What maketh the man
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 chess. So far, so good, but unfortunately my four draws have ruled out my chances of taking the championship, even if things go my way. At least two of the draws, including this morning’s game, came from winning positions, so that’s another thing to be worked on.
Having said that, conceding draws from better positions means that I’ve only let the vampires do half their work. And there’s still the chance for a fast and furious finish; as my old coach used to tell me, “The final two rounds maketh the man.”
Yesterday’s rest day was spent without sight of a chessboard, thankfully. Fi returned from a spontaneous weekend in Thailand to join me on a tour around Merdeka Square, the National Museum and the Central Market, before we returned to the hotel for the tournament banquet. Unfortunately, not only did Karpov and Kasparov fail to appear, but the video link to Kasparov also broke down (although Xu Jun was present, so we were not totally without former world champions).
The highlight of the night was then left to a tall Norwegian, who gave a presentation on the Norwegian town of Troms’ 2014 Olympiad bid. Looked quite impressive, and I wouldn’t at all mind the chance to visit the Arctic during the midnight summer months. Especially after Siberia.
Tomorrow morning will see the ninth and final round, and Fi and I will fly to Cambodia on Wednesday to spend 10 days in South-East Asia as ‘normal’ tourists. We’ve made a lot of new friends, but it will be nice to escape the chess crowd for a little while, especially the infectious tournament hall. The coughing contagion has grown, as expected, and there have even been a couple of official complaints. But what can you do?
And with that, the pairings are out, so I’ll cut this off now. I have preparation to do.
And I’ve just noticed, I have a sniffle…
Congratulations on a great tournament. Not losing a game was a very good performance. Now for a 2600 performance rating in the olympiad!
Apologies for the mix-up. Xu Jun definitely played the tournament, as did former women’s world champion Xu YUHUA. You can imagine how difficult I found it preparing for the Chinese players using the chessbase name search!
Xie Jun is a woman whereas Xu Jun is definitely male. How could you mixed that up? 🙂
Brick, please tell us all how he cheated at 1987 zonal. I was there and not aware of any such thing.
You are mistaking Xu Jun for the former World Champion Xie Jun. Xu Jun is just a veteran GM coach and in a former life one of the Chinese players that cheated at the 1987 Zonal.