Review of the Year

2009 was something of a mixed year when it comes to chess but at least it ended better than it began.

I played in 14 tournaments during the year, 12 in the UK and two in Ireland. Overall I played 54 tournament games, of which I won 18 lost 22 and drew 14, which is almost respectable.

Here are some quick thoughts about each tournament -

January
Coulsdon -
My bad form from the Hull tournament in November continued. I played at Couldson, near my parents' house in South London, and it was fairly disastrous. I resigned game 1 after blundering badly and losing a pawn on about move 7 (although Dave Stephenson thinks I should have played on, I hate carrying on after I've blundered like that because it spoils the game for me). Game 2 I lost too, though I don't remember anything about it. On the Sunday morning I lost another game I had been ahead in, against Alan Crawford, an old bloke who plays in a thousand tournaments a year. After that I withdrew in disgust.
Played 3, lost 3

Gonzaga -
I went to Gonzaga in Dublin full of high hopes, though I always seem to have a disappointing result there. It's played at a sound boys' school in the Dublin suburbs. Eoghan Maguire was playing too - his first chess tournament. Game 1 I lost after turning down a draw after my opponent had made an unsound sacrifice. His attack turned out to be good and he won. Game 2 I stupidly got a Bishop trapped, and game 3 I also lost though I don't recall anything about it apart from spilling Guinness on the carpet afterwards. After that I withdrew in disgust. My run of defeats was now 9 games out of the last 10. Eoghan lost all his games as well.
Played 3, lost 3

February
Doncaster -
I lost my first game but finally broke the bad run by winning both afternoon games, both times after having lunchtime beers (this becomes something of a theme as the year goes on!). The win in round 5 was quite good against a strong junior in a Grunfeld. Had to take two byes to take Michelle to East Midlands airport.
Played 3 won 2 lost 1

March
Blackpool -
Fairly dreary tournament where I drew a lot of games, though it was nice to stop losing games. Played Jim Johnston who taught me a lot about reading opponents' body language and other psychological matters after our game. I don't remember much about the other games. My main recollection of the tournament was what a hole Blackpool was. The tournament was held in the football stadium which we couldn't find, making us late - Russell Goodfellow wasn't happy. Nights out in Blackpool were not much fun, though I did have quite a nice curry with Dave Stephenson.
Played 4 drew 3 lost 1

Huddersfield -
Another disaster. I had quite a good game in round 1, lost a tight battle. I turned up on Saturday morning to find I had a bye, so went out for a walk. Discovered an absolutely superb pub, The Grove, with a huge selection of real ales and bottled beers from around the world - and even a big selection of malt whiskies and bar snacks. It's a completely wonderful pub but unfortunately indulging there at lunchtime did nothing for my remaining games. At one point I took a juggling break in the garden, much to the disgust of Brendan O'Gorman who felt it displayed a certain lack of grit and determination! In the last round I lost after being a piece up.
Played 4 lost 4

April
Nottingham -
I was staying in Beeston with my friend John. The tournament was staged in the Boys' High School, a good venue. To try and stem the dreadful run of games, I decided to make some precepts to follow, and start writing a 'blog to record my impressions and force myself to keep to them. Thus Nottingham is the first event recorded here. Things didn't look up immediately - at Nottingham I managed to lose my worst game of the year, an astounding blunder against a little girl when I was clearly winning - I missed the fact, astoundingly, that she could simply push a pawn to the 7th rank. My only win was against someone rated 14. I was somewhat distracted by the fact that my Sister was running the London marathon the same day.
Played 4 won 1 lost 2 drew 1

June
Grange-over-Sands
So far in my chess year I had won 3 and lost 14 games out of 21. Fortunately things turned better from this point, and over the remainder of the year I won 15 and lost 11. Grange-over-Sands was the turning point despite the fact that I was doing lots of driving. I stayed the first night in Lancaster and the second with Geoff in Cumbria. Grange-over-Sands is an attractive Victorian town and the tournament was played in a splendid venue - a huge, ramshackle old hotel in rambling grounds. I must stay somewhere nearer the venue next year. I lost my first round game on the Friday night - don't remember anything about it - but then won an unprecedented 4 on the trot. On Saturday morning I played my first game against a blind player. Won again on Saturday afternoon. Took a bye Saturday evening to drive up to Geoff's, 70 miles north. On Sunday morning I drove back and managed to win both my games. The morning game was satisfying because I won against 1 c4 for the first time in my career, and it was the bloke who'd beaten me from a piece down in the last round at Huddersfield. I won my last round game too, and 4.5/6 was enough for a share of 2nd place and a winners cheque which made a nice change. Had a nice walk round the grounds afterwards with Dave.
Played 5 won 4 lost 1

Haywood
I remember very little about this event in a dull suburb of Manchester. It was a very rainy weekend. Russell was playing in it as well. I commuted from home. I lost 2 and also drew 2, both the draws coming from winning positions. The details are all on the 'blog assuming I remembered to write it up.
[Note added later - I see I never even wrote about this event here which shows how nondescript it was].
Played 4 won 2 lost 2

August
Hereford
The highlight of the year was my performance in a u135 event at Hereford. I went with Colin, who made a welcome return to chess. I took a bye in round 1 on the Saturday morning because of having to drive down from Liverpool. The venue was a very nice school. Colin and I stayed in a very sound old town-centre inn, the Green Dragon. We had a couple of nice evenings out without overdoing the beer. The chess went very well - just one of those events when everything went right. I won two games against quite high-rated players (120+) mostly through seeing sharp tactics. I felt that all my work with doing tactics practice and writing the 'blog had finally paid off. I did get one draw, against an old chap who, after the game, told me how to do karate moves and all about his past as a motorcycle daredevil. He won the tournament, after having been trying to win a chess tournament for 50 years apparently. I won £65 for joint 2nd place, a very pleasing result.. Overall it was the perfect chess weekend.
Played 5 won 4 drew 1

September
Bradford
Back to earth with a bump when I did very badly in a dreary tournament in Bradford. Lost another dreadful game to a little girl who scared me into submission with a flawed Kingside attack, much to the disgust of Dave. I also lost a game I should have won against a Russian ex-pat. The only game I won all weekend was against her dad in the final round. The only good thing about the event was that I battled on and didn't quit early as I often did in the past.
Played 4 won 1 lost 3 [I didnt bother writing about this one on the 'blog either it seems].

October
The busiest chess month ever for me, with three important tournaments in 4 weeks.

Galway
Flew to Galway for one of my favourite events of the year, staged in a big hotel overlooking Galway Bay. Morgan Daniels came over for it and Eoghan played again as well. Had a very sound and entertaining weekend with lots of Guinness. The only slight disappointment was the chess. Eoghan, Morgan and I played 15 games between us and only Morgan managed one win out of all those games. Eoghan got his first positive result, with a draw in one game. I drew almost all of mine - 4 draws and 1 loss. None of them stick in the mind very much. In round 1 I played John McKenna who I have played several times before in Ireland and the game petered out into a level draw. The game I lost was to a junior who launched an attack which panicked me but proved on subsequent analysis to be unsound.
Played 5 drew 4 lost 1

Scarborough
I was playing in a very low section so had high hopes of winning some money. As ever, the bottome section isn't as easy as it seems and I lost a very long drawn out battle in round 1 against an unrated player, new to the game. It was a good game, lasted 60 moves and 4 hours and we were among the last to finish. On Saturday morning, I faced my bete noire, a little girl. Went a piece up on move 6, and blundered the piece back on about move 12. Russell was appalled at me! However, she blundered again soon and I went on to win. My most flawed game of the year. Won easily in the afternoon. In the evening I had quite a nice take-away risotto and a few beers with Russell and his friend in a rock pub on the seafront. Drew on Sunday morning against a taciturn Scot - the game was dominated by me worrying about the fact my car had to be moved before noon. I had a couple of pints with Russell at lunchtime and then came back and had a crushing victory in the afternoon, when there was nothing to play for. To my surprise, a week later, I received a cheque for £15 - for a 1/7th share of 4th place!
Played 5 won 3 drew 1 lost 1

Bury St Edmunds
My favourite tournament of the year, Morgan Daniels' home event in the charming town of Bury - played in a wonderful venue, the Corn Exchange in the middle of the town, right next to the Nutshell, the smallest pub in Britain. I was staying a B&B with a rather overbearing landlady but it was a nice place. There were several other chess players there including the Cutmore twins and we all had to share a table at breakfast. Alan Crawford, who beat me up at Coulsdon in January was there too. In the chess I drew in round 1 against a bloke who looked like Lovejoy, then lost a very odd game in round 2, when I launched an uncharacteristically suicidal King-side pawnstorm. Took a bye and had a long analysis session with Morgan in the pub in the evening. Sunday I did much better. Two wins - first against a bloke in a blue race-walking blazer who played 1. g4 agaisnt me, and the second after a pint of beer and a tequila that someone insisted on buying me in the nutshell - I took apart an up and coming junior from Bury. Once again a last round game after a lunchtime drink had gone very well! Morgan had a superb tournament - all his opponents seemed to fold in dramatic style and he came joint top of the Major tournament. After he'd won, we went to the Nutshell for a celebratory drink and had to comfort a first time player who was sitting with his head in his hands talking about how painful it all was. We told him to expect plenty more of the same and that chess brings infinitely more misery than happiness. I'm not sure whether that cheered him up. I stuck around for the prize-giving and then much to my surprise found I'd won a £10 grading prize! My fourth prize of the year.
Played 4 won 2 drew 1 lost 1

November
Preston
Stayed at Chris Welch's place in Preston. This event was never going to be one I was going to take seriously owing to having to go to Birmingham and back in the middle of it for a reunion. Lost in bad style to a tactic in round 1. Won equally quickly in round 2. Took a bye for the Birmingham trip. On Sunday morning I won a flukey game I should have lost, against an Indian student, and on Sunday afternoon I lost a game I was going OK in, when my phone threatened to go off. Chris was so impressed with it all that he's decided to start playing in chess tournaments himself! Welcome to a world of pain.
Played 4 won 2 lost 2

So that's my tournament year - distinctly mixed with some high and low points.

