The main Drunken Knights team play in central London, at The Plough pub, right near to the British Museum. This team is brilliantly run by the charismatic Neville Chan but just recently, transport bigwig,  Gary O’Grady has started a ‘Surrey Branch’ down in Godalming his home town.

Now this has become quite handy for me as I now live a 2 minute walk away from the home venue. Coincidence you may think? Well kind of I guess…

It was a hard decision leaving my old club Sandhurst, who have made many great steps in improving the status of chess and I must thank Alec (the main man at Sandhurst) personally, for he has helped me out greatly but from a practical point of view, it made more sense to join the Drunken Knights.

Now there has been some rumours about other signings for the Drunken Knights http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2083 I cannot comment on these rumours but I will leave it in the capable hands of Gary O’Grady to introduce the new team members: myself, Aly and Mark Rich the new signings…

The extract below was taken from an email that was circulated amongst the Drunken Knights Surrey Branch team, from the captain Gary O’Grady. I had to edit it somewhat in order to publish it here… and please note that it IS fictional!

We have some exciting new players joining us this season to ensure that I don’t play and spoil our championship chance!

Ginger GM Simon Williams

Simon Williams was born in Farnham and educated locally before moving on to a remote monastery on the Greek Island of Paphos in order to find God and inner peace after a drug fuelled early school life. It was here he developed quite a skill in chess playing in his habit with other lonely monks trying to find similar enlightenment.

He never did find God nor inner peace and his earlier days came back to haunt him. The main production for this monastery was trappist ales which Simon had avoided consuming for many years.

However after a very bad game against one of the newest monks to join this cabal he was completely inconsolable at this unfathomable loss and turned once more to the ale. Many jugs later and dancing round the steeple minus his habit he was cast out of this peaceful haven and sent back to the real world to hopefully repent and contemplate his actions.

This he still has spectacularly failed to do. Moving back to Farnham home turf he fell back in to his old ways. Drunken Knights manger Gary O’Grady dragged him out of this putrid filthy mire and offered him a place in the Drunken Knights Surrey Branch in the hope of encouraging him back in to a world of peaceful normality.

Simon has come on well and has since moved to Godalming living just 34 seconds brisk walk from The Star.

We wish him well in his recovery and welcome him back to society and hope the Drunken Knights experience will lead to a sustained and fullfield life.

WFM Alexandra Wilson

Lovely Alexandra ‘Aly’ Wilson started her chess career early in a small village in the foot hills of the Pyrenees. It was a poor upbringing. Her parents couldn’t afford a complete set so coloured stones were sometimes used in their stead.

Her school life was far from satisfactory being in the bottom class of every subject but completely and utterly absorbed in her little chess set. After seeing how well she played a neighbour offered to take her to the local chess club as a visiting grand master from Paris was going to give a simultaneous display.

Needless to say Aly was the last one standing with the grand master having to concede a draw against this young plucky upstart. Years went by and she failed abysmally at school but the chess never stoped. She decided ultimately to leave her girl hood home to find her fortune over the chess board and began a tour of Europe.

This ended abruptly in Geneva when she was approached during a tournament by a ginger haired weirdo offering to take her to chess heaven. Totally taken in by his drunken charms they began a truly tempestuous relationship which after many years now means that Aly also lives a brisk 34 second walk from The Star.

Mark Rich

All I can say about Mark Rich is that he had a one move check mate against 3 times British Champion Grandmaster some Scottish bloke and missed it!

Wise words Mr. Rich. Wise words indeed.

So there we are. They are the new boys and girl joining our illustrious brotherhood.

Justin from darkphoenix media has been developing a new website for gingergm that is nearly ready to launch.

This site will have a lot of new and exciting features. A taste of which you will have to wait for! Let’s hope it is ready to rock and roll by the end of the week!

There was a slight delay due to problems at the replicator but the first batch of DVDs have already been sent out. We await to hear your reviews!

The minds behind gingergm.com thought that it was worth applying for the title of  ‘ECF website of the year’ award. http://www.englishchess.org.uk/?p=5588 but in the end it went to another site.

We had a quick discussion about this last night and came to the conclusion that if we ever won the award then we really should hold our heads in shame. (we not jealous, really we are not…)

Why don’t we want such a worthy title you may ask? Well for a start it means that we are not being edgy enough and I also suppose that we kind of enjoy being a bit outside of the norm here at gingergm.

