With the usual security restrictions in place, I won't be taking my phone to the venue, so any updates from me will have to wait until I get back from the venue.

Time to move on

Today is my last day in the Solomon Islands. I've had an enjoyable 5 days , running a FIDE Arbiters course, but now it is time to move on.
I am off to the World Cup, which involves travel for the next 2 days. First stop is Brisbane, then Dubai, Moscow and finally Khanty. My plan is to do a lot of sleeping on the plane, although I'm not convinced I will be successful. Depending on my results in the first round, I will probably be heading back by the end of next week, just in time to run a few local school events in Canberra!

2019 ACT Rapid Teams Event

The first local (ACT) teams event for a number of years is being organised by the ACT Chess Association with the help of the ACT Junior Chess League. It is open to everyone, regardless of age, and is being held on Saturday the 22nd September 2019. The venue is Campbell High School (next to the War Memorial) and will be a 7 round event played with a time limit of 15m+5s increment.
Teams will consist of 4 players, with an average rating of no more than 1600. This will hopefully make the tournament more competitive, with no "superstar" teams dominating the competition. Of course the rating limit may require a bit of strategic thinking, as it may be the case that a team of 1550's across 4 boards might do better than a team of 2x2000+2x1200.
The local ACT Clubs will also be competing for the Larko Cup, which will be awarded to the best team from a single club. The tournament starts at 10am (registration from 9:30), and even if you don't have a full team, you can still organise one on the day. It will be FIDE rated, and surplus funds will support the Australian Schools Teams Championship being held in Canberra later this year.
Full details can be found on the tournament brochure here.

Really long castling

I've been trying to keep an eye on the Chess960 from St Louis while running an Arbiters Seminar in the Solomon Islands. While I'm not a big fan of the format (at least in serious competitions) it does have its moments. In one of the early games, the start position had the kings on c1/c8 with rooks on either side. The games looked pretty normal, until most of the back rank had been cleared, when suddenly the kings moved from the c file to the g file, dragging the d rook with them. While legal in Chess960, it still came as a bit of a surprise.

How to be a millionaire

Chess has hit the finance pages with news that Magnus Carlsen has bought the chess training site Chessable for 1 million pounds. Carlsen, who already has the successful 'Play Magnus' app, looks to be branching out into other areas of chess business. For developers this is also a good sign as it does demonstrate that a well designed and popular website or app is worth investing in. It may also spark the growth of new innovation in this area, as people search for the next big (and profitable) thing.

Ten years later

The first leg of my latest overseas journey is underway. After a gap of 10 years I am heading back to the Solomon Islands, to run a FIDE Arbiters seminar. Last time I was there (in September 2009) I was playing in the Solomon Islands International, which I was fortunate enough to win.
With the Solomon Islands hosting the 2020 Oceania Under 20's Championship, the Oceania Chess Confederation and the Solomon Islands Chess Federation have organised a 3 day seminar in Honiara to help train up more local arbiters. It's been a few years since I last helped run an arbiters seminar, but apart from significant changes to the FIDE Fair Play guidelines (AKA Anti-Cheating) most of the rules and regulations are pretty much the same.
Checking on my old posts from 2009 I noted that I was able to send regular updates from Honiara, so I expect to be able to do the same this time.

Surprising little rules

I'm off to run an Arbiters Seminar in the Solomon Islands this week, and have been going through old exam papers and lectures notes. While double checking the recent changes to the Laws of Chess, I was reminded of an old, but possibly overlooked rule. In the case of a capture, your move has not been 'made' until you release the captured piece from your hand. As a result, pressing your clock with a captured piece is actually illegal.

(** Update: As has been pointed out in the comments section my reading skills need some work, in that I read 'capturing' as 'captured'. So please ignore everything in this post)