The first DVD is on how a player should exploit the initiative in chess. I have used two of my own games to demonstrate what thought processes Grandmasters use during their games.

These DVD’s are aimed to give the viewer general tips that he will be able to use in his own games, therefore improving his standard of play.

At £5, which is cheaper then anything else out there in the market, you can not really go wrong! Give the DVD a go and please tell us here at gingergm what you think.

DVDs in this range to follow are:

2: Thinking outside the box

3: Luck in chess

4: The HillBilly Attack!

5: Using the Initiative: part 2.

The Jutes of Kent had a great Saturday at the 4ncl (English league), destroying Cheddleton and ensuring a place in the division one promotion pool.

It should be noted that the ‘invaders’ from Iceland scored 2.5/3 and must be partly thanked for our success. Alexis Harakis, also had a great result on board seven, defeating a player greatly out rating him. I have left the result and some photo’s below.

The photo’s were taken from the meal on the Saturday night. Signs of over celebrating are obvious…

A more complete report will follow.

Board 1: Hebden, Mark L ½ – ½ Galego, Luis

Board 2: Hawkins, Jonathan 0 – 1 Gretarsson, Hjorvar Steinn

Board 3: Paehtz, Elisabeth ½ – ½ Williams, Simon K

Board 4:Rodriguez Guerrero, Enrique 0 – 1 Thorfinnsson, Bragi

Board 5: Arkell, Keith CC  ½ – ½ Thorfinnsson, Bjorn

Board 6: Bellin, Robert 0 – 1 Johannesson, Ingvar Thor

Board 7: Camacho Collados, Jose 0 – 1 Harakis, Alexis M

Board 8: Eggleston, David J 1 – 0 Wilson, Alexandra

2½ – 5½

On the Saturday just gone I had an interesting encounter with Eingorn, a Grandmaster with a rating around the 2550 mark.

My French League team is doing very well, and it looks like we will be going back up into division one of the French League next session.

The game in question was another interesting Dutch defence and I got a rather dangerous initiative very early on. My opponent defended well and the game dried up into a draw.

I have made a video on the game, which can be seen below. Please enjoy and feel free to leave any comments. I have also added the moves to the game.

Eingorn vs Williams: More action in the Dutch!

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Eingorn – Williams [A04]
French League, 24.03.2012

1.Nf3 f5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 d6 4.0-0 e5 5.d3 5…Be7 6.Nc3 0-0 7.e4 Nc6 8.h3 Qe8 9.Re1 f4 10.gxf4 exf4 11.Bxf4 Nh5 12.Bg3 Ne5  13.Nd5 Bd8 14.d4 Nxf3+ 15.Bxf3 Nxg3 16.fxg3 Bxh3 17.Bg2 Qg6 18.Qd3 18…Bxg2 19.Kxg2 c6 20.Ne3 Bg5 21.Re2 Bxe3 22.Rxe3 Rae8 23.Rae1 Qf7 24.Qb3 d5 25.Rf3 Qe6 26.e5 Rxf3 27.Qxf3 Qg6 28.Qe2 Rf8 29.Qd3 Qxd3 30.cxd3 a5 31.a3 Kf7 ½-½

You can still buy the ‘Killer Dutch’ a 8 hour DVD for £19.95 from our shop!!

As well as playing in the Reykjavik open, I was involved with the daily commentary.

This happened after the game and was a 30 minute round up of the days events.

I have posted all of the nine days briefing below. Feel free to enjoy the videos.

Thanks must go to Macauley Peterson and everyone involved with the open for making the daily debriefing happen.

Round 1:

Round 2:

Round 3:

Round 4:

Round 5:

Round 6: Missing

Round 7:

Round 8:

Round 9:

Whilst I was playing in the 2012 Reyjkavik open, myself, Gawain Jones, Adam Hunt, Ingvar Johannesson and Aloyzas Kveinys had an interesting night taking a look at some chess puzzles.

Kveinys seemed to have a never ending supply of intriguing positions to keep our, already fried brains, in a twist.

One of my favourite was the following position. Black is going up the board and White down.

                It is White to play and Win!

Please feel free to leave your suggestions here, or alternatively I will post the answer soon.

It is round four of the Reykjavik open today. So far things have gone according to plan, with a start of 3/3.

I have also been doing the commentary which goes out live online. You can see the archive of this at http://www.livestream.com/reykjavikopen

Today will be a real test for me, as I am facing the super strong, Ivan Sokolov, with the Black pieces.

