Preparation for Hereford was somewhat marred by the fact that I went to Liverpool last night to see friends and it ended up being a bit of a pissup - I had intended to make sure I had an early night so I could drive down here to Hereford and play OK, but in the end we were on the beers until 2am last night. We had some very nice curry and then went to a couple of good real ale pubs and a rather dubious pick-up bar. And when we got back to my friend's house we cracked open the wine...
Consequently, I didn't get up this morning until 9.40 and I didn't leave until gone 11. Being a bank holiday weekend , the roads were a bit rammed as well, and so I was starting to think I wasn't going to make it to Hereford on time. I texted Colin, who is playing in this tournament as well, and discovered that the game didn't start until 3, so in the end I wasn't all that late.
The event is being held in a school here in Hereford, and its quite a good venue. Nice grounds and a pleasant hall. It's quite a small tournament and seems well organised.
I turned up 15 minutes late and found that I was sitting next to Colin so I could watch his game. I was playing against a woman with a very low rating. It turned out afterwards that she had several family members in the tournament and they were all camping in a camper van in the car-park. Colin was up against an old chap who played a very boring opening.
My game went pretty well - the opening was dull but I got a good enough position out of it. Then she missed a tactic. All my recent tactics work must have paid off because I saw it and managed to win a piece and from then on it was all over fairly quickly with an efficient win. Not the hardest game I've ever played but wins like that are good for the confidence. Colin got into a good position, thought he saw a winning tactic but missed a saving move for his opponent and so ended up losing unfortunately.
We had a little walk and a talk and then headed to the hotel. We got ourselves sorted out here in this hotel which is very nice and then headed to a Thai restaurant round the corner where we had a nice meal and played through the games. I had a pork stir fry curry dish. After that we hit a couple of pubs. In the first one i had a pint of cider. There was a retriever with a teddy bear in its mouth and the clientele was a bit rough and ready so we moved on. The next pub was nicer. There was a singer who sang a lot of gay anthems, so much so that Colin became convinced that it was a gay pub. The beer was nice - they brewed their own. We had 3 games of chess and piqued the interest of the girl at the next table. We were both in quite good form and the games went well.
And that was that - now we are back in the hotel room and its time for bed. At least it was quite a good start to the new season, getting an efficient win under my belt.
Saturday, 29 August 2009
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Grange over Sands continued ..
June 9th
Things turned out much better at Grage over Sands after my bad start on Friday night.
Friday
Fortunately I didnt get all that drunk on Friday. Geoff and I were staying in Lancaster and I had to drive usback so I couldn't drink more than a pint at the hotel. We just had a glass of wine while I was putting my gamein the computer, and then went to bed.
Saturday
There were a few problems at the B&B. There was an electrical failure, the fire alarm was bleeping non-stop andthe shower didn't work, so we had to have the old "sink baths" in the morning like my Grandmother did in the War. I hurriedly had some breakfast and then headed off to drive back to Grange. Half-way there I realised I'd not handed back the room key!
I got to the venue about 10 minutes late and discoverd that I was drawn against a blind player.
I've never played a blind person before though I've often seen them at tournaments before. They have a special set and they sit and feel the positions with their hands. The opponents call out their moves and the blind players use a tape recorder to record their moves. This chap was very nice and friendly. As the game went on, I started to feel as though it was a collaberative effort to make sure we didn't make a mistake with the position, more than a competitivechess game!
It must be amazingly hard to appreciate all the nuances and complexities of a chess game when you have to *feel*the pieces - most of us can't manage it with the benefit of full vision! - and before long I was a piece up becausemy opponent had missed the fact that in the middle of a series of exchanges I had an intermezzo check, thus winning a rook. After that it wasn't long before he resigned. I felt a bit bad beating a blind player , but then Im sure they dont want sympathy or special treatment, just an honest game.
Anyway it was a very short game and so I had time to drive all the way back to Lancaster to hand back the room key. The woman was very grateful - Geoff said she'd been rather stressed and annoyed in the morning with all the thigns that had gone wrong. Amusingly , she thought that Geoff and I were a gay couple I think: She was talking to me about the things he'd said to her that morning and kept referring to him as "your partner". We had shared a roombut since it had had twin beds, if we were a gay couple we were a very modest one!
I had a cup of tea and read the paper, a chance to enjoy the Labour party's drubbing the local elections, and thenheaded back. Dave had finished his game by then and so we had a drink and a chat.
