England

Caroline getting pretty close to deer at Windosr

After our roadtrip round France, Caroline and I visited family in England. For both of us, this was a time of happiness at seeing loved ones we hadn't met for 3 years. Mixed with this was the grief of having relatives die since our last visit to England.

Wildboarclough, in the foothills of the Pennines

Sunset at Cat and Fiddle Pass

Reflections of Castleton in the Peak District

We first headed north to Cheshire where Caroline was born and spent close to a week with her family. Cheshire is a beautiful county (except for the Merseyside parts of Leigh and St Helens) which borders Wales, touches the foothills of the Peak District, and has the walled city of Chester as its capital. Caroline's Mum lives near the railway dominated town of Crewe, which in itself is not the prettiest place in the world, but the countryside around is great, and we spent some time in the historic town of Sandbach, which has recognisable history tracing back to Saxon times.

Saxon grave markers at St Mary's, itself a 12th Centruy Church

The Old Black Bear, a 17th Century pub in Sandbach

We chose to go for a drive into the Derbyshire Peaks, a beautiful part of England. This was the sort of thing Caroline and I did when we lived in this part of the world. The beauty of the Peaks, and the belonging that resonates from the stone wall town and villages makes the Peak District a special place.

From Cheshire we drove to Hampshire where my family are based. My extended family is bigger than Caroline's and we struggled to see everybody, and even those we saw our time was spread pretty thin. For me though, the poignant issue was the absence of my Dad. It was indeed a strange experience to walk into my childhood home and him not to be there. He was never short of laughs, smiles and hugs, and wished to see those around him happy. I think his greatest wish to was to be outlived by his wife and children, and even though he reached the age of 90, I can happily say his wish came true.

Autumn colours shining through at Windsor Great Park

Windsor Castle at the end of the Long Walk

As well as visiting family, Caroline and I also managed a day out in Windsor. Besides visiting the town, we walked through the Great Park with deer roaming around. Lunch in a 17th Century pub topped off our fill of things historic which started about a month before in Amsterdam, and wended its way through France and England.

Outside Windsor Castle Queen Victoria stood as the longest serving English monarch until days before this photo was taken, when Elizabeth II broke that record

Connected ramblings

Are you one of those people who are trying to find connections between things that happen, meanings or rationale? I guess I am. It is bizarre really, taking into account that I am vehemently against ideas of predetermination which mean that I don't believe in luck, fate or doom. In fact, it really annoys Caroline, my long suffering wife, when things just seem to fall into place. As an example, last year during our driving holiday around the USA, we had a day in Yellowstone. The drive and walks were wonderful, and we came close to amazing wildlife such as buffalo and pronghorn deer. On our way out of Yellowstone, we saw a car stopped on the side of the road, and so we thought we'd slow to see if the passengers had found something interesting to look at. Near to the road was a beautiful stag elk, grazing. We were just about getting ready to pull off when his head shot up, and we sprang off. And the next thing we heard was the unmistakeable howling of a nearby pack of wolves. The sound charged the air, and the wonder of hearing the wolves was exacerbated by the elemental fear that the howling puts through you. Caroline thanks her lucky start for that moment, while I was glad to be in the right place at the right time.

I was so happy to hear from one of my very best friends from England a few days ago. When one emigrates, it is so easy to get on with the new life and leave the old one behind. I guess that I have been guilty of that throughout my life. I left school, and moved from home to university, keeping in touch with virtually no one from that time (now there is only one left, and I only talk to John infrequently). After leaving university I travelled (bummed about) a bit before finally settling in Coventry. I lost contact with my university friends, only to start regaining contact recently through social media. Now that I've moved on again, I seem to have left many of the friends behind who I spent time with in Coventry. It's not that I don't think about these people, and often my mind will draw back to a moment in the past when something happened and someone who I haven't seen for ages comes to mind. When my great friend Mick contacted me through Facebook, it was really good, and I was able to catch up with him about times we spent together, and the laughs we had. I'm sure there will be more laughs and reminiscences to come. In fact I've just remembered a weekend we spent away in the somewhat less than salubrious setting of Hartlepool. OMG, there are some memories that could be better left locked away :D

I learned today that Robin Williams has died at the sadly young age of 63. While I was never a huge fan of Robin Williams, there is one movie that will stay with me for a long time, and that was partly due to the movie, and partly because I love the novel. The World According to Garp is a moving film from an equally moving book. It is a story that deals with deep themes such as sexuality and the inevitability of death. I must make the effort to see the film and read the book again. In that case Robin William's death will have influenced me, as I'm sure it has affected millions of other people.

I currently have a mass of books sitting on the shelf waiting to be read. There's a combination of genre and a mix of authors who I've read before, and who are new to me. There are even some books waiting to be read again. I lent out a copy of Joanne Harris's "Blackberry Wine" to our best friends in Australia, Nick and Zoe, and when I got home, I felt like reading it again. Bizarre! But then again, I remember reading it and thinking, 'this is like nothing I've ever read before'! I mean, how many novels are narrated by a bottle of wine? I mean, using death to narrate "The Book Thief" was great, but no greater than Harris's vintage. I guess it was books such as Blackberry Wine and The World According to Garp that took me away from reading mystery, or fantasy fiction, not that I've stopped reading those genre. I now read anything and everything....except horror, I guess.

It's been cold recently in Melbourne, and this always makes me think about trips away on holiday for some reason. Of course, we're always content when the weather is good outside. But the weird thing is that I'm heading to the south island of new Zealand where it's likely to be colder than it is here. Never mind, there will be plenty to see and the breathtaking beauty of New Zealand should be enough to recharge the batteries. The plan is to see this winter through, experience New Zealand, and then start a mad fitness drive through the spring and into the summer. So it should be back to writing occasionally about running. It's important that I start a fitness regime, as diabetes runs through both sides of my family. Funnily enough, the first time I really took tor running was in my mid 30's, which coincided with about the time that I was first reading novels such as the World According to Garp, and Blackberry Wine.

See, it's all connected, or I think too much...

