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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