In honour of this attitude the  ‘bottom board man’ sent me today’s lesson, which can be seen below…

Now before we move onto the lesson I just want to mention that at some point in the future we are going to start a discussion about the state of chess in England and about it’s sad, gradual, decline.

20 years or so ago, chess was booming in England, with top tournaments, top players and top prizes. The sad fact is that chess has only gone one way since then, downhill. Now who or what is to blame for this?

Maybe the ECF or some of the minds behind the ECF? (I know that some individuals have done a brilliant job but the federation have been in charge of English chess for the last 20 years).

The breakup of the USSR?

The ‘geeky’ reputation that chess holds to the general public?

What is the reason?

Anyway, more about this at another time. Let’s now move onto the ‘ Bottom board mans’ lesson of the day….

LESSON FOR TODAY 

Sometimes, we try  too hard to get to the greener grass.
In the process, we end up in  trouble…….. 
And when you find yourself in trouble and you’re stuck in a  situation that you can’t get out of, there is one thing you should 
always remember…….

Not everyone who shows  up……. 
Is there to help you!!!! 

I have been playing like a bit of a patzer of late, so I now welcome ‘bottom board mans’ attempt at cheering me up.

‘Bottom board man’ has found some interesting signs of when one is in danger at chess, on top of this he has also searched the internet for some chess related jokes.

Any other comments/jokes are always welcome!

Moments when you should feel danger at chess

1) There has been a change in the pawn structure. Your opponent has 8 and you don’t have any.

2) Your opponent begins to throw pawns at your eyes.

3) You have a position won but your opponent has a gun. 

4) The Director tells you not to bother turning in your score sheet after the game.

5) Before game begins you notice your opponents 1st initials are ‘GM’.

6) After completing your development you sense your opponent playing the endgame.

7) Just as you make your opening move your opponent announces mate in 11.

 You don’t control any squares at all.

9) Your draw offer sends all the people watching your game into uncontrollable laughter.

10) Your opponent has 3 bishops.

And now some dangerous moments that I have encountered… (Simon Williams)

11) The smell of ‘chess sweat’ makes it hard to see the board

12) Your opponent turns up completely drunk then suddenly rushes off and returns 10 minutes later with sick dripping down his chin.

13) After winning a fair bit of money at ‘Blitz chess’ your opponent decides to lock you in his house, call his friends into the room from upstairs and demand his money back.

14) The board next to you breaks out into an argument, then a fight and the victor (of the fight) turns to you and asks, ‘you saw what happened didn’t you?’

There are plenty more but I can not go into all of them here…

Some chess jokes

A chess master died – after a few days, a friend of his heard a voice; it was him!
“What’s it like, where you are now,” he asked.
“What do you want to hear first, the good news or the bad news.”
“Tell me the good news first.”
“Well, it’s really heaven here. There are tournaments and blitz sessions going on all the time and Morphy, Alekhine, Lasker, Tal, Capablanca, Botvinnik, they’re all here, and you can play them.”
“Fantastic!” the friend said, “and what is the bad news?”
“You have Black against Capablanca on Saturday.”

Q: What is the difference between a large cheese pizza and a chess Grandmaster?
A: The pizza can feed a family of four.

And now a joke that a friend of mine told me. To set the the scene he was the best man at a wedding of a chess player and he mentioned the following in his speech…

‘I once asked *** whether he preferred chess or sex and he replied, “well it depends on the position!”

That’s enough for now and I am sure that a number of readers out there can improve on our pitiful attempts…

To be opposite

1. To be in contention or conflict with: oppose the enemy force.

2. To be resistant to: opposes new ideas.

3. To place opposite in contrast or counterbalance.

4. To place so as to be opposite something else.

To act or be in opposition.

A quick post, but this is the scenario:

Last night I had a bet with GM Keith Arkell, the bet is…

I bet £10 that he wont sacrifice a piece tomorrow morning (10am game)

If he loses all bets are void, if he draws or wins and sacrifices a piece then he wins £10!!!

No sacrifice, I win £10!

Time to rock and roll!!!!!!! Lets unleash the inner Keith, a crazy hacking genius, who can take anyone out in tactics. Now you may think that I ‘am taking the ‘Mickey’ here but  Keith can play all sorts of positions. If you’re in doubt then search out his game against Hodgson at the Surrey Easter tournament. Anyway, only time will tell!

