Hastings Challengers
December 2005/January 2006
Introduction
There were 96 entrants in this year's event, 13 of whom were grandmasters.
Full details of the tournament along with prize lists and games can be found at the official website.
Wednesday 27 December 2006
After all the mindless stresses of Christmas, work and poker, particularly work, and particularly poker, it was a great relief to be able to to relax and look forward to a mere chess tournament. So having packed the few necessities, written notes for my lodger, fed the (nextdoor's) cat, turned the washing machine off and closed the windows I could look forward to a couple of weeks away from Bristol and the nightmare of trying to deal with its transport system.
It was surprisingly easy to get to the station for once, and I managed to sneak in a cup of coffee and a very expensive baguette on the way to the platform. While about to turn on to the steps for platform 13 I was assailed by a vast human tide coming down and noticed that the platform monitor said the train was not for boarding. A helpful young man in railway uniform said there had been a platform alteration. So I followed the tide to platform 5 where no train was waiting. A few minutes later an announcement told us that there had been a platform alteration and could we please make our way to 13. It was very sorry for any inconvenience caused. So we tided back to 13 and sure enough there was the train.
The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful and by mid afternoon I was in the familiar flat in Warrior Square. No snow this time, in fact it was about 12º, a proud tribute to global warming. Jack and Andrew arrived about an hour later, having travelled up on the same two trains without actually meeting until Hastings. Jovanca and Arne arrived by car during the evening then Jack texted me the good news that due to a mess up in the pairings* I would be playing Nick Pert, number 8 of the grandmasters.
* Normally in large tournaments accelerated pairings are used, in which the top quarter play the second quarter and the third quarter (including me) play the fourth. So I was looking forward to an easy first round.
Thursday 28 December
Ventured into Hastings to go shopping in the sales as I do every year and once again remembered why Hastings is not revered in shopping circles. Came back empty handed and regretting not buying a new pair of shoes and some jeans. Checked the draw and it hadn't changed. I had an interesting line of the French to play against Pert.
Arrived at the tournament hall in plenty of time for the 2 o'clock start - even more time than expected as it was in fact a 2.15 start. At 2.10 there was a short presentation followed by the official first move*, an interesting situation as Mark Hebden had not turned up so there was a lot of debate about which move to play. In the end they asked his opponent for advice. I assume he was allowed to take it back and play his own move when he arrived at the board.
That over, we waited an awkward minute as it was only 2.14 and then my game went quite well. After 20 moves (and the best part of the 4 hour session) I had the chance of an advantage but played a weak move and lost quickly. Fairly standard stuff.
Jack, Jovanca and Andrew all won while Arne took a draw the exchange down and left it for home analysis to see whether he could have won (the answer being probably). Unluckiest player of the round was Elliott Auckland, one of the bottom seeds, who offered the 13 year old star Felix Graf a draw and promptly saw that he could have forced mate instead.
*The ceremonial move was performed on Board 3 for some reason
Friday 29 December
Had to play John Rety today - he is now my most frequent encounter at this tournament, with three games between us. The previous two I both won and was looking forward to another victory to start my tournament in earnest. So he played my favourite opening and on move 8 I thought, why can't I just play b5 in this position and challenge his centre. As soon as I moved I saw why, and he gave me a hard time. After missing a very good continuation the game became bogged down and he offered a draw which I reluctantly accepted.
Everyone else did rather better. Jack beat Neverov, last year's winner, and Andrew won while Jovanca drew with Hebden and Arne also drew. I am the only person in our flat to have lost a game.
Saturday 30 December
My first junior of the tournament - the 14 year old Jessica Thilaganathan from London. I thought she misplayed the opening but I played even worse and missed a good opportunity for an advantage. Then I drifted and became short of time, not really knowing what to do. She offered a draw and I could see nothing better than to accept it, though really I was a little better and should have played on.
Meanwhile on the adjacent board Patrick Goldsworthy had a nightmare as he played smothered mate only to find it wasn't, and he had given his queen away for nothing.
My first poker game of the tournament too, at the Travelodge (on the site of the Cinque Ports Hotel, where the Premier used to be played). Not for money as the hotel was a bit stuffy about it when they played the other day. Only five of us, with Stewart Reuben giving a bit of coaching (which unfortunately required us to reveal our cards after each hand). He also urged us to buy his book 35 Years as a Poker Professional and as a particular treat for the young players he recounted some of the stories from it. I came first anyway, and would have won a tenner had we been playing for money.