Over the weekend I will post my chess resolutions and goals for 2010 along with my chess awards for 2009. Make sure you read it - you might have won one of the prestigious awards!

Happy New Year to all my readers.

Well that's Christmas over for another year

How was it for you? I had a nice quiet Christmas at my place with Michelle. Chess didn't rear its ugly head which is one of the bonuses of Christmas, though I did get a most unexpected Christmas present from Dave Stephenson - a book on the Nimzo-Larsen "attack" 1. b3. I'm not about to rush out and start playing that, but the book does appear to be amusingly eccentric, with strange chapter headings and commentary. In chapter 1, after several pages on the Daniels-like move 6. Nh3, the author then says "so is this a good move? No. In fact its a bad move"...

I wanted to do a review of the year and talk about my chess goals and resolutions for 2010 but first I realise I still didn't finish the story of the Preston tournament. (Resolution no. 1 = write up chess 'blog within 24 hours of playing!). Its a bit pointless now, since the whole aim of writing here is to capture immediate impressions, but for the sake of completeness, I will do a quick survey of the remainder of the tournament.

You may recall that I crashed spectacularly in game 1 on the Friday night to an annoying tactic, and then Chris Welch and I went to the pub and had a game of chess and several beers.

On the Saturday morning, after updating the 'blog and eating a very good fritatta courtesy of Chris, I went back to the tournament hall for round 2. The game was a fairly dour Sicilian Rossolimo. Presently, Dave Stephenson arrived. He wasn't playing but had dropped by to spectate for a while. He opined to Chris that my game would go on for ages , when all of a sudden I was in their midst, telling them that I'd won! My opponent dropped a couple of pieces all of a sudden in a level position, which is more or less what I'd done the night before.

We sat in the canteen and did a little analysis and Dave showed me how I should have played on a piece down the previous evening. He has an annoying habit of taking my resigned position and then reversing the board and making me play my opponent's position and win against him, which of course, since he's a very strong player, I always fail to do, which then to his way of thinking "proves" that I should not have resigned.

Chris and I went back to his parents' place for a bite to eat (nice home-made fish pate) and then I headed off to drive to Birmingham where I was going for a reunion/drinks evening/Christmas market. I was taking a bye for the afternoon game for that reason. The drive down was fine and I checked into the Hilton where I was staying with no difficulties. The evening was enjoyable; I managed a couple of pints of weissbier and a sausage before the rain rather spoilt the German market and we just went to the pub.

Sunday morning I rose early and drove all the way back up to Preston again. Not the ideal preparation for two tournament games. The rain was torrential in the Birmingham area, but I still managed to get back only a few minutes late.

My round 4 game was against an earnest-looking unrated Indian student. I knew he was going to be good, and the game was a right struggle as he kept me penned in. I was behind in development throughout and struggling to keep going, but I managed to just about hang in there and eventually turn the tables a bit. He turned down a draw offer at a point when he was probably ahead, and then less sensibly, another one when he was 1-2 pawns down. Shortly after that he blundered in a strange way. He made a move and then immediately cursed himself volubaly. I couldn't see what was bothering him. I could put him in check, but his King had an escape square. I played the check and he immediately gave up his Rook for the Pawn. He must simply have missed the escape square. Later on, Fritz confirmed that I had been right and that he had no reason to give up the Rook.

So I was a Rook up in a K+P ending, pretty simple, but in all the stress I managed to forget for a while how to mate with K+R which would have been a bit embarrassing. With only 2 minutes on the clock I pulled myself together and maanged to get the mate. It was a long slog, 70 moves or so, and a game I shouldn't have won - but I've lost enough games I should never have lost, so I suppose there was a degree of things evening out.

I had some lunch in a pub. Game 5 started out pretty well for me. Recently (Scarborough and Bury St Edmunds) I've done well in round 5 games when there's been nothing to play for and today I was going well and comfortable out of the opening as well. All of a sudden I felt my 'phone vibrate in my pocket - I was panicking that it would make a noise and I'd be ignominiously drummed out of the tournament, so I made any old move and rushed from the hall. Of course, that move led to my entire position falling apart and I lost pretty fast!

So Preston ended as a distinctly par 2/4 peformance, but it was never a tournament I was taking all that seriously - given the 100 mile dash to Birmingham and back I was never going to be able to give it my full attention.

And so ended the 2009 tournament season. Sometime in the next couple of days I will write my Review of the Year.

A good result at the club

That's chess over for another year, and now I'm spending all my time writing cards, wrapping gifts and cleaning the house.

My year of chess has often been mixed and a bit of a struggle many times. I will write a proper summary of the year soon - and I know I need to finish the story of the Preston tournament as well.

Today, however, I will talk about my game at the club on Wednesday which was probably my best game of the year. Ending on a high note, you might say. It was a Huddersfield league game, Netherton A v Netherton B. Needless to say I was in Netherton B, with all the other bottom-of-the-pile dravers, up against the club's strongest players. On board 1 we had Jonathan, a sound gardener with a big bushy orange beard, up against Peter Shore graded 190. On board 2 we had Kareem, a young Asian boy who plays too fast, up against Nick Edwards, another very strong player. On board 3 we had me, an in-and-out performer to say the least, up against Richard Desmedt, arguable the most experienced player in the entire country. Richard plays tournaments more or less every weekend - 39 last year - and is always high up on the British Chess Federation "most games played" list. He played I think about 200 rated games last year. His grade is 151, compared with my 99.

We were utterly outclassed on the other three boards as well. It was a serious mismatch. As I sat down I reflected that we were heading for a 6-0 whitewash, though this was avoided by the fact that their board 5 player never showed up.

Richard Desmedt is a really nice chap, always very friendly and chatty. I have seen him at a lot of the tournaments I've been to this year. Playing him, however, was not going to be an easy proposition. I just decided I was going to make it as hard for him to win as possible. I was determined not to be the first person to lose, and also to try and last out to the time control. Make him work for it.

He played 1. e4 and I replied with my usual Sicilian. He plays the Morra Gambit, so I was able to direct the game into a position I well know, by declining the gambit with 3 .. d5. That was the first bit of good news, because I'm much happier in openings I know fairly well. It was a strange game, maybe lucky for me, because, as he said afterwards, he was in a strong position - positionally better, as the computer later confirmed, but he couldn't make anything of it and soon found himself a bit tangled up.

He missed a trick - I think he should have sacrificed Rook for Bishop and a passed pawn, but he didn't see that, retreated, and soon enough I had won material - Rook for Bishop and pawn on my terms, and I had a nice position. Things were looking fine. I was running a bit short of time and I well know my propensity to balls up good positions against even rubbish players, never mind 150s - so I decided to offer him a draw. After consulting his captain, and discovering that Netherton A had won all the other games, he gracefully accepted.

I was the only person on our team not to lose and got a lot of very nice comments from the other players on both teams. It was a big feather in my cap to get a half against such strong opposition. Sure, it wasn't the most serious game of the year, and as I said Richard is a nice bloke and in a more serious game would probably have fought on material down and won, but the fact remains that people like him don't just give draws away for nothing. It must go down as my best result of the year, and provides encouragement for the future.

Here is the game for anyone who is interested

Desmedt-Bailey
Netherton, 9 Dec 09

1 e4 c5
2 d4 cxd4
3 c3 d5
4 exd5 Qxd5
5 cxd4 Nc6
6 Nf3 e5
7 Nc3 Bb4
8 Bd2 Bxc3
9 Bxd2 e4
10 Ne5 Nxe5
11 dxe5 Ne7
12 Be2 o-o
13 o-o Be6
14 Qa4 Bd7
15 Qc2 Bc6
16 Rfd1 Qe6
17 Rd6 Qc8
18 Rad1 Qc7
19 h3? Nf5
20 R6d2? e3!
21 Qxf5 exd2
22 Bb4 Re8
23 Bd6 Qd7
24 Qf4 Qe6
25 Rxd2 Qg6? (Qxb2)

draw agreed.

