Musings on chess, and lesser things
Posts on chess
I’m writing after the conclusion of round 7 and just before the start of round 8. The pairings aren’t yet out, so I may end up cutting this post short as I keep refreshing the tournament site. I came into the event with the two contradictory aims of not losing any games and playing exciting …
Four rounds in, and my tournament is nothing special. Wins with white and draws with black, all against lower rated players, sees me performing at level. Some of the Aussies are having a tough time adopting to the Asian styles, however. I really have found through my chess travels that different countries and regions play …
Quite a remarkable run home for the Koalas (after unanimously realising our ignorance of the term, we decided to drop the ‘Klang Valley’). We even managed to finish the teams event on board one, going up against the eventual winners in the final round. James narrowly missed out on a board prize on board two, …
Things haven’t started well for the Klang Valley Koalas, perhaps aptly represented by the fact that none of us know where Klang Valley is. We were the first top seed to drop points, drawing our match in round two, and things haven’t gotten much better. We followed this up with a demoralising loss in round …
I’m writing this from the Cititel hotel in Kuala Lumpur, the venue for the 2010 Malaysian Open. In stark contrast from my recent blogging contrast, I’ll be updating this daily (probably) with reports on the tournament and especially the Aussie performances. We’ve got quite an army here, and are fielding two Aussie teams (with a …
Starved of chess action in between tournaments (and even more so following my office IT’s decision to block all chess blogs and forums at work), I decided to organise the inaugural Treasury Chess Championships. Perhaps it’s the sorts of people attracted to both chess and economics, or perhaps it’s just the Canberra cold, but the …
A really unfortunately timed blog post just then, it turns out. Topalov just played, as my mate Tritty describes it, “a blunder not even my 1500-rated student would make”. I think that’s unnecessarily harsh. Towards 1500’s, that is. There’s playing ballsy, and then there’s just straight out blundering. I have to say, I’m surprised. Anand …
As I type this, the 12th and final regular game of the world chess championships match is about half-way in. To mind, it’s heading inevitably towards a draw, leaving us the prospect of quick-play tiebreak games on Thursday. I was expecting – fearing – a boring, conservative opening by both players. But, inconceivably, the players …
Possibly not equally important pieces of news for everyone, but those are the headlines in my life today. Probably still in that order. Of course, the flu is at least partially my fault. The grueling spectator schedule of working days and chess-watching nights was bound to catch up with me eventually. Still, I can’t help but feel …
Contrary to what you might expect, world chess championship matches are anything but boring affairs – in fact, the sagas that are played out both on and off the board often read something like an Ian Flemming novel. The infamous Fischer – Spassky match of the Cold War era, the scandalous Soviet-versus-defector Kortschnoi – Karpov …