Doubleroo

Fairy tale ending Short-circuited

2012-02-03T05:39:00.000-08:00

Last year about this time, after the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival I posted a rant about the Australasian Chess Crisis which touched on women's chess. A lively debate followed in the comments section where I made the following prediction.

"Anyway the young girls playing top level chess are getting better and better now and soon our conversation here will seem antiquated. In the next few years when Ho Yifan and her contemporaries rip the arms and legs off their male colleagues, girls will be inspired to do the same".

Never miss an opportunity to gloat!

I must admit however that I never expected that my "prophecy" would come true less than a year later. Women's World Chess Champion Hou Yifan has tied for first in the 10th Tradewise, Queens Diamond Jubilee, Gibraltar Masters Open.

Hou Yifan got to 8 points out of 10 first and then had to wait to see if anyone could catch her and force a

play-off for the title. Nigel Short climbed that mountain by beating the higher rated Krishnan Sasikiran with black. He then ruined the script by winning the two game rapid play-off.

GM Simon Williams added that extra touch with his Video commentary. Many players joined him every day to show their games or comment on games still in progress. There are many hours of the best, most entertaining chess lessons you will ever get and all for free. I hope you leave it up there a while, and yes, I am talking to you Stewart Conquest!

Long time readers will remember this post and I hope you remembered it for Nana Dzagnidze's masterpiece. She started like a rocket but then got slowed down a little by the 2700 gauntlet she had to face.

Rd.	Bo.	SNo		Name	Rtg	FED	Pts.	Res.
1	41	110	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2280	IND	6.0	w ½
2	35	116		Chapman Terry P D	2253	ENG	5.0	s 1
3	24	181		Compton Alistair	2051	NZL	4.5	w 1
4	11	26	GM	Fier Alexandr	2603	BRA	5.5	s 1
5	4	10	GM	Movsesian Sergei	2700	ARM	7.0	w 1
6	2	11	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2700	IND	7.0	w ½
7	4	15	GM	Short Nigel D	2677	ENG	8.0	s ½
8	6	1	GM	Svidler Peter	2749	RUS	7.0	w 0
9	12	12	GM	Vachier-Lagrave Maxime	2699	FRA	6.0	s ½
10	12	13	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	2683	ARM	7.0	w 0

Look at what she did to this poor unsuspecting 2600 GM.

Lastly I must mention my celebrity guest ranter from the aforementioned post, Arianne Caoili who just won the Tata steel Tienkampen 2B round robin. Unfortunately I cannot find her games on the site, which btw could learn something from Gibraltar, and she has not sent me the pgns yet as requested so I cannot show you any games.

It seems all three ladies have gotten the "Doubleroo bump" Have a nice weekend!

R.I.P Phillip John Esmonde 26 August 1929 - 25 January 2012

2012-02-01T04:17:00.000-08:00

I first met Phil in 1993. His son David was then president of the Gold Coast Chess Club and was mainly responsible for my move from Adelaide to the Gold Coast. They were then living in Paradise Point and I visited frequently in those days.

Phil with his sisters Kathleen and Lorraine

I clearly remember Phil inviting me in whether David was home or not, offered me a beer and we would chat even if the football was on. Only as I got to know him better did I realize what a sacrifice that was. He loved his footy and even umpired three Premierships.

As a faithful supporter of the Brisbane Lions he was allowed to drink out of the 2001 AFL Premiership cup

He got several prizes for fairest and best Umpire.

He passed away peacefully last Wednesday evening at the age of 82. Today his family and friends met to say goodbye. Below is a short Video that was played at the Funeral. The photos start after the first song so please be patient. You will be rewarded by an impression of the life of a real Australian from another era.

I feel privileged to have known you Phil and thankful for the things you taught me by example. One of those things is that you can say a lot with few words. I'll have to put that into practice one day :) Where ever you are now there is one thing I am sure of. Whoever is there is glad of your company.

Australia Day

2012-01-26T08:50:00.000-08:00

The last week has been a bit busy, what with Wijk aan Zee going on not to mention Queenstown.

Every three years this little New Zealand city has hosted the southern Hemisphere's best Open tournament. Darryl Johansen has surprised everyone including himself with another spectacular performance.

Meanwhile Levon Aronian has been blowing away the opposition in Holland. Watch him explain his game against Anish Giri here. This is must see entertainment and the fact that it takes place in the middle of the night is unfortunate but....

Luckily I am doing a Small Business course in the mornings so I can catch up on much needed sleep then. We have had torrential rain this last week and many parts of Southern Queensland and Northern New South Wales have had to be evacuated.

After many days of virtually uninterrupted rainfall today the sun shone through. Just in time for Australia Day.

Here are a few pictures of the aftermath of mother nature's fury in our area. Tomorrow the rains are said to continue.

Fellow Northern rivers chess player Justin Adams allowed me to post this photo. He has a brand new lake on his property.

Brunswick river is a bit higher than usual.

Lots of firewood has been washed ashore. Yay! Beach party!

These birds usually feed elsewhere. Perhaps the river washed some earthworms onto the beach?

Really?

A Sand-crab busily trying to make a home.

Stopover on Memory Lane

2012-01-13T19:33:00.000-08:00

On my way back from Geelong I had a one day stopover in Sydney. Sydney is still the most beautiful city in the world to my knowledge despite many things changing. Chess discount sales has moved, after decades in Cambell st, to a better location. Now it is above ground and near good restaurants :-)

Speaking of restaurants, I passes the site of the Wooloomoolloo Woolshed. My parents bought it in 1972 and I think I peeled my first potato there at the age of nine. Until my early thirties I worked in every area of the restaurant in every capacity until my early thirties. I learned to play Poker there at the late night staff Poker sessions, learned what a good wine tastes like, how to make a Boeuf bourguignon, and many other things.

Now it is a block of apartments with only the facade remaining due to heritage listing.

While many human endeavours and achievements fade like the colours of cheap curtains the best (and worst) games of chess players will remain as long as we have databases.

Naum Levin is a Soviet master and trainer who emigrated to Australia in the late 70's around the time I started playing chess. I remember him well. For some years he played and taught chess in Sydney but eventually he quit altogether only staying in tough with a few selected friends from the chess community. Here is one of those games I spoke of.

I will not speculate as to why he withdrew from the chess community but I imagine if we had made some effort to enable him to make a dignified living plying his trade he would still be teaching if not playing and Sydney would have several GM's and many IM's. A young Kasparov was one of his students!

Enough of Memory lane for today...