Preston day 1

Heres a novelty - actually writing my 'blog on the day of the event, rather than a month later. But less of a novelty was my result here at Preston - as so often, I mucked up the first round of a tournament, losing badly in 15 moves.

In fact, I'm in the midst of a bad run at the moment which I must turn around. I lost on Tuesday for the club at Huddersfield, blundering a piece on move 7. Then I lost in a game at the club on Wednesday, admittedly a friendly against a much stronger player, mated on move 13. And I lost in 15 last night. All three losses were due to lack of concentration and missing obvious moves by my opponent, and all three were in relatively unfamiliar openings. I'm going to punish myself, and entertain you, by publishing all of them on here.

I can't afford another grim run like last winters run of 10 defeats in 11 starts, so I have to turn it around. At least, thanks to the precepts, I'm not about to throw in the towel and just stop fighting.

Anyway, the story of last night's game is quickly told. I am staying at my colleague Chris's house in Preston where he lives with his wife & parents. I left work at 3.30 and drove over here, but didn't get here until 6pm owing to the rubbishy traffic on the M62. Chris drove me to the venue - a University building which is part of Central Lancashire University. Its a fairly unprepossessing venue - and let us not forget that I always seem to do badly in poor venues (Hull, Bradford, Huddersfield disasters come to mind) and better in nice ones (Scarborough, Hereford, Grange-over-Sands). I'm obviously very sensitive to environmental influences.

We only just made it on time owing to getting a bit lost, and I hurried to the chess hall only to find I wasn't in the draw. I asked the controller what was going on, only to discover I'd been put in the wrong section and was due to play a much stronger player. "Sod this" I thought to myself and said I would concede the game and just go to the pub with Chris. After some to-ing and fro-ing they re-paired my intended opponent and moved me to the right section, against someone else who's intended opponent hadn't showed.

We sat down to play - he tried the old Albin counter-gambit against me, which I've not played or studied since about 2005, but I remembered the theory well enough and soon was comfortably a pawn up with a protected passed pawn on e6 and threats on another of his pawns - happy days. He played what he *admitted* was a rubbish move, moving a Knight to h4 where it could be trapped if I could get g3 in, so I was soon going to be a piece up. He had one saving resource, a tactic involving forking my King and Queen , which would only work if I made a specific wrong move, which I obligingly did. Game over. I resigned. So gallling.

Went through the game with my happy opponent and he admitted he was losing . It also turned out that I'd seen loads more in the game than I had. Brendan O'Gorman wandered up and helped us go through it. Chris turned up back from his walk, rather surprised that my game was already over! We had a little session which involved the chap showing us his repertoire of opening traps most of which involved people playing unlikely moves.

Chris and I went off for a beer and a chess session in the pub , got a bit drunk and came back here and went to sleep.

Now I'm eating a superb omelette Chris has knocked up. He's a former professional rugby player and he says "you need to start the day properly- its all about preparation". Its certainly a nice omelette - cheese, onion, tomato.

Now I need to do like Russell Goodfellow does and "make someone pay" for what happened to me last night!

Bury St Edmunds

12 November

I am on holiday in Italy - have just spent a superb few days in Venice looking at the art treasures and architectureand enjoying free hospitality at the Hilton. As I write I am on a train travelling down the spine of Italy from Veniceto Rome.
A footnote to the account of the Scarborough tournament - a few days later, when I was home waiting for the centralheating engineer, an envelope arrived in the post - on opening it I discovered much to my surprise that I had won a prize at Scarborough - £15 for a seventh-share of 4th place! Every little helps, I suppose.

Friday 30 October

To facilitate the journey to Bury St Edmunds I worked in our Dunstable office just north of London and drove to that fair Suffolk town after work. The Bury St Edmunds tournament is one of those unusual ones with no Friday night game and three on Saturday so there was nothing to do on the Friday evening apart from amusing myself in Bury. I arrived at about 6.30pm. The B&B was a substantial townhouse on the edge of the city centre. The landlady hadsounded a somewhat finkicky type on the phone and so it turned out when we met in person - her dress, hair and voice all reminded me a little of Sybil Fawlty and she spent some ten minutes giving me detailed instructions aboutmatters such as how to open the bedroom door, how to turn on the heating etc.

Perusing the guest book, I saw that there were some other chess players staying - including the Cutmore twins, two identical twins in their 50s both of whom also have almost exactly the same (strong) chess rating. I have seen themat numerous tournaments in the past but never got talking to them.

I was staying in a room in a seperate chalet-style building across the carpark which was called the Coach-house. Inorder to get to it, one had to pass through the main buidling and past some cages containing a collection of brightly-coloured cage birds. The room itself was fine, quite cosy and comfortable. I had a drink and wrote up most of the 'blog account of the Scarborough tournament - only a week late! I must make sure I get this 'blog written more immediately after the events, so as not to lose the immediacy for which one strives.

I went out for a few beers. I had a pint and some food in a pub called the grapes, and then headed on into the ancienttown centre and another pub called the Mason's Arms - a small, old pub in the city centre which Morgan Daniels toldme waas owned by an Ispwich town footballer called Mason. After a pint or two there I went on to the Nutshell, whereI always drink when at the Bury tournament - its reputedly the smallest pub in England, no larger than a respectablesized kitchen really with a tiny bar and standing room for about ten people. It's right by the chess venue so quite convenient. It was here that we celebrated Morgan's victory in the Intermediate tournament two years ago.

I got talking to some of the people in there. The pub seems to attract an eccentric crowd, and tonight was nodifferent. There was a drunk and affectionate American woman with a dog. She claimed to be an expert chess playerand that she'd played the world number 2, whose name she unfortunately could not remember but said that he was Swedish!A rather dull, drunk, bloke with a very monotonous voice talked a lot about his ex-wife and marital problems. I had a couple of drinks and at about 11 headed off because the (only) toilet had apparently been blocked and was closed.

Got to bed quite early and had a good night's sleep.

Saturday 31st October

At breakfast all of the chess players had been seated at the same table - the landlady had put nameplaces at each seat. I was sitting with the cutmores, a very strong player called Anderson and another chap who turned up in a neckercheif and waistcoat but never spoke. Alan Fraser, an old bloke who plays more games than anyone else each year, was sitting at the next table. It was a good chance for me to have a bit of a chat to Anderson and the Cutmores, who talked quite interestingly about various tournaments they'd been to, and the travails of the chesscircuit.
Then I headed off the venue which was only a few minutes' walk away. The Bury St Edmunds tournament benefits frombeing played at a superb venue compared to most English chess events - it is in the Corn Exchange, an old building right in the centre of town, which has a nice big, well-lit room upstairs where all the games can be accommodated. Its a very nice venue indeed, though unfortunately the tournament is expected to move to a new placenext year. However, Bob Jones, the organiser, says its an even better location and benefits from having a bar - clearly he knows how to get on my right side!

Russell Goodfellow had been intending to playin this event, but changed his mind owning to lack of cash. Morgan Daniels was playing of course, since he grewup nearby and his parents still live here. When I arrived at the venue, he was there and greeted me with the normal view of what a totally draving sham it all was. He was playing in the Major section - since he had won the intermediatetwo years ago, he doesn't allow himself to play in that any longer. He was the second lowest-rated person in thesection and so had low hopes for the weekend.

The Cutmores and Anderson were playing in the Open. I noticed that both of them had drawn tough opposition in round 1 - one of them had to play a Grandmaster on board 1, and the other was against International Master AdamHunt on board 2.

Morgan and I looked at my board. My opponent was white, and had already moved1. c4. The English - one of my least favourite openings. I said to Daniels that I might as well turn my King over right away!

Game 1 - I managed a draw against the English

My opponent was a bloke from Reading, he was a sturdy-looking chap with shoulder length black curly hair whoreminded me of Lovejoy.
Morgan and I went to the Grapes for lunch. I had chilli and he had fish and chips. He was in a good mood as he had wonhis first game, against a much more high-rated player. He had been behind most of the game until his opponentinexplicably sacrificed the exchange for nothing - possibly he thought he could have got a passed pawn through but Morgan was able to win the pawn and then the game easily. Our food took a long time coming and so we were lategetting back to the venue.