Mixed feelings

Last night came the dreaded moment when my country of residence, Australia, took on my country of birth, England, in the women's Olympiad. I found it very difficult to cheer for one team or another. In the end, the Australian team won by a narrow margin which was something of an upset but good from my point of view was that Anne-Marie James drew with Sally Yu, probably the 2 players in both teams I know the best. This match has pulled the Aussie women's team up the rankings to 32nd or equal 23rd in match points terms. From a starting position of 51st this is a fantastic effort and they will continue their tournament next against a strong Serbian team, where Australia will be out rated by quite a bit on every board. However, this Olympiad has provided quite a few upsets already in both men's and women's sections, and Australian team spirit will be high for the match.

The women's event was virtually decided in the last round with the match up of China-Russia. These 2 amazing teams had been cutting a swathe through the rest of the field, and their 7th round encounter seemed like a tournament decider. Of course, with 4 rounds to go, anything could happen, and it is unlikely that a team will be able to hold it together for every match in the event, but the Russian women have given themselves a great opportunity to retain their title by beating China 3-1. If Russia do win, then it will add to the stories in Olympiad history, as the team were nearly denied entry to the event before it began. The Olympiad organisers had denied the Russian women a spot in Tromso after Russia failed to enter their team list on time. This caused a crisis in the chess world with FIDE President Ilyumshinov finally stepping in to use his Presidential power to allow the Russian women a spot. By all accounts, the late entry was due to Kateryna Lagno changing federations from Ukraine to Russia, and the Russian's not wanting to name the team until that change came through. It has certainly worked out well for the Russian's as Lagno's victory over Women's World Champion, Yifan Hou was an integral part of Russia's victory yesterday.

The Open section also had some amazing results. Firstly, Azerbaijan are on an absolute mission in this event, and with the sad death earlier in the year of star player Gashimov, it as if the team are playing with a purpose of winning the tournament as a tribute to him. Azerbaijan are now sole leaders having won all games except one draw. Of course, it gets harder to keep things going the further the tournament goes, and today they have a very tough draw against China who have already drawn with the Russians in an earlier round. Not that Russia are performing that well. After struggling to beat Uzbekistan, they then lost to the Czech Republic and currently languish in 16th spot 3 points off the leaders. In fact, there are a whole bunch of top nations above Russia who could easily win their last 4 matches to take out the title should Azerbaijan slip. Armenia, Ukraine, France and the USA have all come back from disappointments earlier, and are all ahead of Russia. The English team are on the same score as Russia, with surprisingly, Scotland also in that group.

Australia's men had a fine win against higher rated Mexico yesterday, that has pulled them up to 50th, though they are on the same score as the team in 28th. The open event has the most amazing pairings in round 8, and at the top, every match will be hard fought. It will be hard pushed to top the USA-Hungary pairing, though, where 5th seeds take on 6th seeds. Russia need to win all their remaining 4 matches to stand any chance of a top finish, and that starts tonight against a tough Spanish team. England out rate Serbia by quite a margin, but that won't help to make their job easier as the Serbs have been playing well so far. Australia have to play Uzbekistan where David Smerdon will continue his tournament against tip rated opposition. After drawing with world number 2 Aronian earlier in the tournament, he has to face 2700 rated Kazimdzhanov today.

Anton Smirnov at the Australian Championship in January

Australia's star performer has been their youngest player, 13 year old Anton Smirnov who has scored an impressive 5.5/6 for a rating performance just below 2600. It's Anton's turn to rotate out of the match today, but there will be 3 more matches after that when he will hopefully add to his tally. Meanwhile, England's star has also been the bottom board. Matthew Sadler took time off chess, but he is back and performing well, with 5.5/7 for a 2696 performance. England have had some tough pairings, but have performed quite well. Nigel Short has perhaps been the weakest link this time round, but he is a stalwart for England and may yet come through in the final rounds, that is if he isn't working too hard in his role in the Kasparov electoral team.

Olympiad Coverage

Day 2 of the event and there were still a lot of mismatches. That didn't stop there being some amazing upsets, but they were few and far between. Most notably, Ivanchuk lost to the board 1 of Norway's second team, and the Ukraine who are seeded second in the event were held to a draw. The teams that I'm following seemed to put in good performances. England won their match comfortably against Singapore, while Australia kept defending champions Armenia to a 3-1 scoreline. Sensational results by David Smerdon who held world number 2 Aronian to a draw, and Max Illingworth who held Sergi Movsesian to a draw were outstanding efforts. In fact all the Australians put in good performances but were outrated by 200+ points per board.

Lower down the field, Hong Kong managed a 2-2 draw with Afghanistan and Bhutan scored a half point against a pretty solid Trinidad and Tobago side. Unfortunately, all the island teams from close to Australia went down 4-0. That is Palau, Solomon Islands, and Fiji. The pairings will start to bring sides closer to their own levels from the next round, though, so it will start to get more competitive across the matches. My own favourite result of the round came from the board 1 match between Seychelles and Romania. Seychelles had scored an excellent 4-0 first round win against the GM led Turkmenistan team. In reality, Turkmenistan had failed to show, and the Seychelles found themselves in unusual territory. However, their board 1, Peter Meier rated 2039 stepped up to the plate against Romania's top board, 2626 rated GM Constantin Lupulescu, and came away with a draw. In fact, the game had looked good for Meier earlier, and in the end Lupulescu forced a repetition to hold the game.

Lupulescu as black is faced with a number for threats around his king with Qxh4+ or Nf7+ with Qxg6+ to follow being the major threats. The Rumanian player bailed out with the perpetual 35..Nf1+ 36.Kh1 Ng3+ 37.Kh2 and Peter Meier came away with a draw against a player 600 points his senior!

In the meantime, perhaps the game of the round was the all GM Fried Liver battle between Shirov and Sulskis.

Now I seem to remember an article in New in Chess a few years ago suggesting 11..Qh4 as an attempt to improve black's play. Sulskis played the sensible looking 11..Kd6 getting out of the discovered check, but after 12.d4 he soon found his king facing a typical Shirov onslaught. To be honest, I'm not sure what black was thinking allowing the Fried Liver against one of the most creative attacking players of our times. Anyway, here's the game.

