‘GM Simon Williams is an expert on this opening and his confidence in the defence and material is evident throughout the entire disc. His presentation skills are excellent. He is relaxed in front of the camera, maintains steady eye contact with the viewer and speaks very clearly.’
‘The graphics are impressive too, with footage from various chess events being played before each chapter starts. We see snippets of chess boxing, open-air chess with huge pieces at Trafalgar Square and various other bits and pieces. The production values are very high and the presentation is never allowed to become dry.’
First of all, apologies “Bishops: Part 2” (Part 1 is here) never materialised, I had other priorities.
I’m currently in Reykjavik playing in the annual Open tournament. I’ve been meaning to play here for a while, Simon W likes the place and has previously reported favourably. This year I finally managed to make it!
The venue, Reykjavik City Hall
It’s obvious what Simon likes about Reykjavik – the pace of life is very relaxed (unlike the nightlife, which is legendary!) and the scenery is beautiful – even in the heavy snow. I’m looking forward to a few free days after the chess to explore. I’d certainly recommend the tournament to anyone – Iceland isn’t nearly as expensive as it once was since the well-documented financial crisis.
After six rounds, the chess isn’t going particularly well to be honest – I’ve hung two pieces in perfectly good positions, and yesterday was completely winning against American GM Yuri Shulman (2624) but managed to spoil a complicated position and even lost.
There has been one bright spot though. Having recently proof-read (proof-watched?) all 7 hours of a certain ‘Killer Dutch’ DVD and having nothing to lose, I thought it was time to give the opening a punt!
BUY THIS DVD and you too can win games like this:
I had an interesting game against Jonathan Rowson on Saturday at the 4NCL.
I suspected before the match that I would be playing Jonathan so I had a bit of time to prepare. After my recent bad result at Hastings I wanted to play as good a game as possible.
As expected it was a Samisch variation of the Kings Indian and the following chaos emerged:
An interesting point was raised in a previous post ‘Horizon Program due to Air Tonight’.
Simon Bibby was wondering if ‘anti-ginge was the last remaining ‘acceptable’ form of discrimination’?
I do not want this to turn into a serious post but I thought that he raised some interesting points.
For example, a top supermarket was going to launch this Christmas card. In the end they decided to take it off the shelves.
Imagine what would have happen if they had swapped the word ‘Ginger’ with ‘Black’ and then changed the ginger kid to a Black kid.
I thought that it would be interesting to have a look at some notorious people who have played chess and, vice versa, i.e. some chess players that have become notorious.
This is a kind of diversion tactic for me as it means that I do not have to analyse another one of my losses from Hastings!
Chess does seem to attract some interesting individuals from all walks of life. You will often see an 8 year old playing against a 70 year old, so you are bound to come across the odd ‘character’!
Anyway, enter below to read about this colourful chap!
I expect that most of you have read an earlier post, where Stuart Conquest and I were plugged up to an EEG machine for Horizon.
Well the program is due to air tonight. I have no idea if they will show any footage of us, as the main part of the program is based on ‘genius’ and neither Stuart nor I can fall into that category!
Ginger GM in association with Chilli Pepper Films presents footage from the London Chess Classic at Kensington Olympia, December 2010.
The film is just over 20 minutes long and includes interviews with Simon Williams, Vladimir Kramnik, Malcolm Pein, David Howell, Stuart Conquest, Aaron Summerscale, Stephen Gordon and more. Enter the post to watch. Please leave your comments!
A short film of the Killer Dutch launch party at the Pig in Paradise pub, Hastings, January 2010. Thanks to Chilli Pepper Films.
We also have over 20 minutes of exclusive footage from the London Chess Classic, including interviews with Vladimir Kramnik, David Howell, Malcolm Pein, Stuart Conquest, Stephen Gordon and more which will be available shortly on this website!
Promotional video | Quotes from reviews | Order Killer Dutch DVD
Grandmaster Simon Williams, the world’s leading exponent of The Classical Dutch, introduces his debut DVD where the viewer explores the spectrum of exciting opportunities that Black will encounter when playing this opening. With a running time of over 6 hours, this innovative chess tutorial DVD is serious value for [...]
The time has come for me to look at one of my losses from Hastings. This is a moment I have been postponing for a while but I suppose it might be therapeutic for me.
The game I am going to look at is Hawkins-Williams. This game was my most painful loss as I thought that I was winning for the majority of the game. I was rather on tilt after this match and I went on to lose to a number of much lower rated players than myself, even though a number of these players played very well against me.
I have recorded the game as a video and I hope you enjoy it!
Just over a week ago myself and Stuart Conquest took part in a fascinating study for the Horizon TV Science program.
A certain Dr Amidzic and Dr Sautoy were also involved. Below is an actual EEG (Electroencephalography) reading of my brain whilst I was involved in a game of chess with Stuart Conquest.
You can read below the conclusions that were taken from the experiment.
The first surprise was that they did actually find something in my head!