Game 2 - Charge of the Light Brigade

I was playing an old gent who was one of the top seeds for my section. I was White and the game was a Kings Indian. I played my normal f3 going into the Samisch but then for some inexplicable reason decided to launch a Kingsidepawnstorm instead of castling - out came h4 and g4 and all that kind of stuff. I don't know what possessed me, butonce I had had the idea I felt compelled to do it, casting caution to the winds. My King was stuck sadly in the middle of the board whilst on both wings my pawns rampaged suicidally up the ranks. It was very odd- it lookedmore like one of Colin's or Dave Stephenson's positions than one of mine. Naturally enough the whole thing endedin tears like one of those heroic 19th century cavalry charges. As the position fell apart I decided to try and seeif I could survive until the time control at move 36 which I did - just. When we got there, by which time I was apawn and a knight down, my opponent sardonically raised an eyebrow and said "We can add on 20 minutes if you thinkthere's any point carrying on" which wasn't particularly gracious, but in any case I resigned at that point.

One of the hallmarks of my chess in recent weeks had been that I was difficult to beat, so I was annoyed at myselffor giving it away in such a cavalier fashion as that.

It was raining outside. I went for a walk and did some shopping - I had seen a card shop and also a novelty/jokeshop so I went and got some Christmas cards and presents.

As I was getting back to the venue, I ran into the divorced bloke from the pub last night again. As I drew closehe hullooed me - I was surprised that he recognised me. He seemed very interested in the chess and came with me into the venue. We got talking to Morgan who had finished his game by this point. He was pleased again because he'dmanaged a draw in a gane which he thought he had been losing. The chap - Mark - talked a bit and told Daniels offfor using the "c" word. Then we all went to the Nutshell and had a pint or two and Mark told us all about his divorceall over again and some story about how he had been in the RAF and had threatened his ex wife's new lover with a knife and ended up with a suspended sentance as I recall. It was all rather hard to follow.

Eventually Daniels and I managed to shake him off and got back to the venue. We were both taking what he callsa "Bailey bye" in the evening, an opportunity to relax with a beer or two and watch some of the other games. I findthree games in one day to be a bit too tiring - and clearly a lot of other players agreed because about a third ofthe whole field took a Saturday evening bye. Another of the good things about the Bury tournament is the very goodcatering, and we both had a very good plate of lasagne and salad for dinner which only cost £3.

We went to a pub near my B&B to analyse the day's games. We put them into my computer and Morgan found to his surprisethat he had been much better in the afternoon game than he had thought. Because a mass of pawns was encroaching onhis castled King he had thought that he was in trouble but of course computers are much more objective about suchthings and it turned out that he was fine. It's easy to get nervous in such situations as I know all too well. Whenhe offered the draw he was in fact slightly better. There was also a bit of a surprise regarding his first game - even after the bloke had given the unsound exchange sacrifice, he still had a simple way to draw. MOrgan had supposedhe was winning and obviously the other chap did too because he didn't play the simple drawing line - using his Kingto approach Morgan's passed pawn - but clearly had given up the ghost. There are some good lessons there - its alwaysworth looking on for resources when all seems lost, and things are often not as bad as it may seem. Objective thinking, if you can achieve it, has to be the goal.

At closing time I headed back to my B&B and Morgan went off for a taxi back to his parents' place.

I think it might have been the first time I'd played chess on a Hallowee'en and my rather patchy performance wasperhaps effected by the spirits walking abroad. At least it was a good way to avoid trick or treaters.

Sunday 1 November

Another breakfast at the chess table. Like yesterday, I eschewed the fatboy fried stuff in favour of simple cerealand toast. Anderson was grumbling about chess. It was quite encouraging to hear a 2200 strength player whining onjust like I do. He was complaining that he never got any better, all the study was a waste of time, these Grandmastersare impossible to beat, he never gets the openings he wants .. all the normal stuff. We all had quite a nice chat comparing notes about other tournaments and talking about how rubbish most chess books are.

Game 4 - The Spike

I am still on the train in Italy - we have been passing through attractive, hilly countryside, and have justarrived at Florence.

I was on 1/3 on the Sunday morning after a draw, a loss and a bye, not a very impressive effort so far and I knew that I was going to need what Dave Stephenson calls "a big performance" to turn things around.

I was drawn on one of the bottom boards against a chap I had seen at Scarborough - a big bloke with hearing-aidsand a bright blue blazer on which was attached, rather precariously, one of those fabric pocket badges which read"British race walking association".

He played 1. g4 - the Grob aka the Spike opening. Id never faced it before in any online or live game, and had neverreally studied it, even though my friend Markus Wettstein in Australia had been a friend of its inventor, HenryGrob, in Switzerland. So I would just have to work things out as I went along.

After 1 g4 d5 2 Bg2 Bxd5 3 c4 there are various traps possible along the long diagonal leading towards b7. From the speed he played his initial moves it was clear that he knew it well and was familiar with the traps. Given his rating,which was quite low, I concluded that most of his wins came from traps in this opening and that if I could survivethe initial onslaught, he would probably give me winning chances later on. I played 3 .. c6 and then after 4 Qb3 Qb6 because I thought if the Queens came off his chances of causing mischief might be reduced.

And so it proved - the Queens disappeared quickly and then before long he blundered away a piece and the win was straightforward. I queened a pawn and he wouldn't resign so I queened another one and a the end I had two Queens and a Rook against a lone King. In the end he irritably grabbed my pieces and mated himself!

Waiting for Daniels to finish, I had a walk and bought some more Christmas presents in a bargain bookshop and then went back to the venue for lunch. They were out of lasagne so I had a bowl of chilli. Daniels won yet again, another win against a much higher-rated player, and it was looking as though he might be in the money if he won in the last round. We went to the Nutshell for a reviving pint and a complete stranger- a solid American bloke with a crew cut who looked as though he was in the army - bought a round for the house. Admittedly its probably the easiest pub in the country in which to buy a round for the house! I had a tequila,and so once again was going into my last round game after a couple of lunchtime drinks.

Game 5 - another good last round win

In my final game, I was playing a young chap from the Bury St Edmunds club. Morgan knew him and said he was quitea good player. As it turned out it was another fairly straightforward win. The game started 1 d4 (I was White) d52 c4 Bf5 which is another opening I haven't met too often - I think its called the Baltic or Grau defence? No doubtsome of you can correct me on that.

I played 3 Qb3 which I understand to be the normal move, taking advantage ofthe absence of the Bishop from c8, and he seemed to go to pieces pretty quickly - immediately dropping a pawn and soon his position had completely collapsed.

In fact it was only when he was a piece down that he sprung into action, sacrificing a Bishop for a dangerous passeda-pawn. However, my advantage by now was so big - 2 whole pieces up with the Queens off - that I was able to handlethe danger and soon he resigned , in a graceful fashion.
I'm going to have to reconsider my precept about not drinking between games - I always seem to play my best, mostpositive games after a couple of lunchtime drinks! I remember my friend Markus Wettstein used to say in his soundmiddle-European accent, that he played his best games when he was "half drunk or half asleep" and I'm starting to realise that he might have a point! Certainly, a drink like that is good for helping to deal with the pre-game nervesthat so often afflict me. I seem to do much better in the latter rounds of tournaments and most of my worst effortsseem to be in round 1. Which seems to point to the fact that the precept about not withdrawing early is a good one, but the one about not drinking can be relaxed a little.

My game finished early, so I had plenty of time to watch the climax of the other games. Daniels had told me that he thought his game was heading for a dead draw, but clearly he was having a charmed tournament because his opponent blundered two pawns and promptly resigned.

Morgan ended up with 4/5 and was joint winner of the Major withtwo others, much to his surprise. Between the two of use we had got 4/4 today.

We went back to the Nutshell for a celebratory pint. The drunken American woman from Friday night was there, withher dog, but sober this time. There was a chess player in there, gloomily drowning his sorrows - it turned out thatit was his first tournament - he was playing in my section - and that he'd only managed one draw and a lot of defeatsand was telling us how depressed he was. We were both well able to sympathise, having often been in that position ourselves - I told him about how I'd lost 10 games out of 11 over the course of four tournaments last winter and Morgan pointed out the rather depressing fact about chess, which is that the depression following a bad defeats isinvariably intense and lasts longer than the highs that follow good wins. It turned out that the chap's brother had won the section - and that the chap had taught his brother when they were children! The brother arrived soon after, obviously in a rather better mood than his sibling, and it turned out that he was the bloke who had beaten me in my last round match last year, which he remembered, though he graciously attributed it to the fact that I was suffering from a cold at the time.

I said goodbye to the Nutshell for another year and went along to the prize giving to watch Morgan get his winner'scheque. Much to my surprise, it turned out that I had won a prize myself - against the odds, my score of 3/5 wasenough to win me the grading prize for those rated under 100, a handy cheque for £20.

Overall it wasn't a bad tournament for me - it might have been a very good one but for the strange suicidal attackI played in game 2. I said goodbye to Morgan and started the long drive home to Yorkshire.

Scarborough tournament

Here I am in a hotel room in Bury St Edmonds for the tournament this weekend, but I've not written about last weekend'sin Scarborough yet. So I better give it a try tonight before I forget it all.

