Sunny London Town?!
Two in the morning, and the typical body clock confusion has set in. Plenty of sleep still to be had, but the body just doesn’t seem to care – “Breakfast?” Still, at least we’re on solid ground. It took 36 hours all up from getting on the plane in Canberra to finally disembarking at Heathrow. Maybe the time would have passed quicker if the in-flight chess program didn’t keep putting pieces en prise in its ‘expert’ mode…
For those wondering why we chose the seemingly nonsensical Hong Kong-Helsinki-London route, the fares worked out cheaper with a return to Ekaterinburg via Helsinki, and a little Helsinki-London trip tacked on. Of course, it’s led to a slightly more painful trip, but so far it has been well worth it. Manuel and Brigitta have a great apartment in Windsor, and the first morning brought an amazingly warm, sunny day. While I’ve been to London before, this was the first time I’d seen the sun here. While there still seem to be more pubs than attractive people in London, the weather gave me hope that this mightn’t be such a bad place to live. Fi and I will investigate this further with a trip planned to the London School of Economics tomorrow.
Walking around today, it’s hard to convince ourselves that Canberra is a real city. For starters, there are something like ten times as many Aussies here than in our nation’s proud capital. But more significantly, London has a ridiculous buzz to it that would send Canberra into shock. Walking around today through Soho and Piccadilly Circus, sauntering down Oxford and Regent streets, catching our breath at Trafalgar Square and grabbing a coffee in Mayfair – I felt like pulling out my Monopoly set just to work out where we were. I’m not sure a Canberran could adjust to driving in London, though; the way those black cabs drive rivals the rickshaws in New Delhi.
On the cards tomorrow, besides a bit more city sticky-beaking and a show in West End, is a bit of prep with Manuel. He first coached me way back in 1996, and while he still hasn’t managed to convince me to play ‘real man openings’, probably noone knows my style better. While I’m very glad to have Fi along as my ‘official accompanying second’, I have a feeling Dominguez’s paid trainer might have her beat in the latest variations, so this is a chance to give the preparation a bit more professionalism. Having said that, Fi has been a bit of a muse so far in recent tournaments, so perhaps the chess elite should rethink their preparatory approach…
In other news before the world cup starts, Ivanchuk has finished with a rather intimating last couple of rounds in the Tal Memorial. Tying for second behind Kramnik, and performing at roughly 2850, he’s looking in good form in the lead up to Khanty-Mansiysk. Ponomariov also finished with a nice win, but his overall performance doesn’t convince me that he can win the world cup for the second time. The world blitz championships start this week in Moscow, and will feature all of the Tal Memorial participants as well as other blitz specialists – including Dominguez. A shame I won’t be able to get a copy of the games! But at least this tournament will give a good indication of who’s in form going into the cup…and possibly an idea of my opponent’s form, too.
Time for another attempt at sleep, and then another (sunny?) day in London, including lunch at a pub that serves ‘England’s best steak-and-kidney pie’. Is that really something to be proud of?