I have played him a couple of times previously with mixed results, my best result coming from the Reykjavik open in 2006 http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1400773. In that game I managed to win with the Dutch.

Will I repeat it again or try something else??

You can find out by logging into the live games at http://skaksamband.is/?c=webpage&id=530.

Anyway it should be a fun game, time to go and prepare now!

I arrived into Reykjavik late Thursday night, in anticipation for the Icelandic league and the Reykjavik open.

Iceland is one of my favourite places to visit, with it’s wild scenery, interesting food and insane nightlife. I have become friendly with a number of the Icelandic players and they always welcome me with open arms.

On Friday night we were due to start our first league game at 8pm in Selfoss, about an hour away from Reykjavik.

The drive there was rather nerve racking to say the least. We had to travel over a mini mountain pass, that had the highest accident rate in the whole of Iceland.

Visibility from the inside of the car stretched to about 5 meters and the driver was happily sprinting along at around 60 miles per hour. As you can imagine, this made me rather nervous as I could not see anything in front of me, yet one of my fellow passengers mentioned that we were next to some rather nasty mountain drops on either side.

Around this stage, I thought that it was just best to chill out and hope for the best…

I asked the driver if the whether was ‘normal’ and his reply, I am sure, was meant to reassure me, ‘This is nothing, I do this drive all the time and it is a lot worse when the road is icy, then the car could end up anywhere.’

Fair enough, a but different to driving in England…

On the Friday night I found myself paired against the Faroe Island sportsman of the year, the young Helgi Dam Viska. It was a very interesting game which could have gone either way. The opening and finish to the game were of particular interest.

Viska vs Williams, Icelandic league, 02/03/2012.

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 Bb5+

I have struggled against this move in the past, most notable losing horribly to Mickey Adams twice at the British Championships.

3…Nc6 4 0-0 Bd7 5 Re1 Nf6 6 c3 a6 7 Bf1 e5

I had actually prepared the following idea against Mickey Adams at the last British Championships, only forgetting to play this move at the board!

8 h3

8 d4 runs into 8…cxd4 9 cxd4 Bg4 and Black should be fine.

8…g5!?

An interesting idea that leads to a very double edged game, which suited me down to the ground.

9 d4 g4

I was also considering 9…cxd4 10 Bxg5 Be7!?

10 hxg4 Nxg4 11 dxc5 Rg8!?

I was trying to tempt my opponent into capturing on d6 when it looked to me that I would get very good play, for example, 12 cxd6 Qf6! 13 Nd2 Bxd6 with …0-0-0 to follow and all my pieces are developed.

Anyway we had a very interesting middlegame but the critical moment came later on in the game…

It was White to move with a very messy position. My opponent now played

33 e5!?

My threat at the time was to play …d3 for example, Bxd3 …f3! with a mating attack.

I can now not play 33…d3 as White has 34 d7+! when my king is caught in a mating net. After using up all my remaining time, I saw a viscous and very pretty idea…

33…Qh2+ 34 Kf1 Nxe5

I may be doing very well here but my opponent now fell straight into my viscous trap by playing…

35 Qc5?

The next tactic will appeal to those of you out there who enjoy the odd game of checkers…

35…Bd3+!!

My opponent resigned as 36 Bxd3 runs into 36…Qh1+ 37 Ke2 Qxe1+! 38 Kxe1 Nxd3+ and White loses all his pieces and the game.

So a nice finish to a complicated game. I then scored 1/2 on the Saturday, I may have a look at these games later on in the week but I am running out of time now!

The first round of the Reykjavik open is today so we had a very pleasant, ‘pre-tournament’ rest day on the Monday. This saw me, Bjorn, Gawain and Sue go to one of the top 25 wonders of the world, The Blue Lagoon.

An amazing thermal springs resort which is a great place to relax. I have attached some photos of the trip so far. Please feel free to leave any comments!

The lodge we stayed at on Friday night, in the middle of no-where!

Some of my team mates. Hannes Stefansson, Robert Lagermann, Bjorn Thorfinnsson and our captain.

Me and Lagermann!

Sue and Gawain, outside the front of the Blue Lagoon.

Bjorn and me.

The Blue Lagoon.

Me, Sue and Ga outside the front of the Blue Lagoon.

My favourite place to eat in Iceland…

I managed to survive all the rounds from the Hastings International this year. (last year I had to withdraw due to a broken bone…) With a mediocre score.

I was on the other hand quite pleased with my play, it seemed like I was finding some form again.

One of my games was awarded the ‘best game prize’. My encounter with English junior, Sam Franklin. It was an exciting Sicilian defence which I take a look at in the post below.