Thursday 22 October

Russell Goodfellow was coming up to Scarborough so the weekend kicked off on Thursday night when he got a coach upto Wakefield and I met him in a pub in town. He seemed to be in bullish form. We headed back to my place via the chip shop and the off licence and had a couple of games of pool (1-1) before going home because he wanted to watch ahorror film. I fell asleep of the film (one of the Saws) but woke up at the end and he showed me some of his new openingideas in the Scotch and the like. It was about 1am by this point so I found it a bit hard to concentrate. Went to bed at about 2am.

Friday 23 October

Felt a bit delicate for most of the day. Went to the usual Friday lunch pub meeting with work colleagues in a Thairestaurant pub. Met Russell at Cross Gates station at 3.30pm and we headed to scarborough. He had warned me that going via York had proved a mistake in the past owing to the heavy traffic, so we went further north, up the exceptionally steep road at Sutton Bank and to Scarborough via Helmsley and Pickering. We made good time. I droppedRussell off at about 5.30 and headed to my B&B.

It was a nice enough place, small typical seaside Guest House with a tiny room but it did the job. I had a bit of a restand then walked down the seafront to the chess venue. The chess was being played in the Spa Complex, a large function venue on the seafront with superb views of the beach and the sea. You could hear the waves crashing in on the shore. I walked to the venue in the rain and, unusually, managed to arrive on time for the first round. As wellas Goodfellow, Dave Stephenson was also playing in this event along with tournament regulars Brendan O'Gorman and Richard Desmedt who by coincidence plays at the same village team as me.
I arrived while the opening ceremony was going on - the mayor of Scarborough was giving a speech about chess andmaking some rather strange comments about how men are better at chess because women are better at multi-tasking. Theaudience was predominantly male but I wondered how that went down with the women who were present.

Game 1 - a bad start

My first game was against Tony Butler, a nice bloke who was there because his son was playing. Often "Dads" are among the weaker playersat a tournament, and this chap didn't even have a rating - turned out it was only his second tournament. I wasn'treally on form though - I played quite passively and negatively and ended up in a cramped position. He seemed quitegood and didn't make any real mistakes. The game dragged on and on past the time control and even though we were inthe "foundation" (bottom) section, we were one of the last boards still playing, which is unusual. I never reallymanaged to get back to terms and was struggling throughout without ever actually losing until right at the end. Itcame down to a Knight + Pawn endgame. Eventually I fell a pawn down but struggled on and on until move 60 when I finallycapitulated as I couldn't prevent him promoting an a-pawn. A disappointing start, though I didn't feel too bad because had just been a bit passive rather than my usual blunders, and he was clearly a good player. The usual risksof playing unrated players because you never know how good they are going to turn out to be.

Goodfellow had had a good win against one of the top players in his section and already gone back, so I wanderedback through the town. I stopped en route and had a curry before going to bed.

Saturday 24 October

Game 2 - a nervy performance against a little girl

I overslept and annoyed my landlady by coming down to breakfast a bit late. I only had toast and hurried to the venue. I was about 10 minutes late. I was drawn against a young girl called Morgan Petrie, who turned out to be the daughter of the arbiter. I hate playing young girls and have had two baddefeats against them recently. At least this one didn't wipe her hand after shaking hands like the one at Bradforddid. She was a pretty poor player, and I was a piece up right in the opening. Dave Stephenson came over and looked at my position and it was fine but right afterwards I played a shocking blunder and blundered back the piece. It was one of those situation where you realise the blunder the very second you take your hand off the piece. I went to geta cup of tea to collect my thoughts and met Russell in the queue. He made a "pistol to the head" gesture and said"you were a piece up and now its horrible"! It was a nasty moment.

Fortunately however, she soon blundered the pieceright back again. it was really a dreadful, amateurish, blunder-ridden game. After that, however, she fell apart andI won quite easily.
Goodfellow drew his game after the usual massive time trouble - he made about 12 moves in 30 seconds to reach the timecontrol. He wasn't all that pleased to have drawn. We went to the pub with his friend Nigel who had lost bothhis games and was pulling out.

Game 3 - an easy win

We got back late again after a pint or two. Theres not much to say about
my third game - it was against the kind ofopponent I'd been expecting in the bottom section who soon blundered a piece and I won quite easily. At least withtwo wins today I was back to a respectable score of 2/3.

I had plenty of time to spare to watch other people's games. Russell got into huge time trouble again and got swindled with a bank-rank mate threat.

Went out after the games for a pint with Russell and his friend Riley. Riley is a fairly irascible bloke who oftengets a big angry during his games. He was friendly enough in the pub though. We went to a place called the Blue Loungewhich had a happy hour on, £2 for all pints, and had a couple of beers there and a chat to the bar manager who was a young student paying for his way through University which was interesting. Then Russell and Riley went off forsome chips and I went back to my guest house to get rid of my bag. I got a take-away meal from an Italian restaurant- a very nice risotto with bacon and asparagus, which was quite high-class for a take-away. There was a fierce notice in the guest house forbidding guests to bring take-aways, though I think it was mainly aimed at curry. Still ,I snuck my risotto in and ate it very carefully so as not to make a mess.

I fell asleep for a bit and woke up at about 10pm. I had agreed to meet up with Russell again. I didn't really feellike it, but I forced myself and in the end it was worth it. We went to quite a nice pub on the seafront where therewas quite a reasonable covers band playing. They did a few 70s and 80s numbers. They were called Swagger - most of the band members were in their 40s Id say but there was a young bloke on the lead guitar. We had a few beers and watched.Riley got a bit drunk and started annoying Goodfellow by drinking his beer very fast and then pretending it was Goodfellow's round. The band finished and we went back. Goodfellow had had to change accommodation when he turnedup to the place he thought he'd booked and found they weren't doing rooms any more! He wasn't happy. So he shiftedto another place but then forgot where it was and apparently ended up wandering the streets for an hour. I had nosuch alarms and was soon asleep.

Sunday 25 October

Game 4 - missed opportunity

On Sunday morning I got a bit of a lie in because the clocks had gone back.
I paid up for my B&B and drove into town. I had to find somewhere to park for the day. Parking was somewhat in short supply, so I ended up putting it on a street high above the chess venue, where it could only stay until noon. Scarborough is a town built on steep cliffs rising sharply from the sea, and it was on top of one ofthose. The 12 noon curfew for my game was obviously potentially a bit of a problem, since it could go on until 1.30in theory, so I decided I'd just have to play quickly.

Naturally, in such circumstances, the game turned out to be a bit of a grind. I was playing an old Scottish bloke wholooked like a retired docker. He played a stolid, uninspiring game, but was hard to break down. I went a pawn up butit was isolated, so I used the open lines on either side of it to apply pressure. Gradually I managed to get an advantage but as the noon deadline approached, I wasn't getting through. I felt a bit like Cinderella. In the end, with noon getting close, the pieces all got swapped off and he took the extra pawn with his King and we agreed a draw. Typical of one of my games - a good opening and pressure but I couldn't find a way to convert it.

I went and shifted my car to a location further along the clifftop where Dave Stephenson had told me there was free parking. Then I went to Wetherspoons for lunch with Russell Goodfellow. After the morning's draw my last fainthope of prize money was gone, so I had a roast beef dinner and a couple of pints.

Game 5 - saving the best for last

It was a fair step from Wetherspoons to the venue and after a long wait for my lunch, I was 15 minutes late for the game. I had had two pints and since there was nothing now to play for, I wasn't really all that bothered about this last game. Probably because of that, I played my best game of the whole tournament. Unfortunately, despite my best intentions,I have not been writing up this account right after the games as I planned - in fact, at the time of writing, Iam on a train from Venice to Rome almost three weeks after the tournament, on November 12th, so I don't recallthe details of the game. What does stick in my mind is that my opponent tried one of the premature Kingside attackswhich have often caused me problems - think of the game against Turloch Kelly at Galway, and there was also one at Bradford, both of which I lost when I should have won easily - so I was pleased this time to be able to fend off the attack, ensure his pieces were misplaced as a result, and then easily win with a nice assault on the empty Queenside. It was a pleasing win, and my final score of 3.5/5 was just about respectable.
I hung around the venue a bit for a chat with some of the other players, went and picked Russell up from the pub andthen we climbed up the steep hill back to the car and drove back to my place. In the evening we went out for a few beersthough since it was a Sunday most of the pubs closed at 10.30pm. We did manage to find one - the Ship in HorburyBridge - which stayed open until 11, and had a final couple there whilst chatting to a couple of blokes who lived onboats on the canal.

Galway days 2 & 3 - lots of draws

Day 2

Cooked breakfast
On the Saturday morning Eoghnan's mother made us a traditional fatboy breakfast of sausage, bacon and egg. Good way to prepare for a day's chess. We got to the venue a bit late but the draw had gone wrong, in that fine old tradition of chess tournaments, and so it ended up starting half an hour late.