Finally, here's some other places to follow the Olympiad. The coverage is truly excellent with chess24 and TWIC providing superb coverage of games and news. Facebook and Twitter are full of photo's and news from people on the scene but I'm following the blogs of Kerry Stead, Shaun Press, and David Smerdon. Of course, these all have a typically Australian flavour to them, and I'll be looking for blogs from players and visitors from other countries too.

Chess Fever Fortnight

Yesterday the first round of the Chess Olympiad started in Norway. This event will take my spare time over for the next 2 weeks, which means this blog is switching back to chess only for a while. Like most observers in the chess world, the Olympiad holds a special place for me.I will be following the results and games of a number of teams in the events. The event has plenty of coverage across the internet, but undoubtedly top site for coverage is chess24.

Firstly, I will be hoping that Australia can put up good results. My adopted country has been good to me, and I'm a firm supporter of the teams, especially as I know most of the players personally. The men's team start the event from a lowly 60th position in the seedings. However, the 2012 team was also outside the top 50 at the start of the event, but finished just outside 30th place, so hopefully good team spirit will bring us some good results. A young team, the Australians will certainly gain invaluable experience whatever their result. In fact, after their first round 4-0 win over the US Virgin Islands, the Aussies will have about as big an experience as is possible, playing defending champs, Armenia. The Australian women's team also won by 4-0 against Kenya. I was pleasantly surprised to see Sally Yu's name in the team list as I knew she had not been selected originally and I'd missed the news that she had found a place in the team. However, the downside is that our top player, Arianne Caoilli, will not be playing. Still, the women's team will also hopefully finish above their initial seeding of 51st.

I'll also be following the country where I was born, England. The men's team are pretty strong on paper, starting in 10th position in the seedings, and can hopefully bring some team spirit to the event, and challenge for a podium spot. The women's team start in 39th place, and features an old friend of mine in Ann Marie James, who I hope will have a great event. Both the men's and women's teams started with 4-0 results which is a great start, though not unexpected.

While these countries hold the most interest for me, I usually follow some other teams to make things more interesting. Of course, the top teams, and those near the top of each round will be of interest. But at the lower down the seedings, I'll be following some teams: Scotland and New Zealand have to be followed, just to make sure they don't finish above England and Australia respectively :D; I'll keep an eye on the Irish side, and no doubt will get some reports from Alex Baburin in Chess Today; Palau, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands are islands not too far from Australia, while Hong Kong I visited this year; finally, I will be following Bhutan who I think have the best flag in the event, though Swaziland's flag is also pretty cool. In fact, for a short while it looked as if Bhutan had produced the shock of the first round with a 4-0 win over Luxenbourg. However, the results had been recorded wrongly on the site, and in fact it was the other way round.

Bhutan's flag has to be one of the coolest!

Saying that, the coverage of the first round was remarkably smooth. Usually, the first round is full of errors, impossible to see because of lag or overuse of the site, and slow on producing the games. However, the results were mostly correct, the live games coverage generally good, and pgn files have already been put out, while an excellent bulletin can be found on the chess24 site.

Some Midweek Chess

Imagine you're playing someone rated maybe 250-300 points below you. The game may not be a push over, but you are probably feeling confident that if you play with no major errors, then you should be a technically better player than your opponent. So play risk free, and wait for the chances to present themselves, which they surely must. The worst that could possibly happen is that by playing it safe, you end up with a draw, and only if your opponent plays above their usual game.

Sounds like a reasonable plan, and sounds like a plan used by most players. However, GM Simon Williams isn't most players! His philosophy seems to be more like, I don't care whether you're a beginner or a World Champion, I'm going to throw pieces around in the style of Tal, or Anderssen and smash you in the most brilliant way I can....or I'll lose in the process! It is a most admirable way of playing, and it has brought the 'GingerGM' a number of fans.

Yesterday at the British Championships, Williams was playing Richard Weaving who is no mug but at 2200ish, not in the same league as the GM (2480ish). But rather than playing it safe, Williams threw pieces around, creating half threats, full threats, bluffs and feints, before landing a knockout blow to finish the game.

White has sacrificed a pawn for this lead in development, but black needs only a couple of moves to get back on track, and to have a healthy endgame advantage. But it is white to play!

White to play and win!

(answer tomorrow:as it's the day after tomorrow...Williams finished the game elegantly with 1.Nf6+! Kh8 [1..gxf6 2.Qg4+ Kh8 3.Rg3 and black must part with the queen to avoid mate] 2.Rh3 1-0)

I was glad to see an old acquaintance, Don Mason, get a good draw against GM Peter Wells. Don used the age old method of mixing it as much as possible against a higher rated opponent. The opening was a Nimzo-Indian and Don chose one of the most aggressive systems, the Samisch, and eventually one of the most random positions of the tournament so far was reached:

Luckily this position was even too random for a GM to fathom, and it wasn't long after this that the game ended in a draw. I wish both these players well in the rest of the tournament. I used to play in the Birmingham League as did Mason, and I remember Peter Wells as a junior, Peter always being the strongest junior in our county, Hampshire. Don has another tough game in the next round against another GM, Mark Hebden while Peter plays Michael Yeo (am I getting mixed up, or is Michael another Hampshire player?).

There are currently 13 players on a maximum 2/2, 6 GM's, 5 IM's, and 2 FM's, including Australia's Gary Lane. The full rankings, and pairings can be seen here.

On Pubs

To be honest, since I've been in Australia which is nearly 8 years I haven't been a frequent pub goer. Perhaps I'm a different person to the one that left the UK in 2005, or perhaps the pub culture here is just different to that which I left behind? Ok, let's stop beating around the bush, I think the pubs in Melbourne are crap compared to those in England! Actually that's a slight generalisation as there are some pubs in England I wouldn't dream of going into, and some that I've been in and then left pretty quickly. But generally, pubs as I know them are much better in the UK. Here in Melbourne, pubs are too often dressed up gambling halls with pokies machines, and betting on horses/dogs. To add respectability there are often restaurants in the pubs, but I find the buildings more like big social clubs rather than pubs.

