Marlow to Marrakesh

I thought I was dreaming as I woke up today at the crack of noon. The sky was clear and the Sun was shining. Nary a Cloud was to be seen. Marlow is a picturesque town on the river Thames and the home of good friends of mine, Monica and Roger. Roger you have already met in my Hastings post  now I would like to introduce you to Monica

who is feeding one of her Horses, Embassy here. So let's move on to Budapest's sister city Marlow.

What connection could there possibly be between Budapest and Marlow you may ask. This could win you a million on who wants to be a millionaire. It is the Bridge. The Chain Bridge in Budapest was designed by the same engineer. Next to the Bridge is the beautiful All Saints Church

with it's fabulous graveyard.

  

Marlow also has a great Loch, a big riverside Park for walking dogs, a few traditional Pubs and many more attractions too numerous to mention. The walk lifted my spirits so much that I decided to stop procrastinating and walked straight into the Local Travel Agent and booked a flight to Marrakesh. For several days now I have been searching the Net looking for a ticket and could not make up my mind. In the end I decided that the money saved by flying Ryanair or Easyjet is not worth the suffering and humiliation involved. Now I will be flying with a proper Airline, Royal Maroc to Marrakesh on Tuesday. One needs to be in a good mood to make good decisions :-) 

Hastings round 9 Indians win

After five rounds David Howell was leading by a point on a perfect score and it looked like he was running away with the tournament but the young Frenchman Romain Edouard beat David with black and threw the tournament wide open. Only Eduard had 6.5 going into the last round with the pack chasing on 6. Deep Sengupta beat the leader with what to me looked like very deep :-) opening preparation. The only other player on 6 who won the last round was his countryman Arghjadip Das. Congratulations to these two quiet achievers. All the games and results can be seen on the official website .
As for me, I had a relatively easy game. I was playing a very talented but impulsive young player Jack Rudd. After playing 24.a4 I went for a cancer stick and was hoping that my opponent would continue to play the obvious move. As soon as I arrived back in the playing hall I saw Jack walking around with a long face and immediately realized what had happened. He had played the obvious a5 and instantly spotted that it was a blunder. Sure enough....



That's it for Chess from me until Gibraltar but meanwhile I will try to keep you entertained with other delights. Thanks you for attention.

Sunny day in Hastings

I will have to keep a lookout for flying pigs now! The first order of the day after checking out was to pay a visit to the world famous Hastings Castle. This was built by Guillaume le Conquérant, aka William the Conquerer who in 1066 landed here and started modern English history. Wish he had brought some cookbooks with him. The Castle was a bit of a disappointment. It was closed as it is all year except for summer, which is brief in England. As you can see from Roger DeCovelly's hair it was quite windy as well at the top of the hill not to mention chilly. 

A much better view can be had from town.

The Chess tournament used to be held at the Pier which burned down last year. Stewart Reuben wrote an excellent report about the pier and it's connection to Chess with some brilliant photo's.  I couldn't resist posing in front of such a historic landmark. 

Having done enough sightseeing we decided to go for lunch. Although the Pig is a nice Pub if you like loud music and a bit of Chess

it is not the place to go to for food. A few day's previously I ordered an English breakfast there and had to leave before it arrived....45 minutes later. Instead go to the Witherspoon. I have eaten here several times now and the food is excellent and the service is prompt.

This is Roger's Lasagna

and here's my Hamburger. mmmmmmm.

Ok, time to go and face Jack "lightning" Rudd. Toodles.

Hastings round 8

I still have not made it up to the Castle. After yesterdays game I was not able to sleep without a little sleeping pill from Azerbaijan and woke up at noon. I have no Idea what's in it but it works. It was overcast anyway as it has been for most of this year so far. The game itself was quite easy.


So tomorrow is the last round. We need to be out of our Accommodations at around 11am so there will be three hours to kill. If the weather is nice, and pigs fly, we will go do some sightseeing. Fingers crossed.

Hastings round 7

Today was one of those days. After a game like this I really just want to give up Chess. For the fist time in this tournament I guessed the opening correctly, got a great position and then produced one lemon after another.

Hastings round 6

I actually managed to wake up an 10am today (hold the applause please) so I took a stroll around the town and up to East Hill. Since the Sun was intermittently shining  it was possible to take some pictures of the town.

Off in the distance one can see Hastings Castle which is situated atop the imaginatively named West Hill. Should the Sun appear tomorrow and if I wake before noon two days in a row I will wander up there tomorrow. I also found some Chess pieces artistically arranged in the Old Town.

Naturally Hastings has any number of Fish and Chip shops. Unfortunately the English feel obliged to cover their Fish in gooey Batter and then fry it in Greasy Oil making it completely inedible. 

Pubs are also very popular and apart from the "Pig" there are some more classically named ones like for instance the "Lord Nelson".

Churches are also easy to find

and today's game does make one suspect divine intervention. I played the opening horribly however my opponent allowed me to worm out with just a slight disadvantage until he had some sort of meltdown and just threw a piece at me for nothing. It's nice to know I am not the only one to do that.

Meanwhile on the top board David Howell played a shocking game to lose with white in under thirty moves. Now four players are tied with 5/6. If you wish to see the results and games you can go to the excellent official web site.

Hastings round 5

Rarely have I had so much fun losing a game. Unfortunately there was a tiny little hole (or two) in my brilliant combination. I missed 35....Kf6 with the Idea of hiding amongst my pieces on h5.