Yet Another World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk
The rating lists used for the World Cup qualification were July 2010 and January 2011, so establishing whether or not one was qualified should be simple. However despite several requests for...
View ArticleUnexpected King Move
The Eurocup was held in a pleasant venue in Rogaška Slatina, Slovenia, with several hotels conveniently near the playing hall. The food was also well above average for this event. Unfortunately the...
View ArticleDress for Success
It seems a bit late to write much about the European team championship held in Greece, so instead I will make some comments on the ECU decision to introduce some new rules for the future bringing in a...
View ArticleLess Than Classic Performance in London
The LCC has established itself very quickly and was as usual well organized. The addition of an extra player proving an inspired decision, as well as evening up the colours, the concept of having the...
View ArticleBack To School
The Chess in Schools and Communities Charity is an integral part of the London Classic event and has made great strides in it’s short existence, having introduced an ever growing number of teachers in...
View ArticleThe Governor’s Dinner
Tournament chief sponsor Tradewise, Brain Callaghan and the staff of the Caleta Hotel pulled out all the stops for the 10th edition of The Gibraltar Chess Festival which was, as usual, a great success....
View ArticleEternal Endgames
The 10th edition of the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival, by far the strongest yet was as ever a tremendous event and it was great to hear that Brian Callaghan had received an OBE for services to...
View ArticleBlitzed in Bunratty
I made my first visit to the Bunratty event at it’s 19th edition, this was more my fault than theirs as I have been invited on a few other occasions. The once mighty weekend circuit in the UK is at a...
View ArticleTime to Resign?
I haven’t updated for a while partly because we have been switching webhost, hopefully all the links should be working again now. I didn’t play the last 4NCL but was happy to see Wood Green squeezed...
View ArticleTake The Stage
It was good to see that chess was one of the disciplines for the Adidas ‘Take the Stage’ advertising campaign. I was invited to mentor Yang-Fan Zhou for a day for the event which was quite a fun...
View ArticleTeam Triumphs
With team chess in the close season in Germany and the UK I thought I would wrap up the end of the Bundesliga and 4NCL. Both leagues ended happily for my respective teams Grenke Leasing’s Baden-Baden...
View ArticleTricky Timing
At the London Classic I got chatting to Daniel Parmet who kindly mentioned that he might be able to set up some events if I played in the Chicago Open again. I decided to give it a go as it was a good...
View ArticleTurkish Tragesty*
I was happy to return to the Turkish League for the second time, although the dates selected proved unfortunate for me as they were very unfriendly for both the World Open and the British Championship...
View ArticleCanny Resemblences
I’m not sure Danny is the next Rory Bremner based on the clip below, although he has picked on some mannerisms. I remember Ivan Sokolov doing a very good impression of me during Leon 1995, but it was...
View ArticleIstanbul Olympiad
I was back in Turkey in time to re-use my visa from the team competition, this time for the Olympiad, held not far from the airport. The hotel and meals were quite good compared to recent editions,...
View ArticleLast Minute in London
Around lunchtime the day before the opening ceremony, I got a late call up to the London leg of the FIDE Grand Prix substituting for Peter Svidler for that one event only. Despite the lateness of the...
View ArticleEurocup in Eilat
Not long after the London Grand Prix I was heading for the Eurocup this time held in Eilat in Israel. This made for a grueling and expensive journey which may explain why the number of teams...
View ArticleBunratty Masters Champion!
To bring things up to date, and because for a change I won a chess tournament, I am writing about my most recent event and will wrap up the LCC, Baden-Baden, and Gibraltar soon. I garnered a lot of...
View ArticleLondon Classic Revisited
After my debacle last year, I approached the London Chess Classic with a certain amount of trepidation, but after a good start winning a couple of decent games against Gawain Jones and Judit Polgar...
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