The Cat and Fiddle

One thing I especially miss about the UK is the country pubs. When I was back over Christmas we went to a few including the one in the picture above, the Cat and Fiddle which is an isolated building sitting on the Western fringe of the Peak District not too far from Manchester. It is the second highest pub in England, and a favourite with motorcyclists, cyclists and walkers. They serve decent food and real ales (I was designated driver that day so couldn't sample any) and if you're lucky you can sit next to the open fire.

UK pubs have a rich history and are often named after people such as royalty, places and animals, but there are many different pub names, and some with a great sense of humour. When I was growing up there was a contest to name the new local pub in my area, and the winner was the culturally pleasing Brahms and Lizst. Of course, this was rhyming slang for "pissed" so the name never was chosen, though the 2 bars were called the Brahms Bar and the Liszt Bar! And some of the pubs are old, very old. For history lovers, we are talking over 1000 years old in some cases! Just the architecture alone makes a tour of great pubs a worthwhile thing, let alone the interior, ambience and the real ales. (by the way, I've been in 2 of the pubs in the link above, wonder if you can guess which ones?).

England's oldest pub

The Olde Fighting Cocks is in the Guinness Book of Records s the oldest pub in England. How could anyone walk past this beautiful pub and not stop in for a drink? Of course, pubs in towns tend to have a different feeling, some of which are quite rough, but these are places I would avoid. A summer's evening, in a beer garden, with real ales and chatting happily to friends is an unbeatable experience. Let us visually compare this with an Australian offering!

Outside terrace of the Black Swan, Stratford Upon Avon

Possibly the best pub in Melbourne, The Rose Hotel in Fitzroy

I might be sounding a bit of  beer snob here, but Melbourne's best pubs are a long way off matching the quality of their English counterparts.

England-France

I am currently sat in my beanbag, writing this while waiting for the live coverage of round 4 of the Olympiad to begin. Tonight I have my English head on, as the classic battle between England and France is being played. Both these teams are outside chances for medals in this Olympiad with France ranked 8th and England ranked 11th at the start of the tournament. Both teams have won all their games, and both have had to overcome some pretty tough opposition. In the previous round, France played Bulgaria who were ranked 10th before the tournament and who fielded the dangerous duo of Topalov and Cheparinov on the top 2 boards. However, Topalov was beaten by French board 1 Maxime Vachier-Legrave and the rest of the games were drawn. England also had an impressive victory in the 3rd round against Cuba (ranked 15th) with 2700+ players Dominguez and Bruzon on the top 2 boards. England's board 1 Adams won against Dominguez, while England also won on board 3 where they have the hugely experienced Nigel Short. With the other games drawn, this was a decisive 3-1 victory. The match has just started, and if either side can pull out a victory, then they will put themselves in great position at the head of the field.

Most of the top teams are near the top, but the big exception is Holland. I'm not sure what is going on here. The Dutch team seem to be missing Anish Giri, but still have 4 players rated above 2600 with the hugely experienced van Wely and Ivan Sokolov on top boards. However, none of their team is currently performing and from a starting rank of 9th they have currently won only 1 of their 3 matches including losing to Venezuela who are ranked a lowly 58th.

However, besides Holland, the top nations are there or thereabouts and this is shown in the 4th round pairings. USA(5)-India(13), Russia(1)-China(6), Azerbaijan(7)-Germany(14), and of course France(8)-England(11). The rest of the top teams are just behind these.

Australia narrowly lost out to Mongolia yesterday and find themselves down the field playing Pakistan, where hopefully they will bounce back up the field. In the 2.5-1.5 loss there was a good win for Max Illingworth on board 4 against a higher rated opponent. Max grabbed some material early on, and held on. There were some nervous moments through the middle of the game, but I get the feeling that Max felt comfortable, and he finished the game off in style.

No chance for a breather

Following chess tournaments is now an ongoing experience. There is no shortage of events and as soon as one finishes another starts. The super GM event in Biel finished with Wang Hao taking first prize thanks to the 3 points for a win, soccer style scoring system. Under the more traditional 1 point for a win the winner would have been World number 1 Magnus Carlsen. But Magnus can be content with his performance, and the fact that his rating has moved closer to Kasparov's peak of 2851, and further from his rivals.

Rather than taking a breath and working out when the next big event will take place, there is no break as the Russian Championship starts today. Both the men's and women's sections boast excellent fields and National Championships often bring interesting results as the players know each other well. It seems to be a time for national championships with the British about to conclude and the Ukrainian entering the second half. These Championships are run on different levels, with the British being a medium sized swiss and the Ukrainian being an elite round robin.

The British has one round to go and is being led by GM Stephen Gordon who is half a point ahead of ratings favourite GM Gawain Jones, who is himself half a point clear of GM David Howell. But for me the swiss system event is all about players getting a chance to move up and in the British Marcus Osborne has taken his chance. I can't say I know him, but the 2245 rated player has scored 6.5 against a field that includes 3 GM's (and he has to face another in the final round!) and 2 IM's. His performance rating after the first 10 rounds is a whopping 2433 so a big congratulations to him.

Another interesting event that has just started is the World Junior Championship in Turkey. The tournament has a rich history dating back to 1951 when Yugoslav Boris Ivkov took the title. Ivkov went on to become a World Championship Candidate and other famous winners of the World Junior include Spassky, Karpov, Kasparov, Anand, Miles and Aronian. The current event has over 10 GM's, 4 of which are over 2600. again, you'll have to excuse my national pride as I cheer on the Australians (Andrew Brown and Fedja Zulfic, but sadly no players in the girls event) and English (Zhou Yang-Fan, Callum KilPatrick, William Jones, Ravi Haria, Henryk Stepanyan are all in the boys section while the girls section has Lateefah Messam-Sparks and Anna York-Andersen). The tournament started yesterday and hopefully we'll get some first hand experiences. Already in the first round, one of the Australians performed well above his rating. Fedja Zulfic (2135) scored a draw with IM Bajarani (2446) of Azerbaijan. Fedja found a nice resource in his endgame.

