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’ve just returned from the extremely strong Greek Open Championship in Kavala, where in between lying on the beach, eating olives and drinking beer I played some chess: 5.5/9 for a pretty mediocre performance in terms of rating points.
I made 0.5/4 with Black, spoiling some perfectly acceptable positions with ridiculous moves. But with White I scored 5/5 and played some nice games, in all of which BISHOPS were instrumental!
A Greek Orthodox Bishop.
Ginger GM Williams has kindly allowed the webmaster to publish two nice finishes from the 4NCL this weekend. Simon did originally ask me to write a poker column detailing my quest for Supernova Elite, but every poker blog I’ve ever read (with a notable exception) is mind-numbingly boring and chess is a much better game than poker anyway. So for now, you’re getting chess.
I expect Simon will be reporting on the 4NCL in due course, where his team Jutes of Kent won promotion to Division 1. Further exciting content we have lined up for the site includes a regular question and answer column with ‘Ginger IM’ Adam Hunt!
On to the chess.