Now I am back in Brunswick heads enjoying the beach and the many events like the Brunswick Valley Woodchop. Judging from the commentary some of the worlds best choppers were here. There were mixed pairs, seniors, Saw and Axe.

The best.

The over 65's I think!

Young Champions.

Time to go to the Saturday markets in Mullumbimby. That's where all the cool people hang out :-)

Australian Chess Championship 2011

2012-01-07T20:42:00.000-08:00

Darryl Johansen is the winner! He managed to draw with me without too much trouble actually. There were some tense moments in the game and he did have to play some accurate moves

. I am in the Bar of the Sphinx. Unfortunately the free wi-fi is not working. Luckily I have a mobile broadband USB stick with me courtesy of Isage. Having internet everywhere is good insurance. Check the site for all the results. A wrap-up will come when I get back home. Toodles and thanks for watching.

Australian Chess Championship round 10

2012-01-07T02:53:00.000-08:00

Yay! Finally won a game again :-) After three draws I felt I needed to play sharply so I wheeled out 1.e4. My opponent played the Caro -Kann defense which is notoriously drawish. The line I played was the sharpest I could think of. Bill neglected his development just as I had yesterday and never got to castling. Bad news in an open position.

Darryl Johansen beat Akshat Khamparia and secured himself at least a share of first place. For a full scoretable and draw click here. My win today has allowed me to play on board one tomorrow albeit two points behind my opponent. Purely theoretically I could still share second! Am I an optimist or what :-)

Tune in tomorrow for the final round. Here is the link.

Australian Chess Championship 2011 round 9

2012-01-06T03:12:00.000-08:00

The old guys are leading, Darryl Johansen by half a point, followed by Vladimir Smirnov and Steven Solomon. Vlad's son Anton is also doing well on 50%. If the table was any higher he wouldn't be able to see the pieces. I stole this picture from the photo gallery.

Steven beat Zong Yuan who is having a shocker. Perhaps he is too happy since getting married to play his best.

I had another exciting game that fizzled into a draw but I shouldn't whinge too much because my position at one point was dreadful. 12. .....Bc3 was awful. As I keep telling my pupils, develop your pieces before getting clever. Instead 12. ...Be6 and black is perfectly fine and more importantly has nothing to calculate. I was greedy but initially missed that I can't take on e4 after 15.f4 If I may quote Danish chess legend Bent Larsen, "long variation, wrong variation".

Australian Lightning Championship

2012-01-05T04:27:00.000-08:00

Lightning is a young man's game if this tournament is anything to go by. Moulthun Ly won with 9.5 out of 11, a full point ahead of the field . A truly amazing performance. Here he is playing the other "lightning monster" Bobby Cheng who spent most of the tournament on or near board 1. The score table can be found here

The only Senior player seen on the top boards all tournament was ever youthful Steven Solomon. He ended up 12th.

Martin Jack represented the Gold Coast proudly and will be a force to reckon with in a few years I imagine.

Gene Nakauchi, also from the Gold coast finished on a very good 6.5 points.

Sally Yu giving Akshat Khamparia the stare. Chess Legend Doug Hamilton was beating up some kid on the top row in the background.

The only senior player to finish in the top 10 was IM Leonid Sandler. He showed that organising does not affect your blitz skills. Next to him is chess legend Richard Voon who regular readers will remember is also a fine cook. I have known Richard since I started playing chess and his scalps include GM Ian Rogers, IM Greg Hjorth and myself...several times.

At 73 years of age he still plays in every tournament he can and can never get too much chess. When his game is finished he can be found analyzing, blitzing or spectating. He is also a trendsetter.

Is my FBB (facebook buddy) James Morris wearing the same hat or do they own one each?

Here Doug Hamilton is beating up a more senior player. He does not discriminate.

Zong Yuan Zhao who is normally a deadly blitz player was not showing his best. I imagine his academic career must be eating away at his training time. Smart move!

Leteisha Simmonds is Queensland's Junior girls hope and hails from Brisbane. She led the Somerville house girls team to the national interschools title in Sydney in December.

I didn't play because I felt I needed a rest but as soon as the games started I wished I was playing. Instead I put on my journalist hat and hung around anyway! Also not many pictures turned out very well. I definitely need a proper camera.

Australian Championship round 8

2012-01-04T02:59:00.000-08:00

One of the main reasons that I came to Geelong was to catch up to old friends or that's what I am telling myself now that the tournament is not going that well :-) This morning I had coffee with one of the oldest and dearest, Katrin Alajova Kusznirczuk. Katrin is a twice former World Chess Champion, having won the girls U16 in 1986 and the U18 in 1989. She also won the Australian Women's Championship in 1992 the same year I won the Championship. 20 years later she still looks as good as ever.

Unfortunately she like many other Australian chess players no longer plays but why is a story for another day. There is also no Women's championship for her to play in even if she had wanted to take the title again. Like I said, another day.

Ben was the hero of the day, winning in spectacular fashion against Sydney chess organiser and enthusiast Trent Parker.

I had another exciting game against our Indian participant. Akshat won the strong Sydney international last year in spectacular style and performed very well in the Doeberl cup as well coming 4th and scoring an IM nornm in both tournaments. A tough opponent. We had a very sharp game with chances for both sides. I guess a draw was a fair result.

Three games to go and Darryl Johansen is a point ahead of the field and looks to be cruising to victory. If he does close it out it will be a fully deserved victory. Tomorrow is a rest day and another chance to look around a bit. Toodles amigoe's.

Australian Championship round 7

2012-01-03T02:03:00.000-08:00

A fun game today against Australia's strongest player. We have met nine times so far and this was our first draw. I won the first seven, admittedly when he was a kid, then he beat me easily in Sydney a few years back and this is game number nine. Statistics courtesy of Yuan.

The opening was a Reti, patiently taught me by an Armenian friend who is not a bad player. We both felt that white got a slight edge in the ending. I got into bad time trouble again but did not blunder anything and despite some wild flaying by both sides the game never departed far from equality.

When I got home there was a nice dinner made for us by an old friend to 30 years Richard Voon. A nice day. Hope you had one too :-)

Australian Championship round 6

2012-01-01T22:13:00.000-08:00

Well folks, not a great way top start the year. I played a talented young player from Canberra who was not showing his best today. He thought a long time in the opening, played some dubious moves and got a lost position with no time in the clock by move 15. By move 20 he was 2 pawns down and playing on the increment while I had more than half an hour.

I was already expecting to win and natural endorphin's flooded my brain. This is a dangerous time for a chess player because it can lead to the oversight of the most basic moves. In this case a check. I did not see 32.Qe8 check after which I am mated. That is how you can throw away a tournament. A single moment of carelessness. I must give credit to Junta for finding ways to continue the game with no time and no position.