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British Chess Championship

Tomorrow, the 2012 British Chess Championships starts. As I know a lot of the players in both the Championship and the Major Open I'll be following it with interest. Actually, I have to admit that since the World Championship has ended, I've really enjoyed the high level chess that has been happening around the world. First the Tal Memorial, then the Russian Higher League and Dortmund have all been great with interesting stuff at the match between Russia and China and the mass of open tournaments around the world. Besides the British Champs, world number 1 Magnus Carlsen will be in action at Biel where he comes up against strong opposition in Nakamura and Morozevich. However, though I'll be keeping an eye on this, my mind will be firmly fixed on the North of England, and the British Championships.

It is a tournament I never played in, though I did qualify for it. Unfortunately, the year I qualified was the year I emigrated to Australia so I ended up not playing. This year there are 7 Grandmasters (Jones, Howell, Gordon, Turner, Gormally, Conquest, Arkell) and 6 International Masters (Hawkins, Palliser, Hanley, Houska, Kolbus and Rudd) out of a field of 62 players. A bit further down the list, I'll be watching to see how Don Mason and Mike Surtees get on. I always used to have some great games with Don in the Birmingham league back in the 1990's and I hope he has a good tournament. I've also had a few games against Mike Surtees, mostly at weekend congresses in the North West of England, and they usually turned out to be hard fought affairs. Mike also has his own thoughts on opening theory so his games are certainly not tied down with theoretical dogma!

To help me follow these, I've checked out some blogs and websites that I'm going to read for the next 2 weeks (at least). I guess I should really be following some British sites, so I'm going to use the following:

- Streatham and Brixton Chess Blog seems to updated regularly, with a group of different contributors
- Steve Giddins blog should have good content regarding on and off the board action
- The Week in Chess (TWIC) Although some games will be published live on the British Championship site, I will use the live games server at TWIC as well, and follow commentary by Malcolm Pein. The advantage of TWIC is that it can show other tournaments live at the same time!

I have also subscribed to the following blogs
- Alexandra Kosteniuk's blog is a news blog which on first look seems excellent
- http://chicagochess.blogspot.com.au/ is a totally random choice of blog to follow, but when I had a look at it I really enjoyed the writing style, and the local flavour of the content, which is what I usually strive for here. It also has an awesome set of links!

Finally, here's a game to hearten underdogs in the British Championship. The unpredictable Mike Surtees plays his own brand of chess, which will no doubt give him some unpredictable results. Here he plays a GM in the 2009 British Rapidplay Championships and by move must surely be close to lost. Maybe you should try to guess the move for black in this game!

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Reading Material

There's nothing better than getting comfy with a good book. I'm sure I've heard that somewhere before! Anyway, there is no shortage of chess books, some good and some not so good. My personal favourites are tournament books, and I remember going through books such as Zurich 1953 by Bronstein, Botvinnik-Tal 1960 World Championship match, Spassky-Fischer by Evans, 2nd Piatigorsky Cup by Kashdan and the Leningrad and Petropolis Interzonal tournaments when I was younger. I suppose that a book of a tournament is more of a story than a typical theory book. In a tournament there are major and minor characters, a plot with twists and turns and a deal of varied material.

Believe me, I have tried to look at opening manuals, but I generally find them rather boring, or overly detailed or with large parts that are irrelevant to what I want. Practical players need repertoires and opening manuals don't tend to deal with this. There are repertoire books, but they may suggest certain variations that a player has no intention of ever playing. I know this sounds as if I do no opening work at all (to be honest I don't do too much) but rather my opening work tends to be inspired by actual games that I see and then I go into a frenzied rush of work on that system. As an example, I saw a mad game last night in the Amsterdam tournament where the outsider Anna Muzychuk was white against Israeli GM Emil Sutovsky.

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I've already analysed some lines in this offbeat system and and seen a whole load of games. Maybe I'll get to play it at some stage.

If I'm going to work on the game, I'm more likely to use a book on the endgame or general/specific chess strategy. Like many, I once went through Nimzovitch's "My System", but I think my favourite book of this genre is Watson's  "Secrets of Chess Strategy", and his follow up, "Chess Strategy in Action". However, I still think that working through well annotated games collections will teach invaluable strategic lessons as well as putting those lessons into practical settings. For the diligent (because the books are fairly heavy tomes) Karolyi's books on Karpov's Strategic wins, and his book "Endgame Virtuoso Anatoly Karpov" are tremendous.

Perhaps a good place to start for anyone looking for good chess books is the FIDE Trainers Commission recommendations. Out of the 100 books, I've studied about 20 I think, and browsed into about another 10-20 and I don't think there were any bad ones.

Another resource is the internet, and there are a whole load of interactive sites, informative sites, and fun sites. There are loads of blogs and it's about time I started to look through some of these. I already regularly read some blogs. Kerry Stead's blog is a nice personal look at the Australian (and more specifically Victorian) chess scene. Kerry has a penchant for some unusual opening systems, so there are often games with an unusual start which lead to some interesting positions. Another cool Aussie blog is by IM Alex Wohl.  He writes in both humorous and informative style and is perhaps the strongest Australian player to regularly maintain a chess blog, though GM David Smerdon is catching up (in terms of regularly posting!).

I also try to follow the chess scene from my native UK. I really do need to look at more UK blogs, but I regularly read the British Chess Magazine which I grew up with, and FM Steve Giddins Blog, an ex-editor of the BCM who enjoys studies and problems as well as being a man who isn't shy of saying what he thinks!

Anyways, as I'm taking a bit of a break from playing, I'm going to be looking at some reading material, both online and in print and I'll post what I think of them as honestly as I dare!

I'm back...

I have been in New Zealand for the past week and missed some action.

The Australian Championship was won by GM Darryl Johansen for a record 6th time! He took the lead before I left and never relinquished it winning the event by a full point from an elite group of players consisting of  GM Zhao, IM's Xie, Solomon and Smirnov. The contingent of younger players failed to breach this experienced group, and FM Junta Ikeda and IM Moulton Ly led the younger challenge a further point behind, and alongside IM Wohl.

