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.