A Scary Play

Yesterday I spent some time listing some of the recently released chess books on ebay. We've let the chess side of ebay slip a bit as we've been concentrating on the trophies and cds.
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/CCF-MindGames_Chess_Chess-Books-General_W0QQfsubZ4QQssPageNameZSTOREQ3aPROMOBOXQ3aLINKSQQtZkm

In the evening John and I went to the theatre in Worthing. I had won a pair of tickets to 'The Woman in Black' and we were looking forward to an enjoyable night. It is a chilling ghost story, so I spent a lot of time holding John's hand for reassurance. Unfortunately, at a particularly scary moment. I jumped, grabbed his hand even tighter and bent his wrist back. He's OK now, but was not too happy last night!

Ebay Again

Yesterday was another typical ebay listing day. Our part-timer was ill, so John and I were frantically trying to make sure that sufficient new listings went live last night to finish a week on Sunday. Mainly that was jazz cds, but John also listed 2 just released train and flight simulations. I was also making sure that our full range of leather key fobs were on the site. No time for any chess study - we hardly stopped for lunch. At least today will be a little quieter.

CCF World Cup Match

Monday was chess club night again. We have a new competition there, the CCF World Cup, which is an individual event in rounds. On Monday, that is what I was playing in. I knew that my opponent was tricky, although I had managed to swindle a win against him the previous time that we played. I was sure that he would be out for revenge for that. I was black, but knew that I would need to prepare for our match if I was to stand any chance. I carefully learnt a response to his opening that would give me equality going into the middle game, when I knew that we would both be relying on our chess ability rather than our knowledge of openings. He varied on move 10, which gave me a lot of confidence about my position. I think I lost my way for a few moves after that, but soon was able to treble his pawns on the g file. A rather nice, though I say so myself, tactic and I was also a pawn and the exchange up. We played on a little more, before an error by my opponent enabled me to pin his queen to his king. He resigned, but even without the error, I think I probably should have won. So, I am at last feeling a little more confident about my ability to play this game!

Ebay Listing

Most of this week has been spent working on our ebay listings. At present we are selling a large number of jazz cds - used but in great condition. I think there's about 1,000 of them to list altogether, so this takes up a fair amount of time each week. We also sell brand new books on a variety of subjects, and trophies and engravables. It was a pleasant break at the end of the week to spend time photographing and listing pin badges and key fobs for the ebay shop. We are able to provide these with a wide variety of centres for all sorts of sports and hobbies and had recently taken a delivery of these. John tends to do a lot of the ebay posting as I don't tend to get on too well with the packing tape machine (apparently it is all in the wrist action).
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/CCF-MindGames

Chess Study

Monday is our chess club night and I had started preparing for my match last week. Then, I had a sudden brainstorm that I had seen my opponent playing a certain opening as black (I was white). So, I stopped what I had been looking at and started on something completely different. Needless to say he didn't play that opening, but at least we drew - I'm sure that I had a win in there somewhere though. As John said, the other study was still useful for the future.

ECF Grand Prix

This week has been a week of listing on ebay and generally working on the business. However, on Wednesday we had a trip down to Hastings to see John's family and also to deliver the ECF Grand Prix trophies to their office in Battle. CCF MindGames sponsored the ECF Grand Prix last year and are doing so again this year. We felt that it was important to many of our customers and friends and wanted it to continue. We have been supplying trophies for a few years and have had a computerised engraving machine for a few months, so providing the trophies fits in nicely for us.

The new Grand Prix tables are out and I was pleased to see that I am 4th in the bottom section. As I haven't played 7 tournaments yet, I am hopeful to improve on this. However, there is a long way to go until the end of the season and I've had a few bad tournaments as well as some good ones.

http://www.ccfworld.com/MindGames/index.html

http://www.ccfengraving.co.uk/

A Day On Portland Bill

If we are not careful, John and I can find that we've worked for 2 or more weeks and not had a day off. So, we now try to build days off into our week. We had been fortunate with our b&b in Weymouth to get 3 nights for the price of 2, so were able to stay over on the Sunday night and have some free time on Monday. I had said that I wanted to go over to Portland Bill, as I hadn't been there before and Tyson offered to show us around.