The Reserves tournament was won by MCC member Justin Penrose. I have never played Justin but my impression is a tough fighter who is happy to play difficult positions with a dogged determination. He will cause problems for his opponents at any turn and does not give up on positions which others might think too troublesome to continue the effort. Another MCC member came second, and pleasingly a junior. Like most juniors, Ari Dale has good days and bad days, but he is generally moving forward at an alarming rate. This result confirms that the MCC has another young player of 2000+ strength. Joint third were Omar Bashar, David Spuler, and another MCC member, Frank Lekkas.

All the games from the Championship are available in pgn format and the latter rounds of the Reserves have been made available as well. This is a pretty good effort seeing there was such a small staff on duty. I haven't been able to go through these games yet, but I will see if any interesting things show up over the next couple of weeks.

Unfortunately, the Hastings Congress reverted back to the days when the foreign visitors dominated. The event was won by top seed GM Wang Yue of China half a point clear of GM Istracescu of France and IM's Lalith and Shyam from India. The top English players were a further point behind in joint 8th, the GM group of Howell, Hebden, Flear, Williams and Nick Pert. This group on 6 points also included Icelandic IM G Kjartansson who seems to have had a very good tournament, scoring 2/3 in the final rounds against GM's Howell, Hebden and Istratescu!

So I have got back just in time for the start of 3 tournaments of interest to me. There is the SuperGM event in Holland, the Tatasteel Wijk aan Zee starring World number 1 Magnus Carlsen. The Australian Junior Championship started yesterday as well and runs until next weekend. And the Queenstown Classic started today and runs until next weekend. This last tournament is especially interesting to me as I've just been on holiday in Queenstown. This beautiful new Zealand town is a perfect holiday destination and I hope that the players will get some chance to experience some of the beauty of their surroundings!

Bob's Peak from Queenstown beach

OK, I suppose I better put my head on the block and throw out some tips for these tournaments:

Wijk A: Aronian
Wijk B: Potkin
Wijk C: Sadler
Aus Junior: Justin Tan
Queenstown: Jones


But good luck to all, and great to have so much interesting chess around!

Waiting for Wijk

It's almost Christmas and chess is playing second fiddle to eating, drinking and making merry! But the festive holidays are a traditional time for chess and the break from work gives chess players time to recharge ready for the next batch of tournaments. Here in Australia, Christmas marks the start of the summer holidays, and with it comes the typical glut of chess tournaments.

First is the Australian Championship, and associated events, which are due to start December 27th in Geelong, Victoria. Geelong is about 45 minutes west drive from Melbourne so I guess players have the choice to commute if they want. Of course, the National Championship will have players from all over Australia and overseas. It is quite an impressive list of players, and it is a tournament that I would some day like to play in. Although I am currently English on the FIDE list, I think that I qualify as an entrant based on my residence and citizenship, which is now Australian. I think that by the next Championship (they are every 2 years), I will probably have Australia next to my name anyway!

After the Championship, 2 tournaments start. One is the Australian Junior Championships which are being held in Melbourne. The other is the biennial Queenstown Classic in New Zealand. I will be at the Australian Junior as a coach and helper so I should be able to report first hand on what is happening. The Queenstown tournament will be followed avidly here in Australia, as so many of our players will be playing. With 11 GM's already in the field, this is likely to be a great tournament. Congratulations to Murray Chandler, Paul Spiller and Helen Milligan (and everyone else) who have put together another great tournament.

I will be watching some of the action from New Zealand while at the Australian Junior Championship. Both tournaments start on the same day, Saturday 14th January. At a local level, these are hugely important events, but in the scheme of things both will be overshadowed by the traditional Wijk tournament in Holland. The Tata Steel tournament has an amazing field led by World Number 1, Magnus Carlsen. Probably the best thing for us in Australia, is that the games in Holland will be starting at night for us so it is doubtful we will be able to follow them live. However, the games and analysis will be followed closely while live action from this end of the World is also being watched.

I reckon that by the end of my holiday, which coincides with end of the Tata Steel Tournament, I'll be in need of another holiday!

Anyway, I suppose I better stick my neck out with some tips:

Australian Champion: George Xie (really nice guy, deserves it this time)
Queenstown Classic: Gawain Jones (go with the English!)
Tata Steel: Levon Aronian (Time for him to go for World number 1 spot!)

Chess professional and amateur

There are 2 news stories about chess that have grabbed my attention that couldn't be more different. One involves the Super Grandmaster tournament being held in London at the moment, the other a story about 2 primary school boys being asked to leave their school for travelling to Brazil to represent Australia in the World Youth Chess Championships.

The London Chess Classic has the top 4 players in the World playing, along with World number 10 Nakamura and 4 top English players. The Tournament started with a match between the Grandmasters and anyone via Twitter and there is an odd number of players in the tournament so that the player with the bye can provide commentary on the other games. There is something for everyone at the tournament, with the GM tournament great for chess spectators, a FIDE open with 10 Grandmasters and a host of International Masters and other strong players, shorter events, fast chess events, a women's invitational and junior events. There are simultaneous displays, and film screenings and free coaching to schools.

This festival of chess brings professional chess players and amateurs together, and creates great press coverage. When the top players go to battle every chess player takes notice of their games and results. At London this year, ex tennis Champion Boris Becker made an appearance to make the first move against the Grandmasters in the Twitter game.

Unfortunately, chess in Australia is anything but professional. This doesn't mean that there aren't good players, or that it isn't run to the best of the ability of the organisers. However, there are limitations when a game which is considered a profession in some countries, is not considered a profession in others. In Australia, funding for chess has been non existent (at least in the 7 years I've been here). Our top players have to find their own way to the events, even when they are representing their country. Chess players in Australia do the right thing and donate from their own pocket to help our top players travel to Olympiads and World Championships, but mostly the players themselves have to fork out, or do some fundraising themselves.