PS this post is only going up at 9.55am Sunday morning so that his opponent does not smell a rat!!

http://www.e2e4.org.uk/international/2010/Uxbridge_Aug/index.htm

For Details!

“What was I doing here? What was the meaning of this trip? Was I just roaming around in a drug frenzy of some kind? Or had I really come out here to Las Vegas to work on a story? Who are these people, these faces? Where do they come from? They look like caricatures of used car dealers from Dallas, and sweet Jesus, there were a hell of a lot of them at 4:30 on a Sunday morning, still humping the American dream, that vision of the big winner somehow emerging from the last minute pre-dawn chaos of a stale Vegas casino.” *

So recently I returned from a trip to the USA where, amongst other things, I:

• failed to cash in the World Series of Poker Main Event
• saw Snoop Dogg perform only yards away at a private party
• nearly angrily took out a GM with the Killer Dutch in a crucial last round game of chess

Rock and Roll.

*So says Raoul Duke in Hunter S. Thompson’s classic novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

I’ve never been to Las Vegas before and I’m not sure I particularly want to go back for any great length of time. They’re soulless and in many ways depressing, these casinos. There’s nothing else to do but gamble, once you’ve seen a few shows.

Having said that, I did have a good time! I was there to play the Main Event of the World Series of Poker, having qualified by virtue of making Supernova Elite on Pokerstars last year.

Pokerstars hospitality was fantastic: we were put up in a suite at the top of Palms Place that was roughly twice the size of my old flat. Two 42” plasma TV screens? Check. Jacuzzi in the bedroom? Check. Two bathrooms? Check. Walk-in shower (three shower heads) big enough for five? Check. You get the idea.

Then there was Snoop Dogg at the Pokerstars party. There he is, on the right, in a Spain shirt. It was the day of the Soccer World Championship Finals, whatever they are?

Penn and Teller were good too.

I busted the Main Event about ten minutes before the end of Day 2A.

The first day had gone pretty well, I’d chipped up to 45.5k (starting stack was 30k) without any major drama or excitement. I check-raised a low flop against a young internet qualifier, turned the second nut flush then check-raised him again. He tanked and folded. The very next orbit I flopped a full house against the same player’s early position open, raised his continuation bet and he immediately shoved all-in with his flush draw, drawing dead but to a runner-runner straight flush. That was about it.

The second day I back-raised a shortstacked Marcel Lüske (‘The Flying Dutchman’. Trademark – wearing sunglasses upside-down Upside-down? What? Why?) and beat his ace-queen with my pair of tens early on.

Nothing much happened after that, until about ten minutes before the end. I had 60k with blinds of 500/1000/100 and opened ace-queen suited on the button to 2.5k. The very active, aggressive, drunk, irritating, young, fidgety and bad player in the small blind re-raised to 7.5k, so I made it 20k hoping to induce a light shove. Which I did, but unfortunately he had a pair of sixes that held up without even a sweat, because he flopped a set. So that was that.

There I am checking my cards, on the left.

I don’t want to dwell on the exit hand too much, except to say I think my play is fine, if high variance, against this particular player. Obviously there are other options that might be ‘better’ in some sense, such as taking a flop in position or just shoving over his 3-bet. But it was a good time for a flip – either I lose and head off to see San Francisco for a few days, or I win and come back on day 3 with a very healthy stack and a great chance of cashing/going deep. That was the first time I was all-in all tournament.

So San Francisco it was, then. I liked it. There’s culture and stuff to see and do. It feels “European” even, you could say. There’s the bridge, on the right.

Next it was on to L. A. First stop, the Pacific Coast Open. A 6-round weekender, American style*, in a sleepy town called Agoura Hills. I limped to 4/5 and found myself sharing the lead.

*bring your own sets, boards and clocks, players in  the same tournament playing different schedules, high entry fees and big prizes for all sections.

Ramirez, Alejandro (2562) – Ansell, Simon (2398), Pacific Coast Open 2010 (6)

You can replay the game on a Flash board at the bottom of the page.

Why was I angry? There were three of us sharing first going into this, the last round. I had White against IM Enrico Sevillano. So I prepared for an hour or so – there was $3000 at stake after all. It was the only possible pairing.

Apparently not, according to the USCF pairing system, as I discovered five minutes before the round. Colours are not important, I can play a fourth Black against the top seed instead. Marvellous.

Fortunately I knew the perfect opening for my angry, unprepared state.