We met him at the highest point on the island and spent almost 6 hours looking around. He had lots of interesting information about what we were seeing and knew of all sorts of hidden vistas. For example, we climbed a bank and there below us was a working quarry. We visited the Victorian High Angle Battery, which looks like a series of grassy mounds, but when you get up close reveals itself as concrete tunnels and gun emplacements. We naturally visited Portland Bill and were treated to a heavy hail storm - after a morning of glorious sunshine. We took refuge in the cafe and had a meal, with a beautiful rainbow as a background. The remainder of the day was cold and reminded us that it was almost November.

We ended our tour with a visit to Chesil Beach - one of my favourite geographical features ever since I first visited it as a student. Again it didn't disappoint. We spent quite a while there and I must admit that by the time we got back to our van and set off on our way home I was very cold. However, it had been a lovely day with no work, no chess, just a time to relax and rejuvenate.

Weymouth Chess Congress

John and I spent last weekend running our bookstall at the Weymouth Chess Congress. The congress had moved to a new hotel, which is always interesting for us as we have to rethink the position and layout of the stall. This time we were able to use the small bar area annexed to the ballroom which was being used as the playing venue. The playing area itself was a large room with plenty of space between tables, even when everyone was seated. I was told by one of the players that the floor was maple and that he had been involved in the laying of it 20 years previously.

We were also running a bookstall at the Caterham Congress at the same time. My parents, who know nothing about chess, had agreed to man the stall there. As a result, John decided that he would be better than I manning the mobile with any problems or queries from Caterham.

Friday evening started well when I beat an ungraded player in an equal material endgame. (My knight and king were more centrally placed than his, so I was pretty sure that I had an advantage). However, that was to be the last game that I won all weekend, one of my worst tournaments ever. I did have some tough games, and it was an under-125, but even so......

Exmouth and a Golden Wedding

We had a very hectic week last week, so no blog for a while. Easter weekend saw us at the WECU congress in Exmouth. This time we made it all the way there with our van intact. After unloading I then had the enjoyment of spending most of the easter weekend in a room under the playing hall with the bookstall. However, there were plenty of people to talk to and the weather outside wasn't too good. Most mornings John and I managed a short walk before opening the shop and then we took it in turns at lunchtime to go for a walk.

After getting home on the Monday evening, Tuesday was a hectic work day. We had to post out our internet sales and bring the internet shop up to date with the weekend sales. We also had some engraving to do (we recently purchased an engraving machine).

On Wednesday we had the shopping to do for my parents' golden wedding party on the Thursday. Fortunately, most, although not all, came from one shop. I had been planning the menu for weeks and had now taken to dreaming about it. My only concern was if I was unable to get a side of salmon - I needn't have worried.

Thursday was spent preparing food, transporting tables, chairs, crockery and food to my parents' house and then further preparation. Why do salads all need preparing at the last minute? Still, it all seemed to go well and the food was enjoyed. People were impressed by the 'golden yellow' table cloths - normally gracing the tables of the bookstall. We had also specially engraved coasters for the occasion - John spent Wednesday evening on that whilst I was busy losing a chess game in Redhill.

Friday was a strange day. We were both exhausted, but the business has to continue. I felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders though.

La Dolce Vita, Olympia

Friday was a rare day off when we went to La Dolce Vita at London's Olympia, an exhibition of all things Italian. We last went two years ago, when John was so impressed with the taste of freshly made pasta (after a cookery demonstration by Aldo Zilli) that he asked for a pasta machine for his birthday. I must say that although it takes longer than opening a packet, the results are definitely worth it.
This year one of our quests was to look for ideas and food for my parents' golden wedding party which I'm catering for at the end of March. We were not disappointed, although some items will need to be purchased nearer to the date itself.
We also booked ourselves into the cookery school for a session on filleting fish. I've attempted this a few times in the past, but have found it a little challenging. This time though we both managed to produce good fillets from the sea bass we were given, with very little left on the bone. What they hadn't mentioned was that we were also gutting the fish - fortunately we were also given latex gloves! An aside here, many years ago, just after I had moved into my flat, I was busy gutting mackerel in the kitchen. The door bell rang and I went down to open it smelling of fish and covered in fish blood. I opened the door to an immaculately dressed lady, who introduced herself as one of my new neighbours. Not a good start, but she's still speaking to me!
Later in the day we attended another cookery class, this time for aubergine sauce and stuffed aubergine. Interestingly, I don't like aubergine! However, I am sure that the recipe will translate to other vegetables. (John keeps saying he wants to make the meatballs again).
Another highlight of the show was a stall giving away ice cream. I had a rich, bitter chocolate and a pistachio and chilli - the latter being very spicy but very good. John was on red wine sorbet and a ginger and lemon sorbet. We went back to the stall to find out how we could buy these, only to discover that they can only be bought in one shop, and it is in Turin!
Needless to say that by the end of the day we were exhausted, but we had managed a good few hours without mentioning the business once - quite an achievement.