The funding issue follows on with tournaments. Without decent government funding (chess isn't a sport or an art according to government, so they don't have to fund it via either of those avenues) chess tournaments seek private sponsorship which has created some great events (Doeberl, Sydney International Open, to name just 2) but these are few and far between. And more often than not, tournaments will be funded by the entry fees of the competitors, or may even just accept a small loss.

Of course, when an activity like chess isn't recognised by the authorities as anything other than a pastime, then incidents will occur like the one in Sydney last week. There should be no greater honour for a school than to say that one of their students has represented their country, but alas this was not the case. And things will continue to be marginalised for Australian chess players as long as they are seen as happy go lucky amateurs. If there is one thing that chess players and administrators should be doing in this country, it is working towards getting chess accepted as a sport and then applying for funding from the government. Getting recognition is the first step towards greater professionalism of chess in Australia, and until that is done, tournaments such as the London Chess Classic will sadly not be happening on Australian soil.

Who am I?

I suppose a question that arises in an expat's mind from time to time, is to what extent they consider themselves part of their new country compared to part of their old country. And of course, this will differ for each individual, and even change for individuals at different times of their lives.


I left England in March 2005 and almost immediately felt at home in my new country. I have loved getting to know Australia and, more locally, Melbourne and the more I see the more I like. I must admit that I wasn't initially drawn to Australia, but rather felt the need, along with my wife, to leave the country of my birth. It is hard to pinpoint exactly what the reasons were for deciding to emigrate, and a whole set of rationales could be imagined. But essentially, the fact was that I didn't feel comfortable in England. It just didn't feel right for me, it wasn't my home. And my wife felt pretty much the same way.


So after 6 years in my new country, what exactly do I consider myself? Well I can certainly admit that I feel more at home here than I did in the UK. I actually get homesick for Melbourne when I go on trips. I haven't lost my English accent, and I doubt I ever will, but I now identify with my new country and am losing my memories of the old country. Becoming a citizen of Australia was quite an emotional experience, and gave me a sense of pride in my new country. So all in all, I guess while I might sound English, I feel Australian.


Now the reason this issue has cropped up is because of my international chess affiliation. At the moment I am currently registered as an English player which has some benefits for myself and the local chess community. The main advantage is that I count as a foreign player for tournaments, which may require a certain amount of foreign players to reach a level where players can achieve international titles. As there are a lack of high rated foreign players resident in Australia, or willing to travel to Australia to play chess, I suppose my English affiliation has some importance.


But it doesn't feel right to me. I feel Australian and as such would like to play under the Australian flag. It is a quandary that I have not yet figured out, and if anyone has any advice I would gladly hear it. The question I'm asking is should I change affiliation to my new country, or should I remain affiliated with England?

Trip to England Part 7: Stratford upon Avon

Royal Shakespeare Theatre, from across the River Avon

The Birthplace of the great William Shakespeare.
An early start, partly to have a full day and partly so no one would see me driving, was needed for the 2 hours drive to Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford upon Avon. It was a very pleasane drive (actually, the whole manual driving thingy is coming back to me) through Newbury, across the Chiltern Hills, skirting Oxford and then on to Stratford. Not a lot had changed along the way and the journey was uneventful, though the speed of driving was a bit worying in places, especially the M40, where I was cut up by a transit van (nothing new happening there then).

The top of historic Sheep Street with the Town Hall at the far end.

Straford upon Avon is a beautiful old town brought to fame as the birthplace of the great bard William Shakespeare. As a result, theatre is the main trade of Stratford. There are a number of theatres around the town as well as references to famous actots. There are also links to historical figures around the town and surrounding countryside. Today I took a drive to nearby Edgehill, the scene of the first battle in the English Civil War of the 1640's.

The Garrick Inn. Shakespeare is not the only famous name remembered in Stratford.

The town itself is packed with historical buildings as well as modern architecture. Today I was lucky enough to be around at the same time as the food festival which closed many of the streets around Stratford. I was also lucky to see a group of people I hadn't seen in over 5 years. And yet again, like with my family, we just took things up as if it had been a few days. Friendship is something that doesn't need constant work, it transverses time and distance, and I am very lucky to have known so many great people over the years.

 Is your town library as beautiful as this?

 The Dirty Duck/Black Swan. Possibly the most famous pub in Stratford and within sight of the RST.

 The natural wonders are also a hit with tourists and locals, like this mute swan.

Trip to England Part 6: Basingstoke

Ok, not many people will know of Basingstoke, especially in Australia. Some claims to fame are that it was mentioned in Thomas Hardy's novels in the 1870's-1890's, Monty Python took the piss out of it as the most boring place in the World with lots of roundabouts (this is before Milton Keynes was developed), Ruth Ellis (the last woman hanged in England) and Tanita Tikaram both hale from Basingstoke.

The Lamb is the nearest pub to Queen Mary's College

After a fairly quiet morning where I drove my Mum for her health check up and then acted as chauffeur/packhorse on her weekly big shop I decided to take a slow walk to Basingstoke Town Centre. I walked past my old 6th form college, Queen Mary's (back in the days of class streaming, in elitist England, the most qualified bright sparks from all the local schools were herded together in a 6th form college and allowed a further 2 years of skiving, before they would hopefully move on to their 3 years of university indolence!). There had been quite some building and huge growth of flora around the college obscuring it from the main street, though I doubt it would have changed much.


Basingstoke is a town of old and new. Approaching the town from the south you can walk through the Memorial Park which was originally designed in the 1700's for Goldings House which no longer stands. The Southern end of the town retains a lot of its 'older' nature. Then you work your way down to the Malls which are totally modern. Completely covered, it's soul less American shopping. However, you don't have to travel far from the Malls in any direction to find the historical, or more traditional, aspects of the town.

Focal Point in the Memorial Park

The bird cage is another focal point of the Memorial Park

I then took a wander towards the cinema which now has a number of bars, restaurants and fast food places close by called Festival Place. I went into a place called Giraffe and the service was excellent, very friendly and laid back. Unfortunately, the coffee wasn't too good (it had an American filter coffee vibe), but it was a lot better than the stuff that Costa (supposedly a continental style coffee chain) served which I shall just term "indescribable". Actually I quite liked it in Giraffe, the staff's friendliness more than making up for the slightly inferior cup of coffee.

