Julie Andrews?

Do Re Mi

The weather was nice,so just before the crack of noon three of us, Eva Nina and I decided to go to Le Pin Sec. We had not gone 200 metres from the Hacienda when we saw a Deer lying on the road, not able to move. After considering options it was decided to first bring her to safety and then ring animal rescue or such like.

After a short time she stopped struggling and was installed under a tree in the garden with water. 

With nothing else to be done, we recommenced our trip. Long time followers of my blog (both of you 😁) will remember that I have often posted photos of these WW2 bunkers. Their position changes as does the graffiti.

There were quite a few surfing students here this year. The sea was quite rough, so not ideally suited for beginners. I guess they had fun anyway. Better than watching the Idiot box.

 

Speaking of idiots, that's how I felt after my game today. In retrospect, considering that my sac 20...Nf2 was unsound due to 21.Rd2 declining the gift and trapping the Knight, I shouldn't be too disappointed. After accepting, I was just much better.

 Winning according to Stockfish, but not taking the piece back and playing on calmly a piece done is not very human. I'm referring to 23...Be5 24.Ne5 Qe5 etc. Even after looking at the lines for some time, I'm not sure why the position is -3.52 or thereabouts.

Just taking the piece back was fine but then I just faffed about, while my opponent with no time on the clock, an exposed King, and a pawn less, defended well. Oh well, that's how easy it is to misplace 5 rating points.
 

[Event "26th Wine tournament"]

[Site "Hourtin"]

[Date "2024.06.30"]

[Round "2"]

[White "Germes"]

[Black "Wohl, A"]

[Result "1/2-1/2"]

[WhiteElo "1917"]

[BlackElo "2332"]

[ECO "A43c"]

[EventDate "2024.06.29"]

1.d4 c5 2.c3 g6 3.Bf4 Bg7 4.e3 Nf6 5.Nf3 O-O 6.Be2 Qb6 7.Qb3 Nc6 8.

Nbd2 d6 9.h3 Be6 10.Qa3 cxd4 11.exd4 Bd5 12.O-O Rfe8 13.Rfe1 a5 14.

Rad1 Qc7 15.c4 Bxf3 16.Nxf3 e5 17.dxe5 dxe5 18.Bh2 Nb4 19.Qa4 Ne4 20.

Bf1 Nxf2 21.Kxf2 Qc5+ 22.Kg3 e4 23.Bg1 Qc7+ 24.Kf2 Nc6 25.Be2 exf3 

26.Bxf3 Rxe1 27.Kxe1 Bxb2 28.Qb5 Bc3+ 29.Kf1 Re8 30.Bf2 Qe7 31.Qb3 

Qe5 32.Qb5 Qe6 33.Qd5 Qf6 34.Qd7 Rd8 35.Qxb7 Rxd1+ 36.Bxd1 Bd4 37.Bf3

Nd8 38.Bxd4 Qxd4 39.Qd5 Qa1+ 40.Qd1 Qf6 41.Qd5 Ne6 42.Qxa5 Qa1+ 43.

Qe1 Qxa2 44.Bd5 Qa6 1/2-1/2

Now we have the double round day coming up. The survivors can then enjoy the rest of the tournament.

Toodles,

Alex.

ps: Is Julie Andrews a good name for our Doe?

26th Wine Tournament, Hourtin

                                                                   

                               I'm Back!😁

After an absence of many years, about five, I'm playing in an international open in France again. To be more precise, the Wine tournament in the Medoc region, where one wins wine, according to one's weight. The bad news is that I weigh considerably less now than five years ago. 

The road to Hourtin was long. I first flew to Milan took a few trains to St Tropez, stayed there a few days visiting family, then drove to Gueungnon to pick up my daughter who had just graduated from high school with brilliant marks. We then made another road trip, 600km, the next day to the Medoc.

This morning we headed to Montelivet where an annual Biker festival takes place. There were plenty of colourful Harleys on display, but I was more interested in the Cap Ferrer oysters. Nina discovered that she had lost her love of Oysters in the intervening years, so I had to eat most of them.

The Bikes are always worth a look.

Now to get to my first-round game. I have been teaching my students to create problems for their opponents early in the game. To constantly threaten and create problems. I must practice as I preach. I will post the game score here just in case the HTML doesn't work or disappears at some stage, which has happened before.

[Event "26th Wine tournament"]

[Site "Hourtin"]

[Date "2024.06.29"]

[Round "1"]

[White "Wohl, Aleksandar"]

[Black "Nawrocki, B"]

[Result "1-0"]

[WhiteElo "2332"]

[BlackElo "1768"]

[ECO "B06a"]

[EventDate "2024.06.29"]

1.e4 g6 2.h4 d5 3.h5 Bg7 4.Nc3 d4 5.Nce2 e5 6.Ng3 Nf6 7.h6 Bf8 8.Bc4 Be6 

9.Bxe6 fxe6 10.c3 d3 11.Qb3 Kf7 12.Nf3 Nbd7 13.Ng5+ Ke8 14.Nxe6 Qc8 15.

Ng7+ Kd8 16.Qf7 Bxg7 17.hxg7 Rg8 18.Rxh7 Nxh7 19.Qxg8+ Ndf8 20.Qxh7 Nxh7 

21.g8=Q+ Kd7 22.Qxh7+ 1-0

Although beating a player more than 500 elo lower is not something to brag about, I do feel that It showed the value of harassment. 2.h4 already forced my opponent to stop and think. 10.c3 posed problems and accelerated the collapse. In fact, on move 11... black tried to play Kc6, not really good, and not legal. He was clearly rattled. the rest was not worth commenting on. 

https://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game-replayer.php?id=119986

Lets see if this works, more tomorrow.