Blackpool Chess Congress - Part 3

My first game on Sunday, knowing that I needed a win, went into a pawn and opposite colour bishop ending. Twice my opponent offered me a draw, but I was two pawns up and so twice I turned him down. My problem was that my one passed pawn was blocked by his bishop, supported by his king. My king couldn't get round to his other pawns easily, and even then they could be defended by the time I got there. After his second draw offer I thought for a long time and realised that I had to push my pawn majority. This would lose me two pawns for one, but would also enable my past pawn to push on and be swapped for his bishop. If he avoided this I would have two past pawns just two squares off queening. He went for the former option, which also left my king closer to the remaining four pawns on the board. His resignation came soon after.

In the afternoon I knew that nothing less than a win would put me into the prize money. My opponent was graded 13 points higher than me, but I had to go for it. In the endgame, I had a chance to force a perpetual (my opponent would lose his rook if he didn't keep checking me), but decided to continue to play for a win. Wrong decision! I took the king the wrong way and 15 or so moves later the game was lost. I felt gutted to say the least. Needless to say, later that evening I suddenly realised that if I had played a different move I could get to a square where I couldn't be checked and thus could have won. Why is it that I always find the perfect move hours after the game has finished?

Blackpool Chess Congress - Part 2

My first game on Saturday saw my opponent opening 1.f4. A few weeks ago I had learnt a response to this in preparation to play a fellow club member - did I remember this, of course not! Instead I tried to work my way through the opening. I tried to keep things complicated, but came out of a long combination a minor for two pawns down. It wasn't enough compensation and I went on to lose. However, I enjoyed the game. I have been told since to "play for where you want to be in five years time and not where you want to be today" and that the more aggressive and attacking you are the more likely your opponent is to miss something.

In the afternoon I faced a junior from the London area. Not a good omen - he's come all the way from London and he's playing up a section. Fortunately I was white and he did seem to have to think about my opening moves. Although he spent most of the game a pawn up, I did have compensation. Towards the end I had the lovely situation of my queen being en prise to his queen. However, I ignored this and took his extra pawn (which was now past) with my rook, leaving it en prise to his rook. If he took either piece, I had a mate in two or three moves. He saw this and moved his rook to prevent this and offered me a draw. I knew that I couldn't afford a draw, either in terms of his grade or in terms of the competition, so I turned it down, taking another pawn with my queen. Yes, it was probably drawn at this point, but fortunately my opponent then blundered his other rook and resigned after my next move.

Blackpool Chess Congress

Friday saw us travelling north to the Blackpool Chess Conference - probably the largest weekend chess congress in the country. We always say that there are no easy games at Blackpool, and yet again this proved to be the case. With a grade of 101, John had to play in the intermediate section this year (under-120) whilst I stayed in the minor (under-100).

On arrival, almost the first people we met were the Isle of Man group. It was good to meet up with them again and here the progress on the Isle of Man congress.

John's first game was against a grade 112 and he managed a draw. I was drawn, again, against the same opponent as I played on Saturday morning in Exeter (and who I may be playing in an inter-club match on Thursday). This time I was white and was determined not to go pushing pawns without good reason. The result, I went the exchange up, then a bishop up, then blundered the bishop back. I turned a draw down, partly because I was cross with myself for losing the bishop, partly because I was still the exchange up, and partly because John was still playing and I didn't want to sit around waiting for him. Apparently, we went into an ending which, with best play, was drawn. I, of course, was unaware of this and eventually went on to win with under 3 minutes left on my clock. This for someone who never gets into time trouble was quite an achievement. So, as the round ended, we headed off to our hotel, rather later than we would have liked, but both pleased with our results.

