Commonwealth Chess Championship 2017 Round 6

So I made the newspapers in Panipat! It seems I will be doing some chess promotion for a few days, organised by the Haryana chess association in collaboration with Doubleroo Panipat! I'll let you kno2 how it goes.

Speaking of chess coaching, I had the opportunity to meet Christine Namaganda,  Director of the "Dove Chess Academy" in Kampala, Uganda! Christine was one of Phiona's real life opponents in the movie "Queen of Katwe".

Is a visit to Uganda in my future? I sure hope so. Perhaps Christine has heard the rumour that I sometimes coach for food and may invite me for dinner. 

Today I decided to play normal chess, as normal as I am capable of playing anyway. My room mate, GM Niaz Murshed told me that my opponent, WGM Bhakti Kulkarni, liked to play very actively. In this particular variation of the Nimzo white has a very good structure. Black has to wait and be prepared to answer e4 with c5. But white needs to build the position slowly and mobilise fully before carrying out the central break. Bhakti was too impatient and went for it immediately. By move 15 her position was already in ruins and she had to resign a few moves later.

So now I'm on 5/6 and can expect to be fed to one of the favourites. I'll try to be a bony chicken 😉 Hasta man manjana amigoes.

Commonwealth Chess Championship 2017 Round 5

Today was the dreaded double round day and I was paired against dangerous underrated Indian juniors. Luckily I was able to start the day with breakfast at the Cafe Nosh, pictured below. All the food is superb, Indian and Western, with one exception. The coffee. Is it not possible to get a machine like every 7/11 and McDonald's has got? I shouldn't whinge, it's just strange that a hotel of such extraordinary standard can't make even an ordinary coffee.

Now to my second game. During the short break I looked up my opponent on

 Chess-db and saw that there were 21 players listed called Gaurav Kumar. Thankfully there are FIDE id's. My young opponent had beaten GM Rahman in the first round and scored two draws and a win since then, performing at 2520. I was fairly nervous before the game and seeing he was very tactical I chose a quiet line of the Ponziani to confuse and provoke him. If anything, I was a bit too cautious later, opting for a pawn up ending instead of many different wins but I was chastened by my loss by exuberance yesterday. Pawn up endings are definitely the way to go ☺

So the home stretch now. I have survived the piranhas and must now run the gauntlet of titled players. Now I must leave you and prepare for WGM Bhakti Kulkarni. Thanks for reading ☺

Commonwealth Chess Championship 2017 Round 4

Castling has been a theme in three of my four games so far. In all cases White felt entitled to a large advantage forever simply because the rules of the game confer upon her/him the right of the first move. In all three cases, one of which had me commanding the White army, not allowing Black the opportunity of an equal position led to White's destruction. There is no recovery after 11.d5. Instead 0-0 is about equal.

Anyway, I won't dwell, have to have some lunch and then play the second game today in three hours time. 😥

Commonwealth Chess Championship 2017 round 3

After today's disaster, more about that later, my friend Gaurav Chhabra, director of Doubleroo Panipat, took me to Jama Masjid markets to soothe my wounded soul with food. We started with a visit to Delhi's most famous Kebab place, Qureshi.

There was quite a queue, it was hot and noisy with cars, rickshaws and pedestrians all fighting to squeeze past each other while constantly honking. We had to eat standing up or rather dodging the traffic while getting radiated by the grill and breathing in noxious fumes that undoubtedly shortened our lifespan somewhat.

Despite these inconveniencesI can unequivocally state that this is the best Kebab I have ever tasted, daylight second.

Looking above I noticed the interesting wiring and had to share. Health and safety professionals look away.

That was only our entrèe. Next week headed to one of the main shopping streets for our main course. I don't remember the name but honestly, it was good but nothing special. Or maybe we were just fussy after Qureshi Kebab.

The tandoori bread was great though.

All made on the side of this tandoori oven if you have never seen one.

The first disappointment was that the advertised "Brain curry" was unavailable so we made do with a liver and kidney one and a chicken one. Not bad but a bit oily and bland. The bread was the highlight.

Luckily we walked past the butchers shop after dinner. Otherwise we might have lost our appetites. Tripe with fly anyone?

Now on to the aforementioned tragedy. My opponent sacrificed a pawn for slightly less than nothing and I had many safe ways of keeping it but burnt too much time deciding between good options. 16.Kf1 intending Kg1 was my original intention and stockfish's favourite. My opponent would have nothing to show for my protected passed down pawn. I got creative with 16. Kd2 instead and after Bf5 decided I deserved more than 17.g4 promised, an ending a pawn up. Finally, short on time I allowed a Queen sack which made it messy before allowing a fork. I forgot the "Keep it Simple Stupid" principle. Only one person to blame for this one.