Sunday 31 December
New Year's Eve and my last chance to win a game this year. Paired against Joe Fraser, our previous two games (both at the British Championships) were draws. Did some opening preparation but was worried he might have seen my game against Dan Hall from the 4NCL, where I was beaten quickly by the Keres Attack. Unfortunately I don't have the game on my database and I checked on Andrew's computer but he only has the games from TWIC (The Week In Chess for the uninitiated), which do not yet include this year's 4NCL.
On the way to the tournament I suddenly realised that I could use the wireless internet at the venue to look at the 4NCL website. So I hurried up as it was only 20 minutes before the start of the round. Reaching the gate where the drive started I noticed John Rety who immediately called me over and earwigged me about the time limits. He does not like Fischer mode. It would have seemed a bit rude to walk away so I accompanied him to the door then quickly rushed upstairs to the gallery. Sure enough the game was on the Internet and I quickly found the move where I had gone wrong. So ran back down again to start the game and much to my surprise we followed the game for the first 13 moves. I corrected my mistake and soon had a very bad position, but managed to find a class move and Joe offered a draw.
Had a look at the game afterwards and couldn't quite understand where I had gone wrong. But then I discovered from my database that my 11th move appeared to be an error so maybe I have been playing the system entirely wrong for the last 20 years.
In the evening went to the White Rock with Andrew and happened to sit with some of the arbiters. Lara Barnes, an accomplished musician, just happened to have a volume of Robert Burns so could sing the entire words Auld Lang Syne which she accompanied on the guitar, and Stewart regaled us with a fine story of how he picked up a 5p piece in a casino, which apparently is recounted in his book 35 Years as a Poker Professional.
Monday 1 January 2006
I wrote 1.e4 on the scoresheet and played the move. My opponent, an untidy looking young man aged about 20, greeted this with the following words:
"It is necessary to write down the moves after they are played. The score sheet is a historical not an advance record of the game. It is true that the rules used to be otherwise but this is not currently the case." To which my (unspoken) response was, hope you cry when I beat you.
During the game I discussed this with Dominic who was sitting on the adjacent board, to see whether I was worrying unduly about such pedantry, or perhaps it was just normal. However I was quickly admonished by controller Alex MacFarlane for talking in the tournament hall.
For the record, the game was a draw and once again I had the worse side of it. Jovanca had a quick draw with Nick Pert while Andrew won - he is currently unbeaten - and Jack won straight from the opening. Lost a couple on games of internet poker in the gallery afterwards, but did better at the real thing later. Stewart Reuben turned up and when accused of being "quite drunk" replied that it was actually rather more than that. So he started giving coaching very noisily to two players at once. We are recommended to check out the betting tables in his book. I did stop him in the end, though, as I thought I would rather play heads-up against Andrew Tucker than against a man who has spent 35 years as a poker professional.
Tuesday 2 January
Had to play a fairly strong and very young player, George O'Toole. Sat down at the board to find that my pen had leaked and was now empty, and a stain all over my trouser pocket. My spare pen was already in use by Andrew so I had to rush around like an ill-prepared schoolboy. Went to the bookstall who informed me that someone had just bought six pens and they had none left. Feeling paranoid went to the control desk where Stewart gave me his last biro. Having spent all morning preparing I was relieved George played something quite close to expectations. Fooled me a bit by delaying his knight's development, allowing him the possibility to transpose into a game I played at Swansea, but then he decided to go back to the main line and tried a curious and very aggressive 10th move. I managed to meet this head on without disaster and a quick victory game me my first win of the tournament.
Tried to find Stewart to prove that some people do remember to give pens back but he was nowhere to be seen. When I got back to the flat I found that I had left it in my pocket too long and it didn't work any more.
Not much luck at internet poker as I won heavily on the first hand but later suffered two bad beats which put me out in 8th place on a table of 9. So rested all my hopes on the live game at the Travelodge, where I gave two bad beats to stay in the tournament and eventually defeated Andrew Tucker in a tense heads-up. Both of us have been placed in every session we have taken part in.
Wednesday 3 January
Andrew must have either read my mind or taken a sneak preview of my blog as he gave me my pen back before I left for today's game. Spent quite a lot of time preparing for Oliver Jackson but was always aware that the play was likely to lead to equality. Unfortunately I thought I could win a pawn then realised it was a serious blunder. It may have been poor even if I had won the pawn. So left with a worse ending in which he duly beat me down, but just at the killing point he made a horrible blunder, losing material, and I managed to convert to a win.
Game of the day today was Gawain Jones against Mark Hebden. Hebden was doing well until a poor move 29 which led to Gawain sacrificing the exchange, and it turned out to be exceedingly strong with pawns raining down on the White centre. (Click here for the game.) Which means I am now on the same score as Hebden. I am also on the same score as a Russian grandmaster, Arkadi Vul, and have to play him tomorrow.