East Devon Congres, Exeter, Part 3

After a good night's sleep, I felt much more awake on Sunday. I also had all to play for as I knew that I would be disappointed with anything less than 3 out of 5 points. My morning opponent, a lady who I had played a lot in the past, although not since the mid 1990s, had never lost to me. However, times change and I went into the game feeling reasonably confident. We went into a complicated middlegame exchange where I thought that I would come out a pawn up, but it was so complicated that I just couldn't work the whole thing out. All I could do was to try to ensure that everytime she took one of my pieces or pawns, I took one of hers back. We came out of the exchange and I counted the pawns left on the board, 6 each. Now I would have my work cut out as the game was much simplified and it wouldn't be difficult to swap off into an equal ending. I did not want a draw - what to do? A couple of moves later I noticed that I could only see one of her bishops, looking more closely, I realised that whilst I was able to count to 6, 2 seemed more of a problem! I had come out of the exchange a minor piece up and was now more than happy to swap off into an ending, which I went on the win.

In the afternoon a faced a Devon player who I had no experience of. His grade was higher than mine, and, for the second time that day, I was black. Again we went into a complicated exchange, though less complex than the morning. Again it appeared that the exchange would be equal, until careful thought revealed that I could move the final attacked knight to attack his queen which could not defend his also attacked bishop. Again we swapped off into an ending with me a minor piece up. This time though I had to be much more careful. He had threats on and I had to give a lot of thought to the king moves that eventually gave me passed pawns and his resignation.

So, finally I achieved the minimum score that I would be happy with and came away feeling much more confident about my chess. However, the day wasn't over and we still had the bookstall and equipment to pack away - thank you to the organisers for their help in this. Then it was a dash to Chard, where we traditionally stop at the Wetherspoon's for something to eat and a break in the journey. Only they had run out of food! (It was Mother's Day). Fortunately we found an Indian Restaurant still open (although about to close, their faces fell as we walked in). Fortunately for them we only wanted a quick meal and were soon back on our way again.

East Devon Congress continued

Saturday dawned bright and clear, even if I didn't! I'm not sure how little sleep I had, but it definitely wasn't enough. I arrived at the hall to find that my opponent was someone I had played a few times before and who I had a lot of respect for. It was never going to be an easy game, but I pushed a pawn in the middle game that I shouldn't have done and ended up going 2 pawns down. After that things got worse and resignation was the only option.

My afternoon opponent was an unknown entity to me. However, by then I was definitely feeling the lack of sleep, despite going out for a walk at lunchtime. Needless to say I blundered my way through the game, leaving pieces en prise for no good reason and, inevitably, losing. I was not happy, 1 out of 3 in a minor section is not what I expect of myself. By now I had decided that I was hopeless at chess and questioning why I was playing the game. John did his best to reassure, but we've all been there.

The evening was spent in a nearby Indian Restaurant (not surprisingly half full of chess players) followed by a good night's sleep.

East Devon Congress, Exeter

Last Friday saw us travelling down to Exeter. We started setting the bookstall up at 4pm, with the first round starting at 7pm. I was playing and I always go into my first game still thinking about the bookstall and take a while to settle down. It was a good game though, until my opponent blundered as we went into an ending and I went a minor piece up and won the game. Whilst, if I had a choice, I would then scuttle off to our hotel and relax, instead I joined John on the bookstall until the last game had finished. We finally got back to our hotel after 11pm. Unfortunately it was a windy night and we had a persistently banging door to our room. As a result I didn't get a lot of sleep - not good when I was playing the next day.

Bobby Fischer Dies

I can't believe the news - it was a real shock to me. Bobby Fischer is one of those people who, although was rarely in the news, you just think is always going to be around. As John put it "it's the end of an era".
Link

CCF v Wimbledon

Last night John and I played for the 6th team at CCF. I think that the whole team were outgraded on every board. John played a 130 player , 29 points above his grade, whilst I played a 118, 35 points above my grade. John, and the team, unfortunately lost. John tried a rook for knight sacrifice to blast his opponent's king open, it didn't work! I, however, managed to win. It was a strange opening and I was out of theory almost from the start. As we headed into the middle game I won a pawn, then, a little later on another one. Then a rook for a bishop. I should have felt confident then, but my opponent had a nasty attack on. He sacked his knight and if I had taken back in what appeared to be a logical way, either with my bishop or queen, I'm sure that mate would have ensued in the next few moves. Instead, I took back with the g pawn, opening my king up, but managing to side-step the worst of the attack and we finally went into the endgame with me a rook up.