The White Hart Pub at the Northern end of the Memorial Park

St Michael's Church, a stone's throw from the Malls, and probably about 500 years old.

Trip to England Part 5: Driving and the Olympiad.

Today and to some extent tomorrow, will be fairly quiet days in Basingstoke, where I’ll be helping out my parents a bit. For instance, my Dad had a hospital check up today, and I drove him there. Now this might not sound like much to most of you, but the fact that my parents have a small manual geared car, whereas I’m used to a medium to large automatic made the episode quite a challenge. It really is unbelievable how much I’ve forgotten about driving manual cars, something that I learned when I was in England and used to be able to do without much thought. I now had to focus on using 2 feet to drive, using a clutch, finding the biting point and remembering the gear ratios. I am not a great lover of cars, like some people, so making driving easier would be high on my list of priorities in a car. Therefore, I would almost always choose an automatic to a geared car.

Tomorrow it is my Mum’s turn for a check up, so I’ll be a reluctant chauffeur again. I’ll also be heading to Basingstoke Chess Club tomorrow night which will be another blast from the past. I will also be spending some time following the fortunes of various teams at the Chess Olympiad, which started for real today. I will, of course, be checking out the English and Australian teams, the fortunes of the top teams, and my friend Jamie Kenmure who is captain of the Palau team. (Saying that, I don't see them on the start list so I'm not sure what has happened there.)

Today, most of my time watching the event was on board 1 game 1, first to see the top seeds in action, but then watching a fascinating battle between a much lower rated opponent trying to hang on to his super-GM opponent. Sam Collins used the Chebanenko Slav against Grischuk and got a solid but passive position. In the end, Grischuk could find no way through, and Sam Collins drew the game of his life. This was great for the underestimated Irish team, and as Sam Collins is a contributor to the excellent daily newspaper edited by GM's Baburin and Golubev, Chess Today, which I subscribe to, I hope to have some great material in the coming editions.

I’m going to spend some time looking through some games tonight and tomorrow. I downloaded a file of games from TWIC but it seems a bit corrupted. For example, one game is Kett (Georgia) beating Harikrishna (Thailand). In fact, Harikrishna of India beat Kett of Wales. There are also a number of part games where presumably the transmission has not been completed. But young Australian Grandmaster David Smerdon started in great style. And this helped the Australian’s to a maximum 4-0 win in the first round putting them half a point ahead of England, and Russia 1!

Trip to England Part 4

On the spur of the moment this morning I decided to go to London as a tourist, and I wrote some notes at certain times around the capital:

"If you’re thinking of travelling to London on a daytrip while staying outside the capital, make sure you have some spare cash. A ticket from Basingstoke cost 23.80 (about $50AUD). The train was punctual and comfortable which is more than I remember so that sort of appeased my shock at the price. The train went into Waterloo and if you walk out of almost any entrance of that massive terminus, it won’t be long before you see the London Eye. The Eye wasn’t there when I was last in London and I have to admit that it is pretty impressive. The Eye dominates the Southbank skyline.

However, the differences in the city seem fairly minor except for one. To me, it stinks. I’m not sure whether it was the traffic fumes or the filth from the Thames. But as I was walking along the Embankment (doesn’t that sound romantic?) from Westminster to Charing Cross, I almost felt sick from the smell. I cut North then to Trafalgar Square up Northumberland Avenue (past Scotland Yard which was looking even more sinister than ever with tarpaulin around the building shrouding it’s mysteries) and then carried on to Covent Garden where I had a coffee in a traffic free zone.

The bill at my café included a service charge which I thought was a bit cheeky for what was essentially a very average double espresso. So next I jumped the tube to Baker Street. Covent Garden is on the Picadilly Line (I never used that line much before) and I changed at King’s Cross. Baker Street is a tourist haven with Madame Tussaud’s and Sherlock Holmes. I, of course, was more interested in the chess shop on Baker Street!

From here it is a short walk south to Oxford Street (you are never far away from a Monopoly Square in central London) and where you meet the King (or should that be Queen) of shopping strips is the iconic department store, Selfridges. I had to go in….I don’t know why, I am no shopper but something seemed to drag on me…I didn’t even want to buy anything but ended up with a Selfridges bag from the foodstore/deli. One of my best memories of trips to London as a kid was the trip to Selfridge’s toy department which dominated most of a floor (4^th if I remember rightly). The downside to my route was walking along Oxford Street which is a constant fight against foot traffic. Eventually I turned toward Soho down Poland Street and stopped in the Burlington Café for a snack and coffee. The coffee smelled rich and was delicious somehow merging a sort of spicy and sweet taste in a full bodied double espresso.

From Poland Street it’s a short walk to Shaftsbury Avenue where a couple of old friends brought smiles to my face. I used to drink quite often in the James Tavern on the corner of Shaftsbury Avenue and Great Windmill Street, and around the corner in Picadilly Square is my favourite statue in London, Eros. The God of love once ironically was pointing his bow directly at the Virgin Megastore which seems to have disappeared, suggesting that Eros still has some potency to despoil Virgins!

Coventry Street links Picadilly Circus to Leicester Square (did I do the whole Monopoly board today?), the whole area seems to me to be cleaner than I remember it being. However, it was no less busy than I remember and about this point I started to get fed up of the hustle and bustle of England’s capital. I caught the tube back to Waterloo and the train back to Basingstoke. All in all, I was only in London about 6 hours, and while I admit the sights and history are quite amazing, I’ve seen much of it before and the starkest change I noticed was the worsening of the residual pollution and smells.

There were a couple of things that I was intending to do that I never got around to. I was intending to carry on around to the National Portrait Gallery and take a short wander around, and then head down to that great chess venue, Simpson’s in the Strand. But I’d had enough. And if you’re wondering why I didn’t do Buckingham Palace and the Royal Gardens, then think that I’m a citizen of what should be the Republic of Australia!"

 Never mind Madame Tussaud's or Sherlock Holmes, here is the real attraction of Baker Street!