Managed to sort out somewhere to stay on Friday as Scott's roommates are leaving in the afternoon. So a good chance for a last late night poker session.
Arne unfortunately is ill (and has been for the last couple of rounds) - he may withdraw tomorrow.
Thursday 4 January
Spent a lot of time preparing for Vul, concentrating on a game he lost to Herman Grooten at Hoogoven a couple of months ago. Seemed like a fairly easy try for equality. Unfortunately he played something different on move 13 which made it quite tricky. He forced me to open up the position favourably for him, but in the sharp play that followed he missed a win. Eventually I struggled to a draw, my first ever against a grandmaster, although to be fair to other GMs he is not actually that strong.
Marcel Peek and Nick Pert kept the controllers from their beds with the longest game of the tournament, at 147 moves which with the Fischer time limit giving an additional 1 minute per move made the game over 8 hours long. In the end Pert achieved his win by promoting in a queen and pawn ending. At the other end of the spectrum Jack had an astonishing game against Wallace - click here to replay.
Elliott and Dominic seem to have studied all my games, which I guess must be quite a compliment. Elliott said that he studied the games of every entrant to this year's Major Open in Swansea. Beginning to understand why I wasn't very good at chess as a teenager.
Scott was keen for me to take part in a series of poker tournaments running every ten minutes on Full Tilt poker. They were freerolls with 360 players and one prize, which was an entry to a bigger tournament. I played two and in one of them I managed 11th place before being beaten by a dodgy call.
Friday 5 January
The last day already. Had a slightly disturbed night as Andrew had been up till 4 working in the kitchen next to my room, finishing an article for a chess magazine. Bizarrely woken by the sound (and unmistakeable smell) of fish frying at 2 o'clock in the morning. So a bit groggy today. Cleared the flat and it looked quite respectable.
And I have another GM, although this time it is actually a WGM. The Lithuanian Dagne Cuiksyte is substantially stronger than yesterday's opponent, so quite capable of giving me a hard time. Was in pen trouble again before the game, as I had somehow left mine in the flat. Dominic who was also penless went to the bookstall where they required £1 for a standard biro. I didn't really mind until the owner said something along the lines of, that'll teach you to remember your pen in future. So I went to the control desk where Lara happened to have a couple which had been handed in earlier in the tournament.
Cuiksyte surprised me by playing the Caro-Kann, though I had expected a Taimanov Sicilian. I surprised myself by remembering the opening I had played against Ronnie Cohen as well as the improvements I had found after the game. She still managed to get a better position but I found some deep defences and after some effort to keep the barbarians from the gates the game eventually ended in a draw. So a final tally of 2 wins, 6 draws and only 1 loss gave a pretty respectable tournament and I was just half a point short of the British Championship qualifying place.
Jack was also half a point short, once again, for his IM norm, after he drew with Andrew in the final round, and the draw did not help Andrew either as he was half a point short of the prizes. Jack did win a prize for the best performance by an untitled player.
Gagunashvili took a grandmaster draw to clinch first place but it turned out a poor move as he went into Hastings for the afternoon where he was attacked and robbed. So he was unable to attend the prizegiving in the evening which was a shame. The relatively good news was that the police appear to have identified and arrested the attacker.
For once managed to concentrate hard enough to win a game of poker on the Internet, which was a nice bonus.
A huge buffet was laid on prior to the prizegiving, which was most welcome. Apparently this had been done in previous years but I do not recall ever having been to it. Special mention to Guildford player Chris Briscoe who despite a rating of only 2121 managed an IM norm and also won the prize for the best performance above expected score - a massive 3.5 points. Neverov gave the winner's speech in his absence, having come second on tie-break.
Simon Williams obtained the brilliancy prize - the judges were unsure which game to award it for, and in the end did not come to a decision but just gave him the prize anyway. Click here for his game against Prosviriakov.
Saturday 6 January
Stayed at Scott's last night and had a good night's sleep knowing there would be no more players trying to knock me off my perch. He had entered the weekend tournament, along with Jack and Andrew. Some people simply cannot keep away from the game. I am simply relieved to have a rest before the next competition, which is the 4NCL in Coventry next Saturday and Sunday.
So instead of playing chess went up to London where Liam met me and bought me lunch. We went to the Wellington in The Strand, near his University, which was quite nice but rather slow service. Then to Paddington where there was a train waiting for me though diverted from Reading due to engineering works. Unfortunately the train in front of us broke down which caused about an hour's delay but gave me plenty of time to do a bit of work on my computer, and reflect on the prospect of going back to work on Monday.