In the afternoon I was playing another low-rated player, an older chap, but he proved a resiliant opponant. He playedvery passively in the opening, playing both a6 and h6 within the first 5 moves, but was good in the middle game andhad an edge for a while - in fact there were times when I felt really up against it and had to dig deep to find defences to some of his threats. In the end however he dropped a pawn and then his position fell apart very quickly and I managed to win on about move 50. Dave pointed out afterwards that shortly before the end I'd missed a way towin his Queen, but it was won by then so I won't hold that against myself.
I went through my games with Dave and had a pint. It has been a very long time since I'd won 2 games in one day! Both my opponents were very low-rated (54 and 47) so really no other result should have been expected, but thats noguarantee of victory as I have learnt - the guy I lost to on the first evening was rated 38!
In the evening I was staying at Geoff's place, so I drove 70 miles north to his house just south of the SCottishborder. I had a pleasant evening with him and his 2 girls, until they went to bed and he and I watched Gladiator anddrank rather more ice-cold vodka than I should have had in the middle of a chess tournament! I slept in a sleepingbag on the floor, and woke up at 7am without too much of a hangover.
Things turned out much better at Grage over Sands after my bad start on Friday night.
Friday
Fortunately I didnt get all that drunk on Friday. Geoff and I were staying in Lancaster and I had to drive usback so I couldn't drink more than a pint at the hotel. We just had a glass of wine while I was putting my gamein the computer, and then went to bed.
Saturday
There were a few problems at the B&B. There was an electrical failure, the fire alarm was bleeping non-stop andthe shower didn't work, so we had to have the old "sink baths" in the morning like my Grandmother did in the War. I hurriedly had some breakfast and then headed off to drive back to Grange. Half-way there I realised I'd not handed back the room key!
I got to the venue about 10 minutes late and discoverd that I was drawn against a blind player.
I've never played a blind person before though I've often seen them at tournaments before. They have a special set and they sit and feel the positions with their hands. The opponents call out their moves and the blind players use a tape recorder to record their moves. This chap was very nice and friendly. As the game went on, I started to feel as though it was a collaberative effort to make sure we didn't make a mistake with the position, more than a competitivechess game!
It must be amazingly hard to appreciate all the nuances and complexities of a chess game when you have to *feel*the pieces - most of us can't manage it with the benefit of full vision! - and before long I was a piece up becausemy opponent had missed the fact that in the middle of a series of exchanges I had an intermezzo check, thus winning a rook. After that it wasn't long before he resigned. I felt a bit bad beating a blind player , but then Im sure they dont want sympathy or special treatment, just an honest game.
Anyway it was a very short game and so I had time to drive all the way back to Lancaster to hand back the room key. The woman was very grateful - Geoff said she'd been rather stressed and annoyed in the morning with all the thigns that had gone wrong. Amusingly , she thought that Geoff and I were a gay couple I think: She was talking to me about the things he'd said to her that morning and kept referring to him as "your partner". We had shared a roombut since it had had twin beds, if we were a gay couple we were a very modest one!
I had a cup of tea and read the paper, a chance to enjoy the Labour party's drubbing the local elections, and thenheaded back. Dave had finished his game by then and so we had a drink and a chat.
In the afternoon I was playing another low-rated player, an older chap, but he proved a resiliant opponant. He playedvery passively in the opening, playing both a6 and h6 within the first 5 moves, but was good in the middle game andhad an edge for a while - in fact there were times when I felt really up against it and had to dig deep to find defences to some of his threats. In the end however he dropped a pawn and then his position fell apart very quickly and I managed to win on about move 50. Dave pointed out afterwards that shortly before the end I'd missed a way towin his Queen, but it was won by then so I won't hold that against myself.
I went through my games with Dave and had a pint. It has been a very long time since I'd won 2 games in one day! Both my opponents were very low-rated (54 and 47) so really no other result should have been expected, but thats noguarantee of victory as I have learnt - the guy I lost to on the first evening was rated 38!
In the evening I was staying at Geoff's place, so I drove 70 miles north to his house just south of the SCottishborder. I had a pleasant evening with him and his 2 girls, until they went to bed and he and I watched Gladiator anddrank rather more ice-cold vodka than I should have had in the middle of a chess tournament! I slept in a sleepingbag on the floor, and woke up at 7am without too much of a hangover.
Monday, 24 August 2009
Wakefield v Netherton
Here is the report of the rest of the Grange over Sands event. Sorry its been a while coming. With it being summer, and the close season, chess hasn't been on my mind. That will all change with the first tournament of the 2009-10 season starting. I am going to be playing at Hereford, a tournament I've not taken part in before. This will be a special event as well because Colin is going to be playing in it - his first long play tournament in a couple of years I think.