What is the lesson from today's game? Since I have been doing this kind of thing since I was a teenager.... Old habits die hard? I am not learning from my mistakes? Time to retire? No, Chess is only a game :-)

New Years Day beach adventure.

2012-01-01T00:52:00.000-08:00

Welcome to 2012! Geelong was quite sedate on New Years Eve compared to some places I have been. Robin (Ben's wife), Ben and I had a quiet night and just took a walk along the esplanade where families and well behaved people enjoyed a fair and some quiet drinks.

Ben doing a "laughing clown impersonation

The pier has some restaurants and a nightclub on it but they were booked for a private function.

Some people were just fishing, ignoring the arbitrary date that signaled a new year. We got home before midnight, switched on the news in the hope of seeing some fireworks and were instead treated

to a top 10 of horrors that had happened in 2011. Great way to bring in 2012 guys.

New years day is traditionally a rest day in the Australian championship so

we decided to do some tourism. As it was a hot sunny morning the beach seemed like a good idea. Our first stop was in the seaside resort town of Torquay. We wandered around a little to check out the shops and then headed down the beach. Not finding any parking despite driving around a while we headed out of town. Not far away is the famous Bells Beach.

The car park was only half full and the water was perfect. A nice place to celebrate Robin's birthday. Ben must consider himself lucky. We men are notoriously bad at remembering important dates.

Now to something else I really appreciate in Australia. We have public facilities everywhere. Not only are they ubiquitous and generally clean but in this case also artistic. A Doubleroo thumbs up to the council responsible for Bells Beach.

As you can see the beach was also not overcrowded. In Geelong and Torquay it was.

From Bells one can take the tourist drive back to Geelong via Barwon Heads. We stopped for Fisherman's Baskets ( Fish, Prawns, Scallops, Calamari and Chips) and took in the sights.

Even the sidewalks are decorated. Tipping my hat again.

Many families enjoyed the great summer weather by the inlet.

As did your humble author :-)

Back to chess tomorrow folks, hope you enjoyed this break in games and if you have not been in this area of Australia or Australia at all yet I can thoroughly. Recommend it. Check out the "Great Ocean road" and convince yourself.

Seeya tomorrow :-)

Australian Championship 2011 round 5

2011-12-30T20:39:00.000-08:00

Well today was almost a replay of yesterday except I was on the winning side. My opponent spent a long time in the opening, lost a pawn and had minutes left for the final moves. Anyway, last game for 2011, see you all in 2012, the year of the Rapture :-)

Happy new year friends.

Australian Championship round 4

2011-12-29T21:44:00.000-08:00

I have to apologise for my horrible game today. My main excuse is time management. I again failed to guess my opponents first move. I was expecting a Sicilian and had spend many hours preparing. Time better spent at the beach. I only found what I wanted to play ten minutes before the game :-)

Well that led me to thinking about twenty minutes about my second move. Not smart especially since I played the main line. By the time we got to move 10, a position I still knew I was down to half an hour. On move 13 I had about ten minutes left and had to choose between two critical moves fe6 and Nd4. I looked at my clock, tossed a coin and chose the wrong one. 13.Nd4 is advantage white with a dangerous attack and 13. fe6 is a pawn down with little compensation. After move 20 It became a bit of a comedy. What to do if all your pieces are on good squares but there is no way to make progress and only minutes on the clock? Move them to bad squares and then lose them all of course!

So today's lesson was how NOT to play chess. Now that you have absorbed that I don't need to show it to you again for the rest of the tournament. Anyway, it's a nice day and there are plenty of rounds left.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlBiLNN1NhQ

Australian Championship round 3

2011-12-29T01:21:00.000-08:00

How lucky was I today? The opening went rather well for me I thought but a careless move 16....Nb6 landed me in very hot water indeed. Not willing to swallow my pride I compounded it on move 20...c4. The alternative was a pawn down ending but I preferred an "attack". In my mind only. If Moulthun had played 28 hg3 the game would have been over very quickly.

It is an absolute miracle I survived especially as the noise from the analysis area was deafening. On move 43 I even allowed myself to decline a draw offer as I felt I still had some chances seeing 43 Rc1 was not played. And again no tourism due to preparation. Yesterday I was out on move two whereas today I failed to predict my opponents first (!) move. Oh well.

I need to make special mention of IM Leonid Sandler who is presumably not playing because we are all too weak. Instead he is involved in the organisation of the event and doing some interviews including this one

with yours truly. Please take my answers with a grain of salt. I had just won my eleventh game in a row and was feeling a bit light headed.

Australian Championship round 2

2011-12-28T02:09:00.000-08:00

1pm is not a bad starting time but if you are a late sleeper it is not easy to do any tourism. Sorry. I was also playing the Victorian state champion so I felt I needed to prepare. Dusan has a very well worked out opening repertoire so I wasted the whole morning trying to find a good line against the Sicilian or Kings Indian. In the end I thought of a tricky move order in the hope he would play 1.Nf3 c5 2. b3 Nf6 3. Bb2 g6 4. Bf6! gf6 5.c4 with a position like my game against Rogozenko with colours reversed. As you can see I was out of my brilliant preparation on move 2 :-(

So I got nothing out of the opening until Dusan got a rush of blood to the head and played 17....Nd4. After that it was just a matter of technique. The rook ending is just lost when he walked into a mate in 1.

Australian Championship Round 1

2011-12-27T04:16:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays friends! I hope you have all spent Christmas day with family, friends and loved ones. I took advantage of the cheap flights and flew to Sydney on an almost empty plane. I spent the night at the Ingram family Manor and jumped into Ben's luxurious Saab the next morning for the drive down to Geelong.

Ben obscuring the Sphinx. This is the Venue.

Geelong is composed of many lane highways, housing estates and industrial areas. Luckily it also has a historic old town and a beautiful bay.

We will be here for two weeks and I hope we will have time to do some tourism between rounds so that I can show you some pictures of the area as well as games.

The tournament got underway at 2pm. Ben and I got "lost" and unfortunately missed the opening ceremony and the undoubtedly riveting speeches. You can find all the information on the tournament at the Geelong chess clubs website and if you are clever enough you can also find the link to the five live boards. The top seed GM Zong Yuan Zhao proved that e4 is the best move as he needed no other to win the first round. Another strange result was Darryl Johansen's 14 move draw with white. Another mystery is the participation of an Indian International master. I assume we must now have a reciprocal arrangement with India and will therefore be applying for the next Indian closed Championship.