Painted Coffin

Yesterday was our second funeral in a week! Very different from my uncle's, but still moving. The coffin was beautiful - pale yellow (Iris's favourite colour) with a border of painted irises and daffodils (her favourite flower) round the sides and a painted spray of irises on the lid. I've never seen a painted coffin before and it really did reflect the person who had died. It got John and me talking about what we would want painted on our coffins - not as morbid as it sounds.

Brighouse and Rastrick

Saturday saw us running the bookstall at CCF and playing in their 6-round rapidplay. John was second in the U100 section, whilst I only scored 50%. It was strange getting back to playing rapidplay after so long - don't think I've played any for about 6 months or more. I definately played the first round too fast, but did manage to slow down after that.

In the evening we were taken out by my parents to see the Brighouse and Rastrick Band at the Hawth in Crawley. An excellent evening with a wide variety of music played. Yes, for those who remember, they did encore with the Floral Dance. Their rendition of The Bare Necessities was brilliant, with lots of humour from the bass horn soloist. I found the two more technical pieces a little difficult to take in, but could really appreciate how difficult these were to play.

Return to Leicester

Yesterday was my birthday. It was also my uncle's funeral. So, we went back to the town of my birth, Leicester. Yes, we did view the body. It was a strange experience, he had been embalmed because of the long wait between his death and the funeral (he died just before Christmas) and seemed more like a wax-work model than a human being.

We had lunch at the Walker's Stadium, built on the site of the old power station. Another interesting experience. My father and grandfather had both worked at the power station and I was taken there to be shown off at 10 days old. Now it's Leicester City's home ground, yes I do support them, but fortunately we also have a rugby team!

The funeral was extremely moving. At the gathering afterwards it was a chance to meet up with family and friends who I hadn't seen for many years. One conversation involved my mother's youngest bridesmaid, to whom I had been bridesmaid, myself, and the mother of my youngest bridesmaid.

CCF v Ashtead

Another day, another game of chess. Last night saw us playing in a match, against Ashtead, in the Lauder Cup. My opponent was a rapidly improving junior graded 15 points ahead of me, and I was black. That's my reason for losing anyway! I need to look at that game as I am sure that at one point I had a good position, but wrecked it my overextending. The good news is that CCF won the match, so we all went home happy.

CCF SuperLeague

First day back from Hastings and we were again playing chess - Monday is our club night. CCF is a very active club and last night was SuperLeague - a team event for teams of four drawn from squads of up to six. There is a maximum number of grading points that can be used over the course of the seven games, so it makes for an interesting time, especially if you are a captain. Our team is sitting near the bottom of the first division (there are two divisions) so a win would have been good. Unfortunately we only managed a draw, but I was pleased to win on the bottom board. John plays for a team further up the table, he unfortunately lost and was not a happy bunny!

New Year

So, it's now 2008 and the New Year saw us on our way to Hastings. I'd never played there until I met John, now I wouldn't miss it. The original idea was that we both played in the New Year tournament, then I played at the weekend and John joined the arbiting team. On arrival, it turned out that there was an arbiter short at the weekend, so I agreed to join the team too.

First round, I won and John lost. Second round, I played one of the two top seeds and drew (John was the other top seed and he won his second game). In round three, John won again whilst I lost. Then, round four, I missed a win and managed to draw. John won again! Final round, a win would give John first, or at least a share of it, whilst a draw would give him a share of second or third and his opponent a guaranteed win. Despite John's best efforts, they drew. I, however, had an upfloat against a player I had never beaten before. My job was to win or draw, so that there would be fewer sharing John's prize. It was an interesting game with opposite side castling and lots of threats (some real, some imagined). I was offered a draw, and turned it down. I just felt that I could win it - not sure why, just a feeling. We went into an ending with me a pawn up, but I had to sack my rook for his past pawn. That left me with two passed pawns against his rook. Fortunately the pawns were well advances and once they both arrived on the seventh rank my opponent resigned. For once I was right to turn down the draw, John was joint second and I got a share of the grading prize. A successful few days.