Game I couldn't win
My game went fairly well - it was a familiar opening and I was soon in a commanding position with my opponents King flushed out into the middle of the board. It was one of those games, however, where I couldn't quite find a way to take advantage and was struggling to turn it into a win. To make matters worse, there was an awkward pin on my Queen's Knight to be considered and my opponent had a fair bit of counterplay. Eventually we both started running out of time. I
blundered and lost a piece but with his King still in the middle and a lot of open lines I got a very strong passed pawn which I was able to use to win 2 pieces and ended up being a piece up - K, Q, R and B vs K, Q, R. Unfortunately however two of my pieces were immobile owing to another pin and so eventually with only a minute or two on the clock I settled for a draw by perpetual check. It wasn't the result I would have wanted but it was a pretty good entertaining and action-packed
game. Morgan had won his game in the Masters. I was sorry to have missed the game because it looked very entertaining, ending up with Morgan mating the chap ("its the first time I've actually checkmated someone for years") when he had 10 seconds left on the clock and the chap had 4 seconds. It was his first win in the Masters section.

We had lunch - rather uninspiring egg salad in the hotel bar and then it was straight into round 3.

Defeat in familiar style
I was playing a rather gloomy-looking young bloke TUrloch Kelly. He played the Grand Prix attack 1 e4 c5 2 f4 which I'm not that familiar with. Thanks to playing through the games of Nigel Fleming I know about about the delayed Grand Prix 1 e4 c4 2 Nc3 Nc6 3 f4 which is generally thought to be better for White but I've never really looked at the Grand Prix itself.

I knew that the best response was 2 .. d5 but after that I was making it up as I went along and the game continued 3 exd5 Qxd5 4 Nc6 Qd8. I later discovered that this is a perfectly playable line despite being a bit dull but that not retaking the pawn is considered better for Black, instead continuing with 3 .. Nf6 then 4 Bb5+ Bd7 5 Bxd7 Nbxd7 6 c4 where Black supposedly
has enough play for the sacrificed pawn, though looking at it on the board now I'm still not sure i can see why. I suppose White's f4 looks a bit pointless now and the King is a bit exposed. Im not sure what I will do next time I face this over the board.

Anyway, I played the exchange. For some reason I never felt comfortable in this game - maybe because I was playing a junior, or maybe because it was an unfamiliar opening, or perhaps it was because he was one of these annoying people who always move really quickly, which always puts me off, but I kept on making slightly inaccurate moves. Soon I found he had a Bishop in the midst of my position and I failed to find a nice way of shifting it that Morgan pointed out to me after the game.

On move 14 he plonked his Queen on g4 and it became obvious he was going to go for a basic Kingside attack. One of the weakest features of my game is my propensity to panic in the face of an unsophisticated Kingside attack. I lost badly to a young girl in such a game in Bradford (really must get around to writing up the 'blog for that tournament) and so I wasn't too pleased to see it coming again.

I won a couple of pawns, either because he didn't care about them or didn't notice and he massed his forces against my King. The computer later on concluded that I was clearly ahead at this stage, but obviously it didn't feel that way to me. After a couple of exchanges I had a chance to win a free piece by attacking a pinned Bishop but rejected the idea because it would
have involved further weakening my King with a pawn advance. Later on, Morgan said it was clearly winning for me ("for a start he's got less stuff to attack your King with!") and the computer agreed. I didnt play it though and very soon afterwards I got mated.

After the game my opponent, who still looked just as gloomy, pointed out a brilliant move I could have played right at the end to avoid the mate and actually threaten mate against his weak back rank, which even Morgan was surprised by. Then I got a beer and went through the game with Morgan who proceeded to point out all the ways I should have won.

Rather depressing and clearly a weakness in my game is facing unsound Kingside attacks from juniors.

Beer
At least the chess was done for the day because we had all taken Drinking Byes (Bailey Byes as Morgan calls them) for the evening game. We went and had a beer in Salthill. Morgan and Eoghan stayed in town for dinner but I went back to the venue to watch the games. I always like watching other people play when I don't have to. I had a pizza and got some more
Guinness. Morgan and Eoghan came back but stayed in the bar watching Ireland play Italy at football. It turned out that Morgan had had a football trial for Luton TOwn when young, which came as something of a surprise since I had never really thought of him as an athletic type, more your dreamy academic.

After the chess was over, Eoghan, Morgan and I and some random bloke from the Minor section had a somewhat drunken Blitz tournament. We played normal blitz with a time handicap and we played Fell Knockdown, the game Colin invented when the person who wins gets a minute taken off in the next game, the winner being the first one to win with only 1 minute on the clock at the end.

Morgan won every single game he played in both formats, apart from one I decided was a draw because the clocks had been set wrong. We drank a lot more Guinness. We chatted to the Wicklow boys and did all the other traditional Saturday evening at a chess tournament type activities.

Eventually Eoghan and I got a taxi back to his Mother's place.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Day 3

Another draw
I didn't feel too bad on the Sunday morning. We had another cooked breakfast and wandered around the extensive gardens of Eoghan's Mother's place before heading off to the chess again.

I was playing an old chap, Andrew Dobbyn, who had a gloomy air about him and a soup-strainer moustache. Morgan said he looked like a spy.

Eddy Humphrey, one of the Wicklow boys, was sitting next to me. He's a nice chap with a long grey pony tail. Yesterday evening he'd been knocking back the beers with the best of them, this morning he was in a right state - moaning, holding his head in his hands, complaining about having to play on a Sunday morning. I was glad I wasn't in such a bad way! After about half an hour he knocked his King over and went back to bed.

My game was the same sort of story of missed opportunity as the Saturday morning one - I got a pawn up, got a lot of pressure, but couldnt make anything of it and it all petered away and ended up with everything swapped off. Draw. Eoghan drew his game too - his first positive
result of his chess career, great to see. Morgan lost. Eoghan went off to his sister's for lunch and didn't play in the afternoon game.

Morgan had a sandwich. It was labelled as chicken but turned out to be egg, though as he pointed out strictly speaking egg IS chicken, just young chicken, so they weren't lying. I went to the Spar shop and got some meat bread and cheese and had that instead.

And another
My final game was a short-lived affair. It was a Closed Sicilian, another opening I'm not too familiar with. I was playing another schoolboy who seemed fairly brassed off with the whole affair. He kept yawning and looked really bored. The last round of a tournament is often like that if there's nothing much left to play for. He got a marginally better position and then after 13 moves suddenly and unexpectedly offered me a draw which I accepted. He explained that he was tired and had to get ready for a chemistry test the next day. At least I didn't have that problem. Whatever might go wrong in my life I will never have to do another chemistry test. Later on though I saw him chatting to his mates.

My game was all over in half an hour and it was the 2nd year running I'd had an agreed "Grandmaster Draw" in the last round at Galway. In fact it was the 2nd year running I'd drawn both Sunday games at Galway. Overall I got 1 loss and 4 draws, for 2.5/6, a barely acceptable performance especially when you consider that every single one of my opponents was lower
rated than myself (though comparing Irish and UK grades is probably not a valid exercise since most Irish players are graded lower owing to the system they use).

Id had three good games - rounds 1, 2 and 3 - and had some practice in some openings I don't often see, so not all was lost. I missed clear chances to win at least 3 of my games though - I just had been missing relatively simple tactics. Tactics won me games at Hereford and now I was missing them. Just a little out of form I suppose. One of those tournaments.

Meantime, Morgan was involved in another titantic struggle. I was able to watch his game and have a Guinness or two aftermine finished. As ever when at the chessboard, he looked a tortured soul, holding his head in his hands and looking exhausted. He looked as though he was heading for defeat , but managed to find a clever strategy which salvaged a draw. He ended up with 2.5 in the Masters. So that's the Galway tournament over for another year. Between the three of us we managed to win 1, draw 7 and lose 7, so not exactly a stellar performance.

Eoghan arrived back, we had a goodbye beer and then Eoghan and I headed off on the long drive back to Dublin leaving Morgan contemplating a night of solo Guinness-drinking. The good news is that I will be seeing the Great Man again in 3 weeks at the Bury St Edmunds tournament. Russell Goodfellow is going to play that one. Daniels-Goodfellow is a game I would pay good money to spectate at!

Next year I shall win it. Or at least have some beers and a good weekend.

On Wednesday night following that I turned out for the club in a league game and won fairly easily against a player with a rating about the same as mine. I got a pawn up, swapped everything off and won the ending in traditional yet uninteresting style. I dont think local league players are quite as tough as battle-hardened tournament players.

Galway Day 1

Here I am in the West of Ireland for the Galway Classic - one of the most important tournaments of the year as far as I am concerned.This is the 5th time I've played in it, so its certainly one of the ones I've played most often.