My game today started well but I lost the thread a bit in the middle-game. I did enjoy the exchange sacrifice. Black has no material for it but I cannot find a way to defend white's position.

Mono's 50th

2011-12-17T19:20:00.000-08:00

Party Party Party

That's life in the shire. Weekends especially one has a wide choice of events and Party's but yesterday my Bro was playing so my choice was obvious. Mono is a local celebrity. The Nickname was given to him apparently due to the fact that he only has one leg. This did not stop him from dancing and having a great time. There were a few bands, loads of Grog and great food.

Bro is the Guitarist with the red and white guitar.

Time for the Byron markets. Last chance to buy some genuine Byron XMAS prezzies.

Ivy Lucille & Rapskallion

2011-12-17T00:10:00.001-08:00

Last night, following the strong recommendation of a fellow Mullum chessplayer and friend Justin, I went to Coorabell Hall to listen to some music. Wow! First up was the sultry and funny Ivy Lucille. She was accompanied by a guy on what I think is a double-bass. Is that what one calls the really big ones? I did take some videos but am now in Brunswick heads and the internet connection here sucks and after trying to upload the Videos for several hours I gave up, Luckily she has this terrific clip on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MZnk29UG9I

I must have arrived half way through her gig because after about half a dozen songs, far too few, it was over and I went outside to chat with some friends. We were just discussing how terrific she was when Ivy herself appeared and was kind enough to answer some questions for her fans. She does not have a CD out yet but it is in the works. Doubleroo will continue to "stalk" her and bring you updates. Bad Videos when I get to a better internet connection.

Rapskallion was up next and the Hall filled up immediately. Now there were eight great musicians on stage and soon the whole hall was shaking. Again, my own Vids another time but here is a Youtube sample.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq_kPISO9fI

Lucille showed herself to be a real party girl by staying for the whole performance livening up the dance-floor as much as anyone despite having just done an entire set herself. Rapskallion were brought back to the stage for three encores, usually far too much but in this case not nearly enough. They are touring to promote their new album which I just had to buy. I have now listened to it and recommend it highly.

Undoubtedly the best night of music since Chocolate in Cuba. The difference being that although I loved the live performance in Baracoa I did not like the recorded stuff.

Tonight I will treat myself to more music, this time my brother is playing at a party in Mullum and I will take some Videos again. Life in the Shire is just wonderful :-)

Ruth Coxhill Memorial rounds 7&8

2011-12-08T22:37:00.001-08:00

The tournament finishes on Tuesday but since I played my last round game in advance I have already played all 9 games, and scored 9 points :-) Ok, I will admit that it was a bit like shooting fish in a barrel but I did have 2 tough games. This was not one of them. Oleg got a bit too aggro and by the time he hung a piece his position was a shambles not to mention the pawn.

Gene was always going to be the main competitor but a couple of draws put him a point behind so he would have had to win this game to draw level. It was therefore quite silly of me to sacrifice a pawn and offer another for a nebulous attack. Luckily the pressure was enough and I was even able to pass the final test, winning rook v rook + 2 connected pawns. I have not really been paying attention to the rest of the tournament but if you are interested here is the link.

Have a nice weekend :-)

Ruth Coxhill Memorial round 6

2011-12-01T06:46:00.001-08:00

I can honestly say that my young opponent played like a grandmaster this evening. Exactly like a particular grandmaster in fact. If you look at my second round game from Naujac sur Mer this year you will see GM Dorian Rogozenko making the same mistake (not playing 5. d4 ) and suffering the same fate. Also neither player resigned too early.

Ruth Coxhill Memorial round 9 (brought forward)

2011-11-30T06:35:00.001-08:00

Sam is one of the Gold coasts young talents and has been introducing many kids to chess with the Gardiner Chess Academy. Today it was Sam who learned a lesson. I would formulate the "rule" like this.

If you swap a bishop for a knight unprovoked in the opening, have a good reason.

Ruth Coxhill Memorial Round 5

2011-11-29T05:43:00.001-08:00

I have now played chess against two generations of Mullers. Jonas father played regularly more than a decade ago. Will I be around to play the next generation in 20 years time? A bit optimistic perhaps but not totally out of the question.

Jonas played well for most of the game and it is hard to pinpoint his errors but I felt that playing 19......c3 closed the position too much and cost him too much of his counterplay for one potential mate-threat. Meanwhile whites attack continued.

Ruth Coxhill Memorial Round 4 and Mullum music festival.

2011-11-28T06:54:00.001-08:00

I am a bit late with this game. The Mullum Music Festival was on this weekend and between visits to the beach, checking out the bands and a few after parties there was little time left.

The venues are spread across town but the Magic bus will take you there....or..

the "Free Buddha Bus". I had no idea he was incarcerated! The whole town was a stage as seen in this ...street-theatre?

Anyway, back to the game. My opponent fell for a beginners trap and lost quickly. It is good to beat these kids while one still can because in a few years time Kevin will not be so careless. I believe he is currently 10!

Ruth Coxhill Memorial Round 3. Proof there is no God.

2011-11-22T05:13:00.001-08:00

If there were a God or any form of universe governing intelligence or in fact any logic or justice then surely I would have lost today. Slowly and painfully. I feel reluctant to even post this game, that's how unfair and undeserved my victory was.

Instead I will bury it at the end of the post with the idea of exceeding your attention span. When I last presented you with a game I was fasting. That lasted until Saturday. It was a busy day considering I was fasting but when not eating or smoking I need to distract myself a little so I visited the Mullum markets

Mullumbimby hosts the markets once a month and it one of the nicer markets, not nearly as big as the Byron markets but shady and relaxed like everything in Mullum.

I was surprised that on such a fine day so few people were out. The reason as I found out when I phoned a local chessplayer/friend was that the Bangalow show was on. I just had to see it!

The first exhibit I saw brought a smile to my face. The translation is necessary in Australia.

The farm animals were very popular with the little kids

while the horses were very popular with the bigger kids.

The Cattle were the highlight.

After the show I went body surfing for about an hour and then drove up to Brisbane for a birthday party and what a party it was. Connie Pizzato was celebrating her 22nd 39th birthday and let me tell you, Italians know how to throw a party. A guest not eating is seen as a challenge. A few glasses of champagne and my resolve weakened. When the home made Spelt pizza arrived I gave in to temptation. Then came skewered garlic prawns....you get the picture.

As soon as I started eating again the Nicotine withdrawals arrived with a vengeance. I seem to be restless, short tempered and scatterbrained. Well that is my excuse for today and I am sticking to it :-)

After the previous success with a 19th century opening I thought I might try something even older. The Ponziani opening has been known since 1497 according to the link. It is hardly ever played anymore but it is not clear to me why.

