Monarch Assurance - 1st round

Finally Monday arrived and I was able to start playing. Our days started to fall into a routine. John prepared a cooked breakfast whilst I wandered up to the Ocean Castle to check my pairing. After breakfast we would do an hour or so chess study, including checking for previous games against my next opponent on Chessbase and putting in the previous day's game. My first opponent was graded 43 ECF points higher than me, so although I wasn't expecting too much, I was confident after my Paignton result (5/7). For most of the game I felt equal, but then made a poor move in a pawns and minor pieces ending and lost the game. My opponent felt that the game should have been drawn and kindly pointed out my weak move - instead of forcing his pawns onto the same coloured square as my bishop, I had moved one of mine onto that colour and he had forced it to remain there. I'd like to say that I learnt from this and won't be repeating this, but unfortunately I made the same mistake again later in the tournament!

Monarch Assurance - Isle of Man

Friday 21 September saw our alarm going off at 3.30am. By 4.15am we were on the road and heading up to Liverpool to get the ferry to the Isle of Man. Check-in closed at 10.15, hence the early start and we made it with time to spare. It was great to be heading back to the island that we first visited when the British Championships were held there in 2005.

Our first stop is always McDonalds just outside Douglas. Not because we love McDonalds, but because on our first trip over we didn't take any food with us and the food on the ferry was expensive so by the time we got to the island we were more than a little hungry. It was then on to Port Erin - a lovely little seaside resort in the south of the island. We had always camped near Kirk Michel in the past, but the combination of cold winds and a 45 minute drive at the end of each day persuaded us to rent a flat close to the venue this year.

Saturday saw us up at the Ocean Castle, setting up the bookstall and generally preparing for the opening ceremony at 1pm. I was playing in the minor tournament which didn't start until Monday, so the weekend was spent helping John. It was great to sit reading the Sunday papers by our window overlooking the bay and knowing that we didn't have to start work until the afternoon.

Back from Blackpool

Today is our first day home after the Blackpool Chess Conference. After a successful tournament last year, this year was a disaster. One win and one draw, and three losses. Not sure quite what happened, think it's my middlegame that needs work.

It's a huge tournament, and a good chance to meet up with friends on the circuit. People travel from all over the UK to play there. It was good to meet up with the players from the Isle of Man again. We love the island and love hearing about the chess scene there.

Today is a busy day, catching up with business - we run a chess bookshop and provide equipment and bookstalls to tournaments. Lots of mail order posting to do and making sure that our main website is up to date.