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:
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!
In general the Hastings chess tournament was a horrible affair for me but on the odd occasion there was the odd glimmer of sunshine. One of these rays was my last round game which managed to win me the Best Game Prize. It was a fun game in the true spirit of Coffee House chess. Anyway below is a quick video on it:
Before I dwell on my losses from Hastings I’m attempting to cheer myself up by looking at a couple of more positive moments! They were lacking but there was the occasional spark. For a start I had a chance to play against the Dutch and chose to play 1 d4 f5 2 h3!? Nf6 3 g4!? which lead to a very interesting game against my friendly opponent M. Goodger.
I have just covered this line for my DVD, ‘Killer Dutch’ and thought that it would be a good chance to try it. I saw that Korchnoi had played it. I had also had a chance to play it and win against Korchnoi in a 3 minute game! Anyway let’s take a look at the game:
Last Monday was a breath of fresh air for me in an otherwise torrid and depressing Hastings Chess Congress. We successfully managed to launch our first DVD, the ‘Killer Dutch’!
I have recently just returned from playing at the London Chess Classic, what an event! More on that later. To start with I thought that I would show a game that I had, with the Black pieces, against Robert Bellin.