Alex Ruddy did not appear to be flummoxed by my choice. He played a good line but then lost a little ground and by the early middlegame was a bit worse. By move 25 I was no longer taking the game seriously and played the impulsive 25: c5?? allowing Qg5, blacks only trick. Instead 25: Qh7 check followed by c5 ends the game quickly. After my brain-melt I am just a pawn down in a difficult (to say the least) ending. And now a tragedy happened. Alex left a piece unprotected ending the game immediately.

I fully deserved to lose this game for my flippant and arrogant attitude to this game. See? No Justice, therefore no God. The Bull put it best when he said....

Ruth Coxhill Memorial Round 2

2011-11-17T03:56:00.001-08:00

In the mountains behind Mullumbimby we have a secret training base

and the last few sessions we had discussed a line of the Scotch opening. After the introductory moves 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 ed4 4. Nd4 black rarely plays Qh4 but this move just wins a pawn! It is true that a well prepared player will get plenty of compensation for that pawn. My opponent today was not prepared and just lost a pawn. Again my junior opponent played until mate.

In case you did bother playing through this game and are now wondering why I promoted to a knight instead of a queen, no you are not missing anything, I was just playing with my food. We both used hardly any time for the game and under-promotion is always nice.

Some gratuitous advice. If you play the Scotch, learn the 4........Qh4 line and if you face it as black you may want to call your opponents bluff at least once.

So 4 days of fasting and nicotine abstinence are over. I am down to 105kg and starting to breathe normally again. Got to get healthy before the Australian Championship in Geelong at the end of the year. A friend encouraged me yesterday to go down there and retrieve MY title :-)

Ruth Coxhill Memorial

2011-11-15T04:55:00.001-08:00

Finally a chess game! Since returning to Australia I had not played any rated tournament games to I enjoyed my short outing today. Graeme Gardiner of the Gardiner Chess Academy organizes many events and one of them is the Ruth Coxhill Memorial. It is not every son who honours the memory of his mother with a tournament.

We play 2 games a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays in the evening. A very relaxed format. The venue is the Gardiners spacious home.

My young opponent played the opening quite well, then started to use all his time for no good reason....and then panicked. I guess the point of the tournament was fulfilled. Most of the field is made up of talented juniors getting in some practice before the Australian Junior Championships.

On another front, I am fasting again. My last food intake was on Sunday lunchtime. Last cigarette Sunday afternoon. As usual quitting is easy and three days in I am feeling good. The challenge will be to retain the motivation. Also in the past my nicotine cravings return when I start eating again.

So apart from playing two games a week and going to the markets on the weekends to listen to some drums

I am not doing anything exciting enough to blog about. Well you be the judge :-) I read somewhere on the internet that drinking small amounts of seawater is supposed to have a beneficial effect. Since it is well known that all information on the internet is reliable I thought I might give it a try. Now every time I go swimming I swallow a glassful or two of saltwater. So far so good :-)

Australia unoccupied?

2011-10-30T21:55:00.000-07:00

Last week I noticed that the "Occupy Wall Street" movement had hit the Gold Coast! Since I was heading down to Brunswick Heads anyway I thought I should at least offer a few hours of my time and take a few pictures. Moral support alone is overrated.

When protesting one needs to dress appropriately so that both your fellow protesters, spectators and most importantly the police can identify what group you belong to. Luckily I have a red Che Guevara t-shirt for just such an occasion. Sporting Che you can blend into any left-wing cause seamlessly.

I saw this Video on YouTube

but when I got down there on Saturday afternoon I saw this.

A public event less well attended than an Australian Chess Tournament!

Meanwhile the beach was well occupied.

Surely "Occupy Byron Bay" will be different. Off the top of my head I cannot think of a better place to attract a crowd of protesters and when you see the You Tube Video it does indeed look like Byron does it better. Drums, party atmosphere, lots of people with time on their hands...

but when I got down there,

I saw only one person who might be a protester, the guy with the Guitar...maybe? Although slightly disappointing I chose to look on the bright side. Obviously life in Australia is so good for the vast majority that we don't really have anything to complain about. The Human development index confirms this assessment. Australia is in second place overall, just a fraction behind Norway. Without the winter!

While I was musing on the sweetness of life in OZ a report came on the car radio that Qantas had grounded its entire domestic and international fleet! From what I can gather the CEO Alan Joyce spat the dummy when he couldn't get everything he wanted.

Doubleroo opinion. Qantas should be instantly re-nationalized and Alan Joyce and any others responsible for the grounding should be arrested and charged with economic terrorism. Nothing is as entertaining as a good show-trial. :-)

Queensland Inter-School Teams Chess Championship

2011-10-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

This the best Schools in the state of Queensland battled for titles in Brisbane at Somerville House, a prestigious Girls School with a long and good reputation for encouraging and promoting Chess. Here is a picture of the School with one of the successful teams showing off their trophy.

The tournament was excellently organised and there was a large turnout from many different regions. Some teams were local (Brisbane), others from the Gold Coast, Toowoomba and Bundaberg. Everything was still wide open until the very end but the dominant teams in both the primary and secondary level were from Kings and Grammar.

Brisbane Grammar won a last round nail-biter against Somerville to win the Secondary School division while Kings held 2-2 against Grammar to win the Primary division. Don't quote me on that because I am working from memory. I have not been able to find the exact results on any website.

The Somerville Girls acquitted themselves very well and were fighting for one of the top places going into the last round. Amongst the coaches were International Master Moulthun Ly, a promising younger player, Veteran IM Steven Solomon and WIM Alexandra Jule pictured below going through the game of one of the competitors...and having lunch. No rest for the wicked :-)

Many thousand school children and students play chess in Queensland and there are many events for them to play in. Parents and teachers support these events as does the Queensland Chess Association and the Gardiner Chess Academy . This is Graeme Gardiner who spends a lot of his time helping to organise events like these.

As you can see there are a lot of people enthusiastically involved in Junior Chess. So why is it that Junior events look like this

and open tournaments look like this?

IM Steven Solomon receiving first prize at the Wendy Terry memorial a few weeks previously. A solid performance by Steven who out-rated his nearest rival by nearly 300 elo points. Hardly any adults compete anymore and much of the tiny field was made up of juniors. Something is happening in the transition between School and Adult life. Anybody got any ideas?

