On August 17th, coincidentally former World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik’s 100th birthday, 84 players began play in the strongest chess tournament in Southern California in over 2 decades.
Seattle Master Joshua Sinanan talks about his experience playing against GM Michael Adams.
Metropolitan Chess held the 1st Metropolitan International Chess Tournament in Los Angeles, August 17-21. 10 Grandmasters and over 50 titled players comprise the field, making it the strongest tournament in Southern California in over two decades.
This video contains interviews with Organizer Ankit Gupta, GM Michael Adams, GM Loek van Wely and GM Melikset Khachiyan.
Sep 12
By now all of British chess is pretty much up to date with T-shirt-gate or Stonewallgate depending on your preferance, so I will try not to belabour the point. Chaos reigned supreme at the time as so often but it does seem quite extraordinary that we still appear to be stalled in an era where dress code or the lack thereof could cause so much consternation. It has been written elsewhere that CJ deMooi’s T-Shirt was ‘overtly political’ and also that it promotes a particular lifestye. It is not and it does not. It is a nationally known slogan that is the focus of a campain by a registered charity to bring attention to prejudice. I also saw it written that spectators had been disturbed by this message. Perhaps they should have read it more carefully. And followed its advice.
Gawain Jones sums this up very well on his website.
(…) that implies that the slogan is a debatable one. Actually I thought that these days such a statement was self-evident but (…) this evidently isn’t the case and therefore more reason for CJ to wear it.
Quite possibly the situation could have been handled more sensitively on both sides, but I was standing with CJ during most of the playoffs and there is no question that he was personally upset, as anyone would be, I don’t doubt that this was NOT the intention of the official who raised the issue but it was the inevitable outcome.
In the aftermath of this, as the situation burst out of control, this website recieved a vitriolic email (also sent to many others involved in English chess) riddled with biased and nasty inflamatory language regarding CJ personally, thus proving that if nothing else the ‘offending’ item of clothing IS capable of smoking out prejudice from the crevices in which it hides. One of chess’s greatest boasts is that it brings people together over the board where the only difference that matters is relative playing strength! It is supposed to promote tolerance and inclusiveness and I believe CJ was trying to do the same. It would have been a triumph for both if this T-Shirt had been worn causing no more than minor passing comment in the same way that one with a charity message raising awareness for cancer would have.
The day after the RAC simul, fortified by a substantial breakfast we waddled off to cheer on my 4NCL team manager Claire Summerscale in The London Marathon. Unfortunately we maintained the observational skills demonstrated in the Nice Technique post and she sped past us without our even noticing. We managed to track her down post-race at the pub to celebrate along with Rosalind Kieran who had posted an even more impressive time.
Last year’s débâcle v the Barbican was one of the worse reverses I have experienced in a fairly lengthy club career and I wasn’t too confident going into the final weekend although our team seemed to be fairly solidly composed. The match against Pandora’s Box earlier this season also didn’t inspire confidence.
Having retired at a respectable hour after our first match I was woken by a strange noise, it seemed to be emanating from the bathroom so I went to investigate. A torrent of water was cascading from the room above. Not being accustomed to indoor rain Tara and I decamped to quieter, dryer quarters.
We won our first two matches convincingly 7-1 and 7.5 – 0.5, securing us draw odds for the title decider. The last round proved surprisingly one sided this time, everything going our way except for my own game where I was in big trouble just after the time control. A just reward for the efforts of Claire Summerscale who has nurtured the team though the divisions.
May 28
On which square should Black put his queen in this position: b4, c4, a5, a6 or b6?
Mar 17
Sorry for the long delay without updates, I will try and wrap up the 4NCL and Gibraltar soon. A quick update to my calandar in the meantime – I will definitely be playing in the British Championships. Also in August, I am playing in the the 1st Metropolitan International in Los Angeles from August 17th to 21st, part of a new series of exciting new events in that area.
London Chess Classic 2010 |
|||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Score* | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Magnus Carlsen | 2802 | * | L | L | W | W | D | W | W | 13/21 |
| 2 | Viswanathan Anand | 2804 | D | * | W | D | D | D | D | W | 11/21 |
| 3 | Luke McShane | 2645 | W | D | * | D | D | D | D | W | 11/21 |
| 4 | Hikaru Nakamura | 2741 | D | D | L | * | W | D | D | W | 10/21 |
| 5 | Vladimir Kramnik | 2791 | D | D | D | L | * | D | W | W | 10/21 |
| 6 | Michael Adams | 2723 | D | D | L | D | D | * | W | D | 8/21 |
| 7 | David Howell | 2611 | D | D | L | D | L | L | * | D | 4/21 |
| 8 | Nigel Short | 2680 | L | L | L | L | L | D | D | * | 2/21 |
* The London Classic was scored using 3 points for a win 1 for a draw.
Dec 26
One of the nice touches at the London Classic is the simultaneous display that accompanies the closing dinner: all the participants give a tandem simul making one move each in turn which leads to a happy kind of chaos. The event is quite competitive as several of the boards (each having 4 players consulting) have on their team a GM including Speelman, King, Rowson, Norwood, Watson, Keene and several other handy players; last year the tournament participants had a fairly heavy loss. Chess players are maniacally quite competitive and this year we were paying a bit more attention (whilst making sure not to miss out on their Yorkshire pud and glasses of claret). Malcolm Pein gave a running commentary on the mic, eventually he announced that the score was even at 8 all with just 1 game remaining, at this stage Magnus took over the game , a not unwelcome development that I wouldn’t have minded availing myself of on a few other occasions. Still the game seemed destined for a draw as there were only queens and a few pawns remaining, the Black players were the presidents of three federations :CJ de Mooi of the ECF ,Tomas Sielicki of the Polish Federation, Viktor Kapustin of the Ukraine Federation and Frederic Friedel of Chessbase fame who had put up stiff resistance in a Stonewall Dutch.
Magnus has just nudged his king forward to h4, a move which contained a rather vicious trap.
I hope all my visitors have had a happy holiday season – all the best for 2011!
Nov 10
What should Black play in the position below? Click on “Read more on Plovdiv Puzzle” below to see the answer.
My Baden Oos team finished up 5th in the Eurocup exactly where we were seeded, highlights included the good performance of Jan Gustafsson who won the gold medal on board 6. If you are cleverer than me and know some German you might like to check out his website www.jan-gustafsson.com.
Arkadij Naiditsch’s win in the last round against Arman Pashikian was a very nicely controlled game in a pressure situation which won the match 3.5-2.5. However the score would probably have been higher had I found Read the rest of this entry »