And now the double round day 😨. 

Commonwealth Chess Championship 2017 round 2

I must admit that I am still struggling with inputting my games on the tablet. The chess.com analysis board is nice with drag&drop functionality and easy pgn copying but you can't undo errors, or at any rate I haven't figured out how yet. Since today's game was quite long, restarting several times can be quite frustrating. After a few attempts I resisted the urge to fling the tablet across the room and tried "Scid on the go" instead. There you can "strip moves to the end" at any time and don't have to restart. Bonus! The save function does warn that it is experimental and there is an issue, that being, saving the result. Despite two attempts it wouldn't do it. No matter, the moves came through.

Now to my game. A few months ago I was doing a lecture on how to prepare for a particular opponent and one of my examples was a sideline of the Gruenfeld. To quell scepticism I promised to play it at least once if I come across someone who plays it. I can't say it was a roaring success as my talented young opponent equalised quite easily and if she had found 14...cd4 15.cd4 Qf4! I would have had to get...creative.

Nonetheless the ending was sharp but equal chances until she tried to bail out into a difficult technical ending. As far as the opening is concerned,  back to the drawing board 🙁

So for my efforts I have been rewarded with a game against a strong young talent, a 2550 GM. At least I am white again. Wish me luck amigoes.

Commonwealth Chess Championship 2017

It has been many years since I have played in India due to a number of factors.
One was the difficulty of obtaining an Indian visa, recently solved by theemail Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who introduced e-VISAS. No more having to be separated from your passport.

Another was double rounds. I am just too old for it now, not that I ever enjoyed playing serious games from dawn to dusk. This tournament has just a single double round day.

Also some tournaments had the hotel a long way from the venue and the travel to and from the accommodation was often arduous to say the least. Here lies the most remarkable improvement. Not only is the tournament being played at the venue itself, the Leela Hotel and Conference Centre is truly spectacular.

This is the view from my room. It is also 5☆ all the way. I count about 5 restaurants so far offering everything from the best of Indian food to French croissants and German bread.

Wanna see the desserts?

Ok, to my game. My opponent didn't castle in a timely fashion and his King ended up going for a walk. Maybe he has recently studied Steinitz. It's short and entertaining if you have nothing better to do.

Until tomorrow amigoes. So it seems I have solved the blogging on a tablet problem. Next challenge will be preparing with a tablet. All advice gladly received ☺

Penang, the Jewel of Malaysia.

 I first came to Malaysia as part of a team competing in the Asian cities championship in either 1981 or 1982, I don't remember. Since then a lot of things have changed including the bridge linking the mainland to the island, to be precise two bridges.

One links Butterworth with Georgetown, the other one, which is much longer Links the mainland to Queensbay, which is the IT capital of Malaysia. This is the newer, longer one.

This is or was the longest bridge in the world at some stage to the best of my recollection. Feel free to correct me if I am mistaken.

This is also the one to the airport.

My hotel also has a rooftop bar on the 5th floor with a bar a spa bath and a great view over the town with Penang Hill in the distance.

The promenade near the harbour reminds me a lot of the Malecon in Havanna. Headcoverings are not as popular in Cuba nor is the food as good but the young people sit on the concrete fence and socialise the same.

This is the Victoria clock tower close to the harbour and Fort Cornwallis

The next day I was treated to a Starbucks coffee and a blitz session against one of Malaysia's young talents, Jieyi Goh. I did not escape unscathed.

Later in the afternoon I couldn't resist a visit to the Chocolate and Coffee museum. One is greeted by smiles and samples followed by a small but concise exibit of the history of Coffee and Chocolate.

☺

The raw ingredients.

Cacao on the hoof.

Mosques, churches and various temples adorn the streets, co-existing side by side. They are a testament to Malaysia's multiculteral society.

Love lane is just around the corner from my Hotel. Unsurprisingly it is lined with bars and massage shops.

This episode was brought to you by my new toy, a Galaxy tablet which I aquired at the local mall. I didn't bring my laptop with me because I want to see if I can blog and prepare for chess games with a tablet. 

It seems blogging is possible if a little more awkward and time will tell if prep is possible. I have downloaded "Scid on the go" which is far less functional compared to the PC version. If anyone knows of good chess apps for android please let me know ☺

Stay tuned for the next episode from the Commonwealth Championship from New Delhi.