A week in Kuala Lumpur

2011-09-20T18:45:00.000-07:00

When it rains it pours in KL. One moment the sun in shining and the next.... Driving is not easy I imagine but the locals are used to it. Since the city is divided into pockets the only way to get around is by Car or public transport. There are few footpaths, no bicycle lanes and the public transport system is underdeveloped to put it kindly.

longtime friend and colleague Peter Long runs the Polgar chess academy together with his wife Luisa and between meals I was allowed to torture some of the students.

Interest in Chess is quite high and increasing in Malaysia. The benefits to the minds of youngsters are well known and being increasingly documented. On the weekend the centre was full of young minds eager to learn so by the time Saturday evening arrived we were all very hungry. The choice of restaurant was left up to Sarah. "Fatty Crab" of course.

Luisa, Peter and I raised no objections.

There is not much available except crab (chicken wings) but that is superb. Unfortunately for Peter he had to spend half the time de-shelling crab for Sarah :-)

Another great way to spend a few hours, especially if the weather is not perfect, is strolling around one of the many modern air-conditioned Malls. Now the Malls here are like little cities. If you were to live in an adjoining apartment you could work, go to the Gym, shop, eat, visit doctor, dentist, whatever. I am sure you would never have to leave the building to have a rich, fulfilled life. You could even play Chess! This Mall is the Venue for the Malaysian open every year!

Time to go out and take some more pictures for you.

Spitting the dummy

2011-09-15T11:02:00.000-07:00

Last week a serious of unexpected events made me wonder if I wasn't running around in ever decreasing circles and if so then what actions I could undertake to avoid reaching the inevitable, undesirable destination.

I have heard tell that in similar situations people turn to chemical remedies, be they legal or not, or consult therapists. Now the first option can at best temporarily obscure the underlying causes and at worst damage ones health even occasioning death if administered for an extended period or in incorrect dosages. The second option is completely beyond me. Paying to talk to a stranger. What? No friends?

There is a third lesser utilized option that I believe shepherds have used for generations whenever they saw danger approaching. Getting the flock out of here.

Monday morning I booked a ticket to Malaysia. One problem solved. While on stopover in Dubai I bought a new laptop, a Samsung RF511. I had been missing my chess programs, preparing for games and watching shows like "The Daily Show" and the "Colbert Report" but more than anything else I missed Blogging! Another problem solved. The next day I arrived in Kuala Lumpur International Airport where I was picked up by my old friend Peter Long and taken to eat Roti Channai with various Curries and dring Teh Halia. I immediately felt happy and relaxed and knew I had made the right decision.

First let me bring you up to date. Shortly after my previous post Nina and I drove back to France and visited her brother in Paris.

A famous fountain near the centre who's name I have now forgotten. Can anybody help out?

This is the "Tour de Saint-Jacques". Easy to remember. I love Scallops.

Paris has everything. Even a beach.

After a pleasant weekend in Paris enjoying the hospitality of her brother Pierre, Nina, Francoise and I headed back to Vendeness sur Arroux. We took a little shortcut on the way to take some pictures of my favourite house in all of France.

This is an old fortification built in the 13th century. The same family still lives there. Amazing.

Here is the story for all you Francophiles.

This is when my replacement Computer, my old Fujitsu short-circuited so I didn't take any pictures of our family camping holiday in the Morvan forest. On the 26th of August I left Francoise and Nina at the Camping ground and headed to Schwarzach, Austria for a tournament. I still have not finished installing my chess program's or entering the games so for now here are some pictures.

This is the Goldegger see where I went swimming frequently. It is about 10km away.

Schwarzach down below.

A wonderful old house behind the "Hotel Post"

After the tournament which could have gone better I headed to Croatia. My first stop was Zagreb where I had some things to do. It was interesting to see friends from my Uni days nearly 30 years ago. A few days of catching up and making appointments later I took a few days off to see Zadar.

The City gate. Zadar is a very ancient city with a long history, great beaches, restaurants and tourist attractions.

Like the five wells.

Roman ruins outside the excellent Archaeological museum.

The 9th century church of Saint-Donatus.

And a charming little harbour with a nice fish restaurant.

Watch out for one thing though. Along the harbour there are lots of stalls offering "Kornati" excursions. You will be told how you will be taken to a spectacular natural park of which you are shown photo's. Lunch, drinks and everything else is all inclusive. The reality is...

After a three-hour boat-ride where everything except water, lemonade and cask wine is incredibly expensive you get dropped on a rock (Island) like this, get a couple of little grilled Mackerels with a Salad and then get to enjoy the trip back. All this for only about 50 euro and a wasted day. On the bright side I did meet some nice people who were equally bored and disappointed.

Next post, Malaysia :-)

Nina in the Uttinger Labyrinth

2011-08-05T16:11:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to write this post for several days but have encountered one obstacle after another. My HP laptop is not usable anymore because the screen freezes or fuzzes up unless I hold it at a specific angle with pressure with one hand and keep adjusting to keep contact. So I had to first transfer the photo's from my mobile to the HP, then use an external hard disk to back up and then attach the said hard disk to my 4 year old Fujitsu-Siemens to write this Blog. That nearly worked. The hard disk backed up in zip format for some reason. Ok, so today I just transferred the pictures and that worked. One day was spent updating all the software on the laptop I hadn't used for a year.

Please keep in mind that I only have a few hours a day to actually do anything that requires concentration. Anybody who has entertained a 4.5 year old during school holidays will know what I mean. It is a lot of fun but also exhausting. Anyway, enough whining, let me show you what we did on Tuesday (I think).

It was a glorious, sunny day, one of the few we have had so far this summer. Claudia invited Nina and I to join her and her friend Silke, her son David and his school friend Marvin on an excursion.

We drove to Herrsching on the beautiful Ammersee to meet up with Silke and the two boys to take a Paddle-ship over to the other side of the Lake. Before we got there we had our first "memorable" incident. With hundreds of people either waiting for the Ship or just enjoying the lake-front Nina took a few steps into the water and yelled out (in French) "look Papa, I'm peeing in the Lake". Then "oh, my undies are all wet", took them off and threw them at me. Where is that damn Ship!

It was a wonderful day. Many people were enjoying the water.

Claudia and Nina enjoying the sights.

This was our destination. The Labyrinth in Utting.

Hurry up Papa!

Lots of Sunflowers

The first attraction was a haystack with tunnels underneath. It took a while to get Nina to lose interest and move on.

The Tipi's were not so fascinating. She has been Camping often.

The View from the Castle was great, climbing up and down even better.

Groves? Pumpkins growing on the sides.

The whole Idea of the Labyrinth is to follow a map, find all the Animals and stamp a piece of paper to show you had found them. Too much like hard work. We wandered around haphazardly and found them all anyway. Here the Elephant.

