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.
Monday, 14 January 2008
Friday, 11 January 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, 9 January 2008
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.
Tuesday, 8 January 2008
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!
Monday, 7 January 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, 3 October 2007
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!
Tuesday, 2 October 2007
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)