With the election for the FIDE presidency just days away campaigning has stepped up a gear with both candidates politicking and attempting to round up the waverers who have not yet declared their support. From a local view point it seems that Kirsan maintains strong support from the less developed nations whilst Karpov’s camp are relying on Europe and more developed countries.

To give you a short synopsis of their campaigning here are their respective quotes

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It’s a bad day for your intrepid reporter. Ooh my head. You see Eamon Keogh turned up from Ireland last night. Need I say more? However the ‘Buffalo Theory’ now comes in to play. What’s the buffalo theory I hear you cry?

Well let me indulge you with yet another gem of wisdom from my vast archive of useless and possibly incorrect information.

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I had an interesting day a couple of weeks ago. Myself and the gingergm website master Simon Ansell decided to meet up in London to have a ‘business’ chat. The only problem was that we arranged to meet at 11am in the pub next to the Simpsons in the Strand…

Now this sounded like a good idea but we ended up ‘popping’ next door at 10pm, needless to say we were rather tipsy at the time… Anyway we got some good photo’s, and met (what I can remember!) some interesting people. On the downside this was the same day that Simon Ansell lost his laptop and I missed my last train back.

Anyway attached are some photos from that night and some interesting photos from the Olympiad!

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Our on the spot reporter, Gary, has been a bit distracted of late, filling his boots drinking with pretty much everyone he meets. I got the report below from Gary, yesterday and it sounds like they are having a lively time!

This also coincided with a phone call at midnight yesterday that was reminding me to feed Gary’s fish. It was only then I realised it was 5am Khanty-Mansiysk time! And by the sounds of it the bar was still pretty busy!

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At gingergm we will be doing an ongoing report of the 2010 chess olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk.

We have our own reporter who has already been out there for a couple of days. He is running out of places to drink and people to see, so all you players who are heading that way, hurry up and get over there!

Bottom Board Man’s report from day two of his adventures can be viewed below…

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At gingergm we will be doing an ongoing report of the 2010 chess olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk.

We have our own reporter who has already been out there for a couple of days. He is running out of places to drink and people to see, so all you players who are heading that way, hurry up and get over there!

Bottom Board Man’s report from day two of his adventures can be viewed below…

Read the rest of this entry »

I was sitting in a bar on Moscow’s Mayakovska nursing a pint clasping a return ticket to London and was in a quandary. You see I like Russia. I like it lot and I had only arrived the previous day.

These kind of decisions can only be made with a clear head, a full and exact appreciation of the situation and a coin flip.

Sadly it fell down heads so it was back to London but then after ordering another pint and thinking how a certain Simon Williams would deal with this, it became the best of three.

Khanty Mansiysk was a clear winner and who would dare to argue against the fate of a coin flip? I was now committed. I went back to my apartment to change my flight and book up for KM.

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I have recently finished taking a look at the King’s Gambit, for a start I went over Thomas Johansson excellent book (left) which suggests some very interesting ideas. I would recommend this to anybody who wants to spice up their game.

Bob Eames also joined me on a Kings Gambit session and I was lucky enough to try out one of the ideas that we looked at in a recent game at Sunningdale. I managed to win but my opponent had a golden opportunity.

You can watch the game in the video below.

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I have recently finished taking a look at the King’s Gambit, for a start I went over Thomas Johansson excellent book (left) which suggests some very interesting ideas. I would recommend this to anybody who wants to spice up their game.

Bob Eames also joined me on a Kings Gambit session and I was lucky enough to try out one of the ideas that we looked at in a recent game at Sunningdale. I managed to win but my opponent had a golden opportunity.

You can watch the game in the video below.

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I have just returned from one of Mr Hewitt’s tournaments in Sunningdale. http://www.e2e4.org.uk/

The e2-e4 chess congresses are really setting a very high standard in chess organising and it is great to see someone trying to run FIDE rated tournaments on a regular basis.

The tournament was won by GM Aaron Summerscale.  Aaron has made a welcome return to chess and this victory at Sunningdale must have been his best result of late. It just goes to show that a break playing poker does not necessarily destroy ones chess career!

I had a pretty decent tournament scoring 4/5 and equal second. For the first time in a while I got a 2600+ performance with some very interesting sacrificial wins. My game against Gawain is given below!

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