I just read the sad news on the ECF forum that Michael Stoop, seen here on the right, recently passed away.
I meet Michael on a number of occasions. Michael must have been one of the most charming individuals in the chess world. Michael was also one of the most interesting characters.
Being a war hero, backgammon champion, general gambler and Lord Lucan’s best friend, his life stories could easily be put into a book or a film.
In the latest chess monthly magazine I set a competition to win 2 copies of the ‘Killer Dutch’ DVD. I set a question that readers had to answer correctly.
The question was about the position opposite. One of the craziest that I look it in the DVD.
‘White has just played Be2. What move do I recommended that Black plays?’
The answer and the details of the 2 winners are below.
I have not put a post up for a while due to some commitments that have taken up most of my time. I am planning to make up for that in the next couple of weeks with some interesting announcements.
First of all I have just finished playing the Wellington International. I got called in at the last minute to replace GM Nick Pert.
This was a great tournament at a very grand venue (check out the photo!).
I came face to face with Keith at the Southend Easter tournament. I had the White pieces and I spent a bit of time preparing for Keith’s Caro Karn.
Then to my surprise Keith played 1…e6. I recalled somewhere in my memory that Keith relied on the Fort Knox defence which should offer White a safe advantage, so I headed down that opening.
The game was rather up and down. I got a nice attacking position but then Keith defended with skill and I got a lucky tactic in at the end. Anyway I will briefly go over the game now.
What to do in the last London League match of the season, your 8th Black out of 9 games (thanks Captain Bob) before heading to Thailand to avoid the red-shirts and play the Bangkok Open? Win in 25 moves with the Killer Dutch of course!
I was going to annotate my game against Oleg Romanishin from Iceland, but I don’t have much time before going away. This one’s quicker and easier and a better advert for the DVD!
I have just returned back from a gruelling chess schedule at the annual Southend Easter tournament.
This is a great tournament that I have played in on a number of occasions but this year the open was extremely strong due to first price being a very generous £2000.
The line up of players included: David Howell, Stewart Conquest, Mark Hebden, Keith Arkell, Jovanka Houska, Richard Pert, Adam Hunt, myself, plus a number of other dangerous players. The results can be seen below:
April 27th, 2010 | Author: 