Duck

David showed us where the Sheep was.

On our way out we found the Mole

Outside was a Giraffe

No, we can't take any of these plants home Nina. To finish the day Nina went for a swim and fell out of a Tree. Then it was time for a Curry-wurst with Chips and an Ice Cream. If you want to entertain a Child near Munich on a sunny day I can definitely recommend this area.

Nina Wohl's first Art exhibition

2011-07-24T06:37:00.000-07:00

Since the tournament in Condom I have had the pleasure of entertaining my daughter Nina. She is now on holidays and enjoying Germany. I am learning how to keep a four and a half year old occupied because if you don't they get bored and turn into little monsters.

The first days were quite easy because the weather was reasonable. Rowing on the Woerthsee is one fun activity. "Look a Pirate Ship"

The "Captain Bluebear"

Yelling "don't run through the puddle" didn't help much. Another lesson learnt. Always have a dry change of clothes in the car. The next lesson was to have paper and colours at home for rainy days, like the rest of the week. Here is some of her work.

"Autoroute"

"Lapin"

"Train avec une Coffret"

"Jardin avec les Chevre et des Oiseau"

"Pantalons"

"Truc pour les animaux"

"Feuilles"

"Jardin"

And lastly the Artist with her new friend and adviser Mimi. Any suggestions on other ways to entertain Nina are very welcome :-)

Condom full of Belgians

2011-07-17T06:56:00.000-07:00

And in fact two Belgians, Tom Piceu and Thibault Maenhout were leading with 6.5/8 (with Vincent David) and faced off on board one, but not for very long. As soon as board 2 was drawn, meaning at least a tie for 1st, they drew as well. I cannot give you a complete list of results because they are still not on the official website a day later. Although I have experienced similar things in Latin countries before this time I will give the organizers the benefit of the doubt. the Internet was not working anywhere in Condom the last three days, therefore no post.

I spent the morning prior to the 7th round and the Gascony feast walking around taking in the sights. I spent a while talking to this Goose which goes to show how wonderfully my mind was working.

Magical no? Well I was in that kind of mood. Talking to Geese, finding beauty in everything and walking lightly along the ancient streets of this picturesque town.

And then there was the impressive Church to visit.

Now serious chess players (if any are reading this) will be asking themselves why I was spending the day walking around soaking in the atmosphere and taking pictures instead of preparing for an important game with black against a strong opponent? Well because during the tournament I had been reading a great book about Angels and signs. That morning on my way to the shower I found a scoresheet between two players unknown to me featuring the Alekhine's defense, my first opening "love". Black won. I took this as a sign that instead of preparing for my opponent I should enjoy the beautiful morning and just play the Alekhine! Look what happened.

Now I understand the sign! I am a goose!! And a ****ing Idiot.

Anyway, not being one to dwell I soon saw the humour of the entire brainfart I had experienced all day. It was time to get ready for the feast. Francoise and Nina arrived shortly after my game had finished and the game was forgotten. The Band, Los Valencianos arrived and the Music started Here is Nina's first Dance Video.

After the Music we were served the first course, local Melon, followed by a assortment of cold Duck cuts.

Between every course the band played, there was singing , dancing, drinking, standing on tables, more drinking, running around the tables and much more drinking.

Nina was only too happy to participate in the games.

Then came the birthday cake. This year was the 10th edition of the Condom open and the 30th anniversary of the Chess Club.

Next day I had white again and made it 4/4 but it must be said that I got all my +2200 opponents with black.

Now the infamous last round. I have had many unfortunate last rounds in the last few years and one reason, I'm sure is that I don't like to play in the morning. Added to that the need to check out of the boarding school at 9am and the noise the night before, as was habit every night, from the huge crowd of younger players who partied with regularity until 4am, this was not ideal preparation. I was paired against my friend from Munich Ludwig Deglmann. My worst game since...... the last round in Condom a few years ago where I lost in the last round in only 15 moves! Perhaps I should avoid this tournament.

So what do I learn from this disastrous tournament? A few things maybe. Work on my black openings? Don't play tournaments with morning and or double rounds? Don't mix family holiday with Chess? Less sightseeing?
All of the above. It would be nice to be able to draw definite conclusions but I can think of examples in my career where I did some or all of the above and it worked out well. So I am left as clueless as usual :-)

The only thing I can tell you with certainty is that if you spend your time at the board and focus on the game while you are playing it , it helps...usually.

ps: The final results have gone up on the official website

pps: Concurrently there was a GM closed tournament happening. Info here

Have a nice day.

Rounds 5+6

2011-07-13T10:08:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a bit of a disaster but as always a chess player needs to find fault with him/her self. I played superficially, passively and just expected to win by divine right or something. Already my 8th move ....g6 is wishy-washy. Why play g6 when I can play g5? On move 11 I play the whimpy ...b6 instead of ...c5 The next major error is not taking on b6 with the rook. Anyway, one has days like these.

Much better! After yesterdays performance I was determined to at least play sharply. Notice how my opponent panicked after 6 g4. That is why I should have played g5 yesterday. Not because of any objective merit but it forces the opponent to react and hopefully panic :-)

Since I finished very early today, am in a good mood and the Internet is working fine at the local sports bar/pizzaria, I will show you a few pictures of Condom. Also they have not started to make the pizza's yet so I have to wait a while :-)

I thought there were 3 musketeers?

We are lodged at a boarding school about 5 minutes walk from the playing hall. The website of the Condom open is here should you wish more information. This is the little alley from the exit to the park

which has some very nice old trees. I like trees. The answer to your question is Yes!

I did take a picture of my favourite tree.

Then it's up the garden path

and out onto the street where the playing hall is. Condom is a lovely, typically French town with long traditions especially in the areas of food and drink. More....much more about that soon. Have a nice day all and remember to smile :-)

CONDOM rounds 1-4

2011-07-12T01:58:00.000-07:00

Well folks, as advertised I am now in Condom and have finally found Internet but only one power-point (dead battery) so I will have to leave photo's for next time. Here are my first four games.

This game was easier than my first round. Mr Schurmans ran into a special variation which I first came up with against Hermann Van Riemsdijk in Queenstown, then improved upon against Eddi Levi and this is the latest interpretation. Not wasting time on Bg2 but playing c3+b4 immediately.

A good opening spoiled by atrocious technique and lack of concentration.

This is my second game in a short time against Thibault and this one went better than the 8th round in Naujac. He ran into the "Chapman" variation.