1. c4 e6 2. g3 f5! This would be it. 3. Bg2 Nf6 4. Nh3 I was glad to see this, because Simon doesn’t rate Nh3 systems in his DVD. The way to play against them is a quick …e5, keeping the knight from f4. 4… Be7 5. O-O O-O 6. d4 d6 7. Qb3 c6 8. d5!?

Probably not great, but a reasonable idea. The h3 knight won’t have a home on f4, so White tries to exchange it on e6 when the light-squared bishop could dominate. Romanishin played a similar idea against me in Iceland in a game I promised to annotate for this website but have been too lazy to do so, so I had some idea what I should be doing here.

8… cxd5 9. cxd5 e5 10. Ng5 Na6! Obviously this knight wants to be on c5 and as a bonus, I gain time on the White queen.

11. Nc3 If 11. Ne6 I can just take it and play 12… d5 with a huge centre, then round up the e-pawn. 11… Nc5 12. Qc2 a5 Possibly not necessary, 12… Ng4 immediately might have been better… 13. Rd1 …because now White could have played 13. Be3 instead. 13… Ng4! The key move, after which Black is fine, if not slightly better. I also played this move in the game against Romanishin but here I have an improved version because of the time gained on White’s queen.

14. Ne6 Nxe6 15. dxe6 Bxe6 16. Bd5 16. Bxb7 is impossible due to 16…Qb6 hitting f2, so White looks for positional compensation for the pawn instead. 16… Bxd5 17. Nxd5 Rf7 My computer says 17…Kh8 is better, but the principle is the same, to avoid any nasty tactics on the a2-g8 diagonal after White plays Qb3.

18. f3 I’m not sure this is best, White will take the pawn back but lose all the positional advantages. 18. Qb3 would have kept the tension. 18… Nf6 19. Nxe7+ And now possibly taking on f6 then b7 was superior. 19… Qxe7 20. Qxf5 d5

21. Be3 21. Bg5 is also possible. 21… d4 22. Bf2

22… Nd7! I had my longest think of the game here. c5 will be a good square for the knight – it blockades the c-file, a potential source of White counterplay and controls the d3 and e4 squares, which are important because they’re where the Black pawn breaks might be. 23. Qg4 Nc5 24. Rac1

24…b6? Desirable, but unnecessary. 24…Raf8 would have stopped White’s next, his only pawn break, when Black has a great position. I’d seen his next move and had a response ready, but I misjudged the resulting endgame. 25. e3! e4! The only move, but a good one. 25… d3 is answered by 26. e4 when now White is better as d3 can’t be held. The next few moves are forced.

26. exd4 Nd3 27. Rc8+ Rxc8 28. Qxc8+ Rf8 29. Qc4+ Kh8 30. Rxd3 exd3 31. Qxd3

The smoke has cleared. I’d assessed this position as ‘good winning chances’ for Black due to the weakness of the White pawns and the white squares around his king. What I’d failed to consider was the weakness of my queenside pawns. White has to act quickly…

31… Qf7 32. d5! …and he does. 32… Rd8 33. Bxb6 Qxd5 34. Qxd5 Rxd5 35. Be3 Rd1+?! Perhaps there were still winning chances if I’d have transferred the rook to c2 via d6 and c6. 36… Rd6!?

Now it’s just a draw.

36. Kf2 Kg8 37. h4 Kf7 38. h5 Ke6 39. Ke2 Ra1 40. a3 Kd5 41. Bd2 a4 42. Bc3 g6 43. hxg6 hxg6

1/2-1/2

Sevillano won his game to take outright first.

Equal second, a couple of rating points and $720 is better than a kick in the teeth and more than I’ve made at poker recently! Perhaps a new career as a chess professional beckons?

Feel free to comment!

So the highs and lows of the British are over for another year and it is now time to reflect on what actually happened.

Blair Connell, a fellow Drunken Knights player has kindly offered his take on the event. Hopefully Blair will become a regular contributor.

Anyway let’s welcome the ‘View from the Sofa’ man. I would just like to say that the views are Blair’s opinion and therefore they do not necessarily reflect the views of the website….

A review of the leading players from the recent British Championships,  who’s up and who’s down.