Best Game Prize: Hastings 2011-2012

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Please feel free to comment.

This tournament is going from strength to strength and this year it attracted some world class Grandmasters; including, Mickey Adams, Nigel Short, Gawain Jones and Andrei Istratescu.

There are a number of reasons why Bunratty attracts so many strong players. Given below are my top five reasons why Bunratty excels…

1) The playing venue, conditions and organisers:

The tournament is now played in the castle hotel, a lovely place with great rooms, a spa and a very late bar!

This is the kind of place where all chess tournaments should be played.

The three main men that run the tournament are, Paul Carey (main organiser), Gerry Graham (Chief Arbiter) and Gary O’Grady (sponsor). They all deserve a brief description:

I first met Paul ‘Sambuca’ Carey in 2006 when I first played. We ended up going back to his home in Limerick, which had a full size bar installed in his front room, with Guinness on tap. Enough said!!

Gerry Graham always ensures that the tournament runs smoothly. He also makes every participant feel at home. For example, on the Monday after the tournament myself, Luis, Gawain, Sue and Thomas Rendle were all getting rather concerned as our taxi for the airport was thirty minutes late and then, who comes along to save the day, Gerry in his very small hire car!

So we all pilled in and Gerry got us to the airport just in time, he decided to go the back routes in case we encountered any ‘Garda’, who may have had something to say about the number of people sitting on each other in the back seat!

Regular readers here will already be familiar with Gary O’Grady. Gary’s company http://www.blackthornetransport.co.uk/ is the main sponsor of the event.

Gary must have given something in the region of Greece’s national debt to the local tourist economy.

2) Durty Nelly’s

This year one English player, who was making his debut, asked the taxi driver on his way to Bunratty:

‘Where should I go for a good time’.

The taxi driver replied

‘Dirty Nelly always offers a good time!’

The IM was rather perplexed, was this Nelly really that good? Was she, as dirty as his imagination was assuming… Anyway, he thought that he would find out and the taxi driver took him to one of the oldest pubs in Ireland, Durty Nelly’s, http://durtynellys.ie/.

Durty Nelly’s is a proper pub that serves amazing food, great Guinness and an amazing atmosphere.

I can remember Gary a number of years ago, asking one of the bar men where the ash tray was. The barman replied, ‘Your standing in it!’

The bar normally stays open late at the weekend, with traditional Irish music where anyone, yes anyone, can join in. Only a couple of minutes away from the venue it makes a pleasant change to the chess hall.

3) The People

You are always made to feel at home when playing in Ireland and the whole ambience can not be beaten.

It seems like most of the participants conjugate in the bar before, during and after each game of chess. Everyone is incredibly friendly. (Maybe the Guinness has something to do with that!)

I overheard the following little encounter whilst waiting to be served at the hotel bar…

Englishmen: ‘Do you know the quickest way to Dublin from here?’

Barman: ‘Are you driving or walking?’

Englishmen: ‘Driving’

Barmen: ‘Well that would be the quickest then!’

4) The Guinness

I am not normally a Guinness drinker, in England I would not touch the stuff, but when you are in Bunratty there is something about drinking Guinness that just feels right.

Where ever you look someone is having a Guinness and in Ireland it does just taste that little bit better!

5)  The Craic

A long time ago I used to date an Irish girl and she would always say things like:

‘You have got to love the Crack!’

‘The Crack’s going to be great tonight!’

Or even, ‘Let’s get on the Crack tonight!’

At the time this would really freak me out as I was only 15 years old and the last thing that I wanted to do was become a Crack addict, hearing horrible things about what the drug can do to people…

It was only after a couple of weeks that I came to realise that the Crack I was thinking of was different to the ‘Craic’ that she was thinking about!

‘Craic’ can be summed up as. ‘Irish word for fun/enjoyment that has been brought into the English language. usu. when mixed with alcohol and/or music.’

A much better definition and a good way to describe Bunratty!

Did you notice that not once did I refer to chess in this piece!? Impressive!

I will try to take a look at some of my games soon, the only problem is that I do not seem to remember most of them. There were some fascinating encounters though…

We were honoured on the final day to be joined by Emanuel Berg who demonstrated his brilliant win against Maxim Vachier-Legrave. This game was later voted the best game of the 2012 tradewise Gibraltar congress.

Thanks to MacauleyPeterson for providing the video. More videos of Gibraltar 2012 and other top chess events can be viewed from Macauley Peterson’s, you tube site.