Mt Gaurishanka International Open.

Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony was attended by many dignitaries including Mr Anand Prasad Pokharel, the former  MP of the Dolakha district constitution no 2. As top seed I was asked to hand the trophy over to Mr Anand and even got a shawl!

The view from the tournament hall is spectacular! I consider it "compensation" for the playing conditions which are a bit Spartan. The chairs squeak horribly every time someone moves, metal against stone and the audience is not used keeping quiet. This is the first time Charikot has hosted an international chess event and all things considered,  are coping quite well. Again, the view!

Posing with the man who was kind enough to invite me to Nepal, Mr Rajesh Hari Joshi.

Rounds 1-5
The first round was scheduled for 2pm, got moved to 4pm and started at 5.20 pm. Oh well, plenty of time for lunch. I won a pawn on move four but then got lazy and made life difficult for myself, eg 9...Nf2 would have pleased the spectators and allowed me to have an early dinner.

I hate making excuses for poor results but an angle grinder on the building site next door did make concentrating difficult. A lot of credit has to go to my opponent who found some clever defensive resources and in the end I can consider myself lucky bot to have lost...to a 1700 :(




Getting better but admittedly my opponent did just give me a central pawn.



This was a nice game although I should have lost before it started. I overslept and had people pounding on my door after I had already "lost" on forfeit. My opponent wanted to play and the organisers were anxious not to have a game decided in such a manner and let me off so I rushed down to the hall only about 10 minutes after forfeit time and without a shower or coffee and played my best game to date.



The young boy I faced in the afternoon was on a perfect 4/4 and is quite talented. Unfortunately for him he made some errors in the opening that were not repairable.



So, the tournament is half over, I have 4.5/5 and am still losing rating points. Oh well, a few more wins and I should break even. I hope to bring you more tourist photo's soon, weather and schedule permitting. Ten games in six days does not give one a lot of spare time.

Toodles :) Wish me luck.