I am staying in the house of my friend Eoghan's mother in a little village called Moycullen to the north of Galway City. Eoghan is here as well - he drove me down from Dublin. On Thursday I flew over from East Midlands airport and went out in Dublin with Eoghan and some others for a few beers in Dublin. We couldn't meet up until 9.30 because my flight didn't arrive until 8.30. Eoghan was there along with locals Michael Bulman and Liam Cooney and by chance another colleague Ian Imms happened to be in Dublin for a Massive Attack concert so he met us well. We had a fewenjoyable pints in a couple of pubs and a bit of a catch-up. On the way home we went to Bulman's house in Cabra whichwas very well-appointed and presented and had some nice art on the walls.

I slept over at Eoghan's flat on the outskirts of Dublin. Yesterday morning we had a 6 mile walk in the Phoenix Parkand then headed off to Galway. The Irish are still building their motorway network. Last time I did the drive fromDublin to Galway 2 years ago the road terminated just outside Dublin but now it goes well past half way to Galway. THe old pain of dragging through a village called Moate where there was always a long queue and then when you got tothe centre of the village there was nothing to cause a hold up apart from a bloke sitting outside a pub, has fortunatelybeen removed and the journey is much quicker. You do still have to drive through Ballinasloe, where the largest horsrefair in the world is on the same weekend as the chess, and you can be held up by old tinkers with carts and horses, but fortunately yesterday we went through there fine.

We got to Eoghan's Mother's place around 4pm in time for a splendid meal of salmon, brocolli and peas which shelaid on, followed by profiteroles. THen we drove back into town to the chess venue. The games are held in a very nice hotel on the seafront. You can walk along the shore of Galway Bay between games which is very inspiring and thehotel is comfortable and well-appointed with spacious playing hall and analysis area and a good bar. This is oneof the reasons I like these Irish tournaments so much.

We were supposed to be meeting Morgan Daniels at a pub near the venue. He is one of the regular readers of this 'blogand a superb chess player with a unique style. Last year he came along to Galway too - he's based in England too -and played in the top section where he scared most of his opponents into offering draws in about 13 moves even thoughthey were much higher rated than him, simply by the strange systems he plays. He is a great believer in overprotectionof e4 and indeed spends most of the opening piling up pieces on that sacred turf, with moves like Ng1-h3-f2 being popular choices.

He is also renowned for unusual clothing choices. He once turned up to stay the night at Colin's flat wearing an old lady's hat and blouse he'd found in a bag outside a charity shop, and another time went to the pub at 8.30am wearing a dressing gown and carpet slippers, so you never know quite what to expect.

I'd been sending him text messages all day and hadn't heard from him so I didn't know whether he had made it over. Eoghan and I walked into Salthill, the little Galway suburb near the venue, to the pub where we were meant to be meetingMorgan - and as we walked past we heard him calling out, and there he was hunched over a pint. It turned out thathis phone for some reason was not working in Ireland and he had been unable to contact him. We sat in the pub andhad a quick pre-tournament drink and then headed up to the venue. Daniels headed off to find some "shit food" sincehe hadn't eaten despite having been mooching around in Galway for several hours. I think he'd spent most of his timewatching wrestling in his hotel room!

The chess is played in the hotel ballroom - there are about 200 players in all and all the games are held in the ballroom so there is a good atmosphere and its easy to wander around and watch your friends' games. Lots of the usual suspects were present. The no 1 seed was Alexander Baburin , a Russian GM who is now the Irish no 1 and whos family runs the bookstall - a great bear of a man with a dominant presence at the board. The "Wicklow Boys"were present as ever - four blokes from Wicklow who come to all the tournaments and I've got to know over many a post-game pint.

My first round game was against a bloke I've played twice before, getting a win and a draw. He was rated rather lower than me but I know he's a tough player and he has had two joint 1st places in the bottom sections of recent tournaments apparently - so not to be taken lightly. The game was a Sveshnikov Sicilian and he "blundered" (as hesaw it) a pawn in the opening, but I know that those positions are very sharp and complex. I rattled off my first10 moves in 5 minutes because I know the opening quite well, but after his pawn sacrifice/blunder I had to spend a long time finding the right moves and took some 45 minutes over 5 moves. I had about 5 unprotected pieces and my Queen was in danger of being trapped. In the end most of the material cameoff and we agreed a draw in a level position after about 20 moves. WHen I put the game into the computer later onI was pleased to see that I had found the right moves in that sharp position but rather less happy to realise thatI had missed a simple tactic later on that would have won me a piece and most probably the game. Still, it wasgood to start the tournament with a half point at least. Eoghan in the minor section and Morgan in the Masters bothlost their games so it wasn't the best of starts for our team. We had a beer or two afterwards to mull over thegames and then Eoghan and I headed back to Moycullen, had some port and cheese and then turned in.

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another chess tournament

Time for another tournament - at least its local this time, in Bradford so that I can commute from home. Ive not played this one before but Russell Goodfellow tells me its in a very rough neighbourhood and I will be lucky not to get beaten up on the way to the event.

I can't say I'm looking forward to it very much - I've been feeling tired and out of sorts lately and not really up to a hard tournament. I might just take it easily enough and see what happens.

I've been doing tactics problems lately but no other practice really. And today Ive been getting all the tactics problems wrong, so that doesn't augur well.

Might as well get it over with. Reports will follow here as usual.

In the money at Hereford

Game 5 - The Goodfellow Opening
I felt a bit tired on Monday morning when I woke up at Hereford after all the exertions and subsequent celebrations on Sunday. Still, I was lying 2nd in a chess tournament and an appointment on Board 1 awaited, so there was stern work ahead.

After checking out of the hotel, Colin and I went to Wetherspoons for breakfast where I wrote the last entry. I managed to avoid the full fatboy fried breakfast and had a sausage morning roll and some toast instead. Then we headed off to the venue.

Sure enough, I was on board 1 playing Black against the one person on 4/4. It is nice being involved in the "business end" of a tournament on the top boards - there's always more interest in your games, and there's all the fun of calculating what results you want on the other boards to maximise your earnings.

The chap I was playing was relatively low-rated - though still a lot higher than me - at 108, and I'd overheard him yesterday telling the bloke he'd just beaten how he (the first bloke) wasn't a good player! Obviously he was having a good tournament though.

He opened with 1. b4, an offbeat opening which I've only ever played against once, in a correspondence game. Russell Goodfellow had given me some tips on how to meet it, since he used to play it himself and I remembered the first few moves

1 b4 c6
2 Bb2 Qb6
3 a3 a5

and there are quite a few tricks and traps for the unwary. Unfortunately I couldn't remember much more of Russell's sage advice and the opponent didn't fall into any of the traps, with the result that I was soon a pawn down with no compensation. The only comfort was that it was a relatively unimportant a-pawn, and so I didn't feel too dispondent as yet. I also felt that his pieces were slightly misplaced - there was a Knight on b5 or somehwere and a Bishop on b2 hemmed in by pawns and I gradually manoeuvred my pieces onto better squares.

Then he made a bad mistake and left a pawn where I could just take it for nothing, and not only that I got a rook fork into the bargain, so soon I was an exchange up. He was furious with himself; covered his scoresheet with question marks and tutted a lot.

It wasn't actually all that bad for him though, as so often is the case when you take material you damage your own position and soon it was me on the b ack foot defending a weak pawn on c6 which , if he took it, also allowed him to fork two rooks. It was all extremely complicated. As I was trying to figure it all out, he chose a good moment to offer a draw. Being somewhat lazy in such matters, and being well aware of the value of a half point at this position, I accepted.

Martial arts and a 50 year wait
We went to analyse the game but he spent the next 20 minutes telling me his life story. Apparently he is 68 years old and has spent the last 50 years unsuccessfully trying to win a chess tournament, so this was a big moment for him! His passions are chess, motorcycles and martial arts. He said chess and motorbikes have cost him two marriages! He even demonstrated some martial arts moves, showing me - as martial arts types always do - how easy it is to disarm someone with a knife etc.

Colin came along to the analysis room. He was happy because he had won his game, his first win of this his return to tournament chess. He told my opponent that he used to do karate, whereupon the chap punched him in the stomach as a demonstration of another move!

We had a look at the game eventually and concluded that I did probably stand somewhat better at the end. Nevertheless he was clearly on a roll so I was still content with the half point.

Bitter recriminations in the tournament hall
We went back to the main hall where a most entertaining blazing row was in progress in the middle of the hall. What it seemed to boil down to was that in the Open section a bloke from Bridgend was playing a Dutch woman (clearly plenty of scope for communcations problems there). He said he had asked her about the time control but that she had misinterpreted that as a draw offer, shaken his hand and started walking off. When he protested that he had not offered a draw an argument broke out, involving also her husband who was standing watching the game.