I did in fact play in one chess game over the past couple of months, a one-off match between Netherton, my village and Wakefield, which is held every year. Netherton, despite being just a little village, normally wins, but we had lost last year and so we wanted to regain the trophy. It was played at Wakefield's home venue which is a sports club - the chess is played in the bowling club groundsman's sheds, which is a slightly unusual venue even by chess standards, as there are mowing machines and bags of grass fertiliser between the tables.
I managed to win my game - my opponent was one of these old chaps with a healthy disregard for opening theory, whos play seemed to move between passivity and bravado. When I tell you that the game began
1 d3 d5
2 c3 e5
3 Nd2 c5
4 e4 Nf6
5 h3 Be7
6 a3 o-o
7 g4
I think you will see what I mean. Like usual when people play bizarre stuff like that, it was frustrating because even though I knew objectively it was wrong it was hard to wear him down and the Kingside pawns were always a problem.
When I was going to the bar for a beer, one of my team members told me that if I kept it tight I would win in the end-game, this chap being notoriously bad at endings. And so it proved - I eventually won a pawn in a tactic and won easily in the endgame when he seemed to lose the will to carry on.
Nice to get a win anyway.
Now here's the next episode of the Grange-over-Sands story from June.
Lancaster, Saturday June 6th
A familiar traumatic defeat against a weak player last night. My opponent was a very shy-looking weedy youth of about 20who didn't look me in the eye or interact with me in any way throughout. His rating was 38, which I think is about 600 in ELO terms, so should in theory have been an easy win, though it never works out that way.
The game was very slow and fairly dull. I was White in a Dutch. He took no risks and I built up slowly to a small positionaladvantage, as I almost always seem to against weaker players. Dave Stephenson was there by this time, spectating, and hewas able to watch my game as it got to a denouement.
As always seems to happen, just as I was getting into a good position and about to administer the coup de gras, it all crashed horribly and I got mated.
Bit of a nightmare.
On the plus side, the venue is very nice, an old Victorian hotel overlooking the bay at Grange over sands. Faded 19thcentury grandeur and now rather down-at-heel, like so many of our seaside towns - but not grim like Blackpool; rathermore genteel and understated. I had quite a nice turkey sandwich during the game.
Precepts-wise I did ok - no beer, no early resignations or anything. Just the classic problem of messing up a won position. Im not too sure what I do to rectify that.
Time for breakfast now.
I did in fact play in one chess game over the past couple of months, a one-off match between Netherton, my village and Wakefield, which is held every year. Netherton, despite being just a little village, normally wins, but we had lost last year and so we wanted to regain the trophy. It was played at Wakefield's home venue which is a sports club - the chess is played in the bowling club groundsman's sheds, which is a slightly unusual venue even by chess standards, as there are mowing machines and bags of grass fertiliser between the tables.
I managed to win my game - my opponent was one of these old chaps with a healthy disregard for opening theory, whos play seemed to move between passivity and bravado. When I tell you that the game began
1 d3 d5
2 c3 e5
3 Nd2 c5
4 e4 Nf6
5 h3 Be7
6 a3 o-o
7 g4
I think you will see what I mean. Like usual when people play bizarre stuff like that, it was frustrating because even though I knew objectively it was wrong it was hard to wear him down and the Kingside pawns were always a problem.
When I was going to the bar for a beer, one of my team members told me that if I kept it tight I would win in the end-game, this chap being notoriously bad at endings. And so it proved - I eventually won a pawn in a tactic and won easily in the endgame when he seemed to lose the will to carry on.
Nice to get a win anyway.
Now here's the next episode of the Grange-over-Sands story from June.
Lancaster, Saturday June 6th
A familiar traumatic defeat against a weak player last night. My opponent was a very shy-looking weedy youth of about 20who didn't look me in the eye or interact with me in any way throughout. His rating was 38, which I think is about 600 in ELO terms, so should in theory have been an easy win, though it never works out that way.
The game was very slow and fairly dull. I was White in a Dutch. He took no risks and I built up slowly to a small positionaladvantage, as I almost always seem to against weaker players. Dave Stephenson was there by this time, spectating, and hewas able to watch my game as it got to a denouement.
As always seems to happen, just as I was getting into a good position and about to administer the coup de gras, it all crashed horribly and I got mated.
Bit of a nightmare.
On the plus side, the venue is very nice, an old Victorian hotel overlooking the bay at Grange over sands. Faded 19thcentury grandeur and now rather down-at-heel, like so many of our seaside towns - but not grim like Blackpool; rathermore genteel and understated. I had quite a nice turkey sandwich during the game.
Precepts-wise I did ok - no beer, no early resignations or anything. Just the classic problem of messing up a won position. Im not too sure what I do to rectify that.
Time for breakfast now.
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