Michael Adams (9.5/11) -

Ruthlessly exposed the gulf in class between 2700+ and 2500.  Managed to mesmerise opponents into positional and occasional tactical errors.  Made the game look ridiculously simple based on sound openings and accurate play.  Challenging for the record of king being in check fewest times during a tournament.  Deserved winner but greater challenges lie ahead and much stiffer task defending the title in Sheffield next year but on current form would have to start as favourite.

 Nick Pert (8/11) -

All round decent performance.  Despite being black was the only player to seriously challenge Adams when the tournament was still alive but understandably took a draw.  Undefeated and arguably deserved luck not to lose to Williams.  Excellent finish propelled him to outright 2nd.

 Adam Hunt (7.5/11) -

Superb tournament and justified many commentators belief that he was playing at GM strength by achieving 2nd GM norm and looking every inch a GM in the waiting.  Deserved more than mass split for 3rd (undone by back door Swiss pairings system) but achieved primary goal.  Appears to play better when his sister is not in the same tournament.  Will walk away very happy and surely optimistic of gaining a 3rd and final GM norm very soon.

 Richard Pert (7.5/11) -

Only loss came against Adams.  Solid performance including excellent defeat of Rendle but overall didn’t quite convince as a likely future GM despite all round decent display.

 Stuart Conquest (7.5/11) - 

Gained rating points by closing the tournament with back to backvictories.  Undone by a masterful display by Williams and never really convinced as a serious title contender.

 Jonathan Hawkins (7.5/11) -

Improving player but only real highlight was his surprising defeat of Williams in final round.

 Alexei Slavin (7.5/11) -

Russian

  Stephen Gordon (7/11) -

Hypnotised by Adams into rank blunder in roughly equal position but did manage consecutive checks against him which separated him from the field.  A positive result in this game would surely have changed his tournament.

Keith Arkell (7/11) -

Played a lot of moves but not always good ones.  Was in fine form coming into the tournament but may have played too much beforehand.  Having dinner with me possibly the highlight of his tournament so one to forget.

 Simon Williams (6.5/11) -

Played well at times and certainly one of the more entertaining players in a somewhat mundane championships.  Superb skill in outplaying Conquest from a slightly inferior position demonstrated his class but tournament ultimately marred by last round loss, failure to compete with Adams in round 10 and rush of blood against Jack Rudd as early as round 3.  Once again showed his potential to push past 2550 but needs to tighten up his play and take full advantage of the opportunities he creates (e.g. vs N. Pert) if this is to happen.

 Jovanka Houska (6.5/11) -

Turned up and stayed alive to secure women’s title.  Decent but exposed as short of top class vs British men.

 Danny Gormally (6/11) -

Looked one of Britain’s finest prospects when pushing 2600 a few years ago but lost his way and mentally if not physically a shadow of his former self.  No longer punching above his weight and needs to rededicate himself to chess if his obvious talent is once again going to come to the fore.

The following chess players can be seen in the photo above (July 2010 fide ratings have been included in brackets):

From left to right: Blair Connell (2263), GM Nick Pert (2551), WFM Alexandra Wilson (2039)

From left to right: IM Adam Hunt (2408), GM Simon Williams (2511), GM Danny Gormally (2480)

Well done to everyone who got the answer right! Sadly, there can only be one winner and that winner is Matt Webb. Congratulations! A copy of Simon’s latest dvds, ‘Killer French Part 1 & 2’, have been sent to you.

The money game!

The last round has finally arrived and the pressure is now firmly on. In order to secure a decent money prize, Simon must win. He faces FM Jonathan Hawkins, a player who has improved enormously over the past few years. Here’s how the game panned out:

Simon decided to play the Four Pawns Attack against the King’s Indian. On move 11, he played Kh1 – a fairly new idea which was recently featured in New In Chess. However, much to Simon’s dismay, Jonathan successfully showed that the idea in question is flawed by playing 13… Bc6. Simon then had to waste precious time maneuvering his king back to g1.

After 19… d5, Black had achieved a notable advantage and moments later White was left with an inferior position. Indeed, Black found a neat way to gain a material advantage on move 25 by playing Bxe5 in the position below:

Simon’s position soon crumbled after this tactic and despite having a passed e-pawn, he was unable to make any progress due to the activity of Black’s pieces. The game ended on move 38 in Black’s favour. Sadly, this second consecutive defeat left Simon out of the prizes.

Ginger GM would like to take this opportunity to congratulate GM Mickey Adams (British Champion 2010) and IM Jovanka Houska (British Womens Champion 2010)