For some reason no-one called in the arbiter to make a rational explanation of what was clearly a misunderstanding, and it soon descended into a full-blown row with the husband calling the Welsh bloke a bastard and pushing and shoving. By the time the arbiter did come the Welsh bloke was in a towering rage and said the arbiter was incompetant and withdrew from the touranment before he could be disqualified. It did seem rather to be a storm in a teacup.

Colin and I went out for a little walk and ate sandwiches provided by the Girl Guides.

Final Round
So in the afternoon I was on board 2 on 4/5 , half a point behind my morning opponent. I needed to win and then I would share first place if he lost or drew, but would be only second if he won.

My opponent for this game was on 3.5 and there was no-one else above 3, so even if I drew I was likely to win something but I couldn't afford to lose. My opponent, being half a point behind, had to win. Overall, I was quite nicely placed.

I was playing a chap called Sage who had beaten Colin earlier in the tournament. During that game he had apparently got through two plates of sandwiches, two cakes and two teas and biscuits. In my game he didn't eat much but he did keep dozing off which I've not before. I was hoping he'd stay asleep and lose on time but he kept waking up when I pressed the clock!

It was actually quite a dull, cagey game. Colin had told me he was solid and so it proved. The game was a Queens Gambit Declined (I was White) with him playing a Kingside fianchetto which is a bit odd. It was a typical drawish QGD - all the heavy pieces got exchanged on the c-file and we went into an ending with 2 minor pieces each (he had BB against my NB) and lots of pawns. Really it was evident from quite early on that with decent play it would be a draw. I offered a draw but he turned it down - reasonably enough, because he needed to win.

He did have a Bishop pair but with so many pawns it was limited use and he had to tie a Bishop up defending pawns. The games on board 1 and 3 were drawn. The Karate bloke's draw meant he was guaranteed to win the tournament - shared with me if I won my game. It was becoming increasingly evident that our game was drawn. One of his Bishop's couldn't even move - it was stuck on h8 with my Knight and a pawn covering all its squares. All I was doing was shuffling a Bishop back and forth on a diagonal which prevented his other one from penetrating the position.

We went past the time control and I started contemplating calling the arbiter to get the game declared a draw, when eventually Sage accepted the inevitable and offered a draw.

So the Karate guy won, and his opponent, an amiable South African, and I shared second place. Won £65 which was nice, and I was very pleased with the result. I have now come joint 2nd in two of my last three tournaments, Grange over Sands and this one - though Grange was a much easier section (under 80, whereas this was under 120 (in effect - though its now described as under 135 as grades have been changed).

We collected our prizes and the Karate guy gave a short speech explaining how his school motto had been about how persistence is always rewarded. Colin had disappointgly lost his last game after being ahead, and ended with 1 win and 1 draw, but that's not bad considering he'd not played a game for two years. We said our goodbyes and I set off for my tedious 3 hour drive home.

Day 2 at Hereford - 2 wins

I am in Wetherspoons in Hereford having breakfast with Colin.

The weekend has been going well both in chess terms and otherwise.

Yesterday I won both my games; in some ways it was the best day of my chess "career" to date - both of my opponents were reasonably strong, given that we were in the Minor section that is - one was rated 127 and one was 117, thoughit must be borne in mind, by those of you to whom that means something, that this is the new grades, and in the"old money" they were probably about 110 and 100 respectively or around 1500 in US/Irish terms.

Still, I have only beaten a handful of players of that level, so to beat two in one day was quite an achievement. The other encouraging part was that the games weren't even close - I didn't really give them much of a chance - whenI put the games into the computer it was evident that I'd outplayed them throughout.

The tournament is good for a number of reasons, not least that, being over a Bank Holiday weekend (today is the AugstBank Holiday), it means the games are spread over three days, and only two games a day, with a very civilised10h30 start time each day. Colin and I had a Thai dinner on Saturday night and a few beers and could still sleep in and have breakfast in a pavement cafe before going to the venue.

My morning game was against a quite smartly-dressed character (by the low standards of chess events positively dressy) of about my age. It wasn't a bad game though I felt I was better throughout. He played the Queens GambitAccepted which I've not met for a while but I was able to control the centre and soon had open lines and tacticalchances. I got a pawn up via a tactic and then he made a mistake, taking a pawn with his Queen which was fatal - I either won the Queen or had a mate in 2. As it was he didn't even see the mate so it was over right there.
All the tactics exercises I've been making myself do over the past few months have certainly paid off - I wouldnthave seen that mate myself until recently I think. I have come to the conclusion from this tournament that tactics problems are the single most valuable way of improving one's results - as Jonathan Rowson said in his bookChess for Zebras, lots of people regard chess practice as almost an intellectual exercise - calling it "study"whereas he says you should see it as training, like you would do for a sport, and rather than (in his words) "reading and nodding" you should do proper training - noone practices running by reading a book! Anyway, movingaway from academic study of openings to tactics practice has certainly proved worthwhile for me.

We went out for a little walk at lunchtime across some fields, admiring good views of the Herefordshire countrysidetowards the Malvern Hills. We found a pub and had a pint - by chance, Colin's opponent from yesterday was in thereso we had a chat to him.
In the afternoon, I was playing a bloke with sideburns and a bristly moustache. The opening was a Colle, the exactsame one that the lady played against me in round 1. I played the same system against it, since it worked OK thelast time. Knights on d7 and f6, bishops on b7 and e7, small centre with pawns on e6, d6, c5, b6. It seemed quite flexible.As on Saturday's game , I soon saw a way to win a piece since he left a bishop with no retreat squares whereI could trap it. I fell foul of the exact same tactic in Gonzaga, so I knew well how annoying it is. After thathe fought on for ages trying to drum up some counterplay with queenside pawns, but it was really just a matter of beingcareful to bring home the win. In the end the tactics started flowing and his position fell apart and he hadto resign just after the time control.

Colin won his first game as well, after 2 losses. He beat a woman rated 117 and it must be remembered that he'snot played a serious chess game or done any practice for 18 months, so its avery good achievement to win any gamesat this level.

We were going to have a quiet night and take it easy but we did have to celebrate a bit. We went to a Wetherspoons-likeplace for dinner - two meals for £7 and a bottle of wine for a fiver. THen we went to another pub to analyse the games, and met up again with the bloke we met at lunchtime. He had one beer and then left, and we carried on a bit. Colin talked a lot more about the Tarot and his new fitness campaign that he's starting up in an attempt to shiftthe old middle-age weight problems we all get. He's full of enthusiasm for his "army style" training routine.
Ended up going to bed about midnight then - woke up at 3am whenthe laptop fell off the bed - I'd fallen asleep with it on. Luckily it doesn't seem to be broken. Got up this morning at about 8, checked out of the hotel and now we have just had breakfast and are heading off to the venue.

Hereford part 1

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.

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.

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.

Grange-over-Sands part 1

Here is the first part of the account of my successful tournament at Grange-over-Sands. The rest will follow over the next few days. I've added some "reaction" buttons at the bottom, so please have your say if you like and let me know what you think of it.

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Friday June 5th

I am in a bed and breakfast place in Lancaster awaiting the start of the Grange over Sands tournaments. Grange is a small seaside town on Morecambe Bay, about 26 miles from here - as ever I left it too long to get my accommodation organisedand so I couldn't find anywhere affordable to stay, so I'm a fair way from the venue. Its a nice B&B though, rightnext to the railway station.

To be honest I've hardly picked up a pawn in anger since the Nottingham tournament, which is why there have been no chess journals since then. Michelle has been here for a month-long visit. We had a nice holiday for a week, touring the country staying with friends in various locations, and doing hill-walks in places like the South Downs, Chilterns andCheshire. She then stayed at my place for another three weeks and so we filled our time with lots of nice walks, pubdinners and film nights, and so there wasn't much time for chess. It probably did me good to have a break though.

Today I dropped Michelle off at Liverpool airport and she's now back in Berlin and I'm torturing myself once again on the chess circuit.

Dave Stephenson, one of the small and select circulation of readers of this journal, is playing here too - though he is in the Open and I'm in the bottom section, which tells you all you need to know about our relative abilities! Dave manages to combine playing high-level chess with singing in a choir, hill-walking and being an IT contractor - I'm not sure how he managesto do it all!

Another friend is going to be coming along to the tournament - Geoff Renyard, a very sound man whom I worked with on an IT project all of last year. We lived in the same hotel and so spent a lot of time drinking, going for walks and playing board games with one another. He lives near Carlisle, 60 miles north of here, and so he's coming along to spectate. He will be staying in this B&B tonight and then tomorrow I will stay in his place. Nice to have a couple of friends at the tournament anyway.

Now I must re-read my precepts list from Nottingham - I must make sure I stick to them all again. Unfortunately Michelleand I were staying at John's place in Nottingham last night (coincidentally the same friend I stayed with for the last tournament) and he and I were up drinking gin until 2am and watching the election coverage on the news, so that's oneprecept broken already! I haven't had a drink today though. Must lay off the beer!