Dreary weekend at Hull

HULL - Day 1, Friday 8 October
The Hull tournament took place two weeks ago, but it was such a disappointing weekend that I've only now just got round to writing about it, and I'm only doing it now because today the Scarborough tournament begins so I have to get this written up.

After have [almost] very successful tournaments at the British in Canterbury, and then in Leicester, in both of which I was in contention for the title until near the end when things went awry, I knew I was overdue a bad tournament. Hull was also the site of one of my worst-ever results back in 2008, so all in all the omens weren't good.

At least they moved the tournament from the deeply dreary and freezing cold Students' Union building to a much nicer venue near the city centre. It was a convent/retreat centre - an old and characterful Victorian brick building full of chapels and halls and corridors all quite higgledy-piggledy and with a very nice atmosphere. There were also nice gardens all around, with tinkling fountains and the like, and nuns flitting around genially. It would be a very good venue for a retreat.

I got there quite early, but feeling very out-of-sorts, only to find to my delight that I had requested a bye on the Friday night - I'd quite forgotten. That was because I wasn't sure at the time whether I would be working in Dublin that day. I was very happy to get a night off from the chess! The tournament was quite small, maybe about 100 players all told, and was being held in a side hall near the main building.

Colin Fell and Dave Stephenson (who lives in Hull) were both playing the event as well, so I watched the start of their games and then headed off for a curry. There was a very nice, inexpensive curry house over the road, no doubt a favourite venue for the nuns' nights out, and I had a very nice curry, spiced up with lime pickle in the sauce, which was a novel idea, which only cost me a fiver. And they didn't have a drinks licence, so I got some tins of Kronie from Sainsburys. All very satisfactory.

I went back to the chess hall. Colin's game wasn't going very well to say the least - he was a Queen down - so I headed back off to a nice bar I had found earlier round the corner. It was quite a trendy-looking place, quite empty but for the barman, who was a young chap with a John Travolta (as he is now) hairstyle. He was very knowledgable about spirits and we had a good discussion about fine whiskies, brandies and tequilas. I sampled an unusual tequila which was very nice indeed.

We got onto the subject of cocktails, and he told me that their official menu was all just for students, full of fruit juice and generally not for the discerning punter such as myself. He mixed me a negroni (gin, sweet vermouth and campari - quite similar to the Cardinale I make myself, which has dry vermouth in it), which was absolutely delicious - and I think he gave me a good discount as well.

I got back to the chess hall, feeling distinctly warmed, to find that, amazingly, Colin was fighting his way back from a Queen down and, in fact, he went on to win the game! An amazing escape from being so far down. Dave Stephenson was beside himself with excitement about it and kept saying how inspirational it was , how much better than my own inclination to resign when I lose a pawn.

Colin was staying at my place for the weekend, which is about an hour's drive from Hull. I couldnt drive with that cocktail sloshing round inside me, so he drove us back to my house.

HULL - Day 2, Saturday 9 October
Turned out to be one of my worst chess days for a long time. I was feeling fairly tired and out-of-sorts when I got up. In the first game, I had a dreary draw which never really got going. I've just now got around to putting it in the computer, and have discovered that I missed at least two good chances to win material which would have given me a clear advantage. That shows how out of sorts I was: these were things that I'd usually have seen.

We had lunch in a pub round the corner which had a "two meals for £6" deal on.

The afternoon went even worse - I was playing a chap I lost to the last time I played at Huddersfield, friendly bloke with a big white beard, and I managed to repeat the performance and the result from 2008. I got into a sharp tactical position, calculated a line which was losing a pawn - but played it anyway! The game was pretty much lost after that - even though I was only a pawn down I had no counterplay. Colin said he'd have resigned it even earlier than I did.

Colin did slightly better. He lost in the morning and won in the afternoon, so he was on 2/3 and I was on a demoralising 1/3 overnight.

We went back to my place and went out for a curry with Michelle before doing a little chess analysis and getting an early night.

Day 3 - Sunday, 10 October
Neither of us was in contention for the title any more, but at least I didn't pull out of the tournament which I would have done in former times. I reminded myself that I am regarding all these games merely as practice for the real prize, next year's British Under 120 Championship.
And Sunday was a somewhat better day. In the morning, I managed to win, albeit against one of the lower-ranked players in the section. It was quite a good, tactical game and I managed to control the tactics and emerge on top. Colin had to play the white-bearded bloke I had lost to the previous day, and he managed to blunder his way to defeat as well, despite having been ahead. The chap joined an exclusive club of people who have beaten both me and Colin!

We had lunch in the pub again and a few games of pool. Dave came along as well.

My afternoon game was a typical low-key final round game where neither player has anything to play for, and ended up in another quiet and uninteresting draw, despite some very odd play from him in the opening, so I ended on an uninspiring 2.5/5 overall. Colin at least won his last game and finished on 3/5 with 3 wins.

An uninspiring tournament and an uninspiring blog entry to match, not helped by writing it 2 weeks after the event! Let's hope for better things at Scarborough.