Open de Vins round 8

My Hippo had had a good run but today I took it a bit far. My position after the opening was horrid and if Ilya had just played 16. Bf3 instead of 16. Nd6 the game would have been shorter. As it was I got chances only to blow it on move 26 with h5, missing Ne2, f4. Instead 26...Qd2 is about equal.

Oh well, looks like my whole weight in wine will have to wait another year. If I'm lucky tomorrow though, I might pick up a few bottles. Wish me luck :-)

Hasta manjana amigoes.

Open de Vins round 7

Lets go crazy !!

Another crazy game today. We both promoted two pawns each with kings running around without protection. Somehow a draw resulted. Again, the spectators were thrilled. I had a sizeable advantage in the middlegame but the ending could have turned out worse. Both of us missed that recapturing, 49...Rd8 was not necessary. Just pushing h2 wins, the point being that after Rh7, Rc3, h3 wins. Oops.

So I remain in second and play the number two seed, Ilya Zaragatski tomorrow, thankfully at 5pm. Today's round was early, 2.30 pm, to accommodate the barbeque. Here are some of the nations represented in this most- international BBQ.

International table

French table {locals}

German table


Other photo's coming as soon as the connection improves :-) Now a little girl is asking me to teach her how to swim :-)

                                                                               

Open de Vins rounds 5 + 6

We have been experiencing some technical difficulties with the Internet connection this being the countryside. There are three different nets and they sometimes work at different times, sometimes all and sometimes none, so you can see chess players walking around like zombies, staring at their mobile devices looking for a connection. I am one of them.

The kids have no such problems, happily playing on the beach or taking the paddle-boat for a spin. The pizzeria in the middle of the lake is new. On the first night we did a oven-testing/pizza-testing and it passed with flying colours.

My last two games were against promising youngsters. Both allowed systems I knew better and both got a bit too creative. Julian's 12. gh3 was a bit too imaginative.

Thomas Bonn was looking for complication trying to trick an old man { :-) } by his own admission. A good plan but he needed to go about it a bit more slowly. Not recapturing on f5 was really the fatal mistake. He was rightly worried about c5, Qb3 check etc but its better than letting me keep the f5 pawn.



So I'm going into today's round in clear second on 5/6, half a point behind a young Dutch player, IM Paul Velten. We play today. Can you feel the excitement? 

Open de Vins, 3+4, the dreaded double round.

Got away with it yesterday although the morning game was anything but easy. I was playing a friend, Benjamin "Mienke" Zickelbein from Hamburg. The whole family plays chess and his sister Eva is a WIM while dad organises a chess club in Hamburg. I visited a few years ago to play in the Hamburg open.

Mienke presenting German architecture.

The game was a typical morning round, for me anyway. After white blundered early, allowing me to capture the black squared bishop and double his pawns, I then started to get "creative" {play crap}placing a rook on e3 where I then had to squirm not to lose it. Anyway, after many adventures I got an undeserved point. 

Here is another Bunker Art photo for you that we took on our walk the sunny day before our game. It has been overcast and raining since so I have to use the photo's from a few days ago.

My afternoon game was much easier. My opponent did not feel the urge at any stage to play an active move and just got crushed. Not great viewing unless you have a sadistic streak but it is short.

From now on it's a game a day. Hopefully the weather will improve so I can show you more of the area. Have a nice day :-)

Open de Vins, Round 2

A wild game today. A lot of fun. I spurned a draw on move 42 with Bd2. I missed that 43...Qa4 covers  e8. Instead, after 42. Re-e8 black must take the perpy. Anyway, morning round, thankfully there is only one, tomorrow so I will keep this post short.

Hasta manjana amigoes

Open de Vins, Naujac sur Mer

After missing last years tournament I was happy to return to my favourite tournament. The winner gets his/her weight in fine Bordeaux wine. It also flows freely throughout the event and accompanies amazing food. Over the course of the next week I will be showing you a lot of the reasons I love it so much here. Today I want to show you the beach at Le Pin Sec, or in English,

The Dry Pine Beach

The Germans built bunkers here during WW2 , which have been converted to canvasses by local artists. Their height and position changes every year depending on the movement of the sand, storms and currents not to mention artistic additions. Previous years can be found on this blog here.

This one below is brand new.

I hadn't seen the pirate before either.

This is the local surf school holding theoretical lessons.

The tournament hall.

Now finally to my game. My opponent had not had time to prepare and seemed unfamiliar with the Cozio variation. By about move twenty his position was crumbling and he had no time left. A nice way, for me at least, to start the tournament.

As a reward I get the top seed, Indian GM Das Arghyadip.
Stay tuned for more from the Medoc :-)

Sergei Tiviakov wins KL Masters

The palace of the golden horses

 The game was not at our usual venue, the Swiss Inn, but rather the opulent palace of the golden horses. The last round was moved here to accommodate the sponsors Masterskills University, who have been sponsoring chess for quite a few years now. While we were having our last round, the Malaysian championship was having it's first.

The theme continues in grand style inside

The palace is located on a lake in alongside a golf course, many luxury apartments and a shopping mall. Everything is connected by boat. This one looked interesting.

Cute, a boat that looks like a bus !

Surprise!

It is a bus!!

                                                                             The view from the boat

    

Looks like a great place for a stroll. This would be a nice place to come for a holiday.

Back to the tournament. Sergei Tiviakov showed amazing concentration and will to win, Despite being out of form, his own words, and having several lost positions, including against tail ender Dr GM Wong Meng Kong, he still won easily. Thomas Luther was second and Ricardo Nolte third.

The last day started at 6am for me. Instead of taking the public transport option, walk, train, bus I decided to wake an hour earlier and get driven in comfort. It didn't help much. The hallucinations started early and by move 20 they were already fatal. 

To give you a look inside my melted jelly brain I'll tell you why I played Nd6. I was calculating {ahem} 21.Rg4 but of course that doesn't work because of Rf5 22.Rg5 Rf3 and now I can't take on g7 because it's covered by the bishop. Hence 21.Nd6! which I figured can't be taken...forgetting the rook is still on e5.

Oh well, the bright side is that if I had not lost this game so abysmally I would have been tempted back to the tropics for a tournament sooner.

That's all from Malaysia my friends, next post will come from France.
Adieu mes amis :-)