Pauillac and Vertheuil

2011-07-08T15:53:00.000-07:00

Thursday morning was a bit overcast and windy so we thought we would give the beach a miss for one day and go explore the River and maybe a Chateau or two instead. Our first stop was Pauillac.

Pauillac is a tourist town without a doubt. There are a lot of hotels and restaurants, wine stores and a great tourist centre.

Across from the harbour is where most of the action is.

The Harbour.

Pullacher platz...to make Germans feel at home? This park is across the road from the tourist office.

Eva busily shopping.

Any one will do :-)

Nina getting into the spirit.

Pauillac is a nice little town surrounded by a lot of famous wineries but not very impressive historically or architecturally. On our way back to Naujac we stopped in at on of the most famous Chateau's, Mouton- Rothchild. I really expected some grandeur there but....

That's it I'm afraid. Big grounds with a lake and lots of storage space. Just goes to show, money can't buy class. After this mild disappointment Francoise noticed a sign on the side of the road advertising an 11th century church. The town is called Vertheuil and is not as well known as St Estephe, Paulliac Margaux etc but deserves your attention if you should be in the area. The church is magnificent.

The Gregorian chants in the background added considerably to the atmosphere.

A nice place for a peaceful stroll. Now something for Space Cadets.

So I'll end with my little joke of the day. Tomorrow I am going to play in another tournament in Condom. If you don't believe me click here. Should I find wi-fi I'll report. A+

Lazy days in Naujac

2011-07-05T14:04:00.000-07:00

So how do we spend our days here in the Medoc when we are not playing Chess. The first order of the day is of course to go to the bakery just down the road and get some pan-chocolate or croissants and a baguette. One of my preferred options for lunch is to go to Montelivet for some local Oysters

which are opened in front of you

by experts who make it look so easy. If you have ever attempted to open them yourself you know that it is not! Conveniently located right next door is the wine stand.

Good fresh oysters must be accompanied by a dry white wine of course. Nina had four to the amazement of some other patrons. The market in Montelivet is on every day in summer and apart form local food and wine you can buy pottery, clothes, candles and many other things. Perhaps we'll have time to take you for a tour but the best is if you come to check it out yourself. "Marketing" can make you tired and then you need a refreshing swim. Just at the other end of town there is the beach!

It being a weekday the beach was quite empty despite the perfect weather. On the weekends it seems like all of Bordeaux empties and heads here. Montelivet beach is easier to get to than the others in the area as the parking is less than 100 metres from the water. It is also a kid-friendly beach.

And here is something we did not expect to see! There was a circus in town. Not much else, as I said, lazy days :-)

Ilja Zaragatski wins 14th Wine Open

2011-07-03T14:52:00.000-07:00

Ilja played a solid tournament. Today he just needed a draw to finish alone on 7 points and his opponent Merijn Van Delft, last years winner was guaranteed a lot of bottles of Wine for the same result. I meanwhile had no such luxury because of my many previous draws and had to win to join the group on 6.5 so what else to do? The Hippo had to be let out again, this time with white (?!).Well it worked like a charm.

So I got to 6.5 points tied with my Naujac club-mates Dorian Rogozenko and Merijn Van Delft. I lost the buchholz lottery but won the weigh-in with a spectacular 90 bottles! As fourth I get a quarter of that. I managed to take some pictures from the stage-perspective.

Recognize anyone?

The winner Ilja trying to compensate for his stature with technique.

The Major having a go with some help from some friends.

But this all happened after the beach. Beach Volleyball? I'll leave you with a picture of a spectator.

Keep tuned for more of the Medoc.

Rounds 7+8

2011-07-02T13:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I played quite a good game up to a certain point only to lose all my pawns after which I was lost but int the end.....another draw :-(

And so we come to today where I let the Hippo out again. Please use parental controls as your children should not play this opening. I would stop if only I didn't keep winning with it, usually from very suspect positions.

One more game and then a week's holidays here in the beautiful Medoc. Then all you travel voyeurs can see some nice pictures again :-)

Round 6 Another boring draw.

2011-06-30T12:43:00.000-07:00

Nothing worked well today. I woke up late only to find that my "pain chocolate" was gone. Then the petrol station had no 98 and my game was kind of boring. I refused a draw offer at about move 10 but later could not see a sensible way to avoid a repetition. Looking on the bright side, the waves were great :-)

Round 5

2011-06-30T05:14:00.000-07:00

Another draw, not very exciting. I think I should have chosen a more aggressive plan in the opening.

Wine Open Rounds 1-4

2011-06-29T04:05:00.000-07:00

Sorry but I have been too lazy to post these before now. Seeing many old friends and drinking inadvisable amounts of red wine have made it difficult to get online. Yesterday was the dreaded double round so today is really the first morning with a few hours free. In the first round I tried what I will call the "Chapman variation" because I don't know any better.

To play the top seed with black already in the second round was unexpected but due to accelerated pairings. Here in France the new fashion is to accelerate the first 7 (!!) rounds.

I think I missed a good opportunity to stay on 100% but the young man defended well.This was a funny game, worth a look. Are the knights on d6 and b6 strong or weak?

The afternoon round was a bit less exciting.

I've got a tough game today again but at least there is time to go to the beach for a swim first today. Perhaps I'll even take some pictures :-)

Vendenesse sur Arroux

2011-06-24T15:59:00.000-07:00

The Arroux is river in Burgundy and Vendenesse is a tiny little town along it's bank. My daughter Nina lives and goes to school here. Children can start school (maternel) at the age of 2 in France. Apart from reading, writing, maths, art and music they also have an organic vegetable garden.

The children also get to eat the organic vegetables they grow

This is the insect house which is used to teach the kids about nature.

Nina's classroom.

A classroom with a view!

The library bus came today. Nina seems happy with her new booty.

Just outside school

Just behind the school is a nice park the kids can play in.

Of course even a tiny village must have a huge church.

The town hall

On the other side of the river there is a nice little park with a flower and veggie garden in the shape of a cane basket.

And a playground that even big kids like Francoise (Nina's mother) can enjoy

And little kids of course :-)

Little schools like these are being threatened, as this one was recently, by Sarkozy's budget cuts. The parents had to fight to keep it. This little egotistical fascist does not consider the education of French children as important as bombing Libyan children. Priorities.

Returning to more pleasant thoughts, here is a sculpture near another park. I will take you another time.

Finally a few pictures a little up the road where little kids can swim safely

And one more

Training for the Circus :-)

Good night all, see you in Naujac.

The COSMOS CLUB and the Embargo

2011-06-23T16:13:00.000-07:00

I met many US citizens in Cuba despite the embargo that was initiated in October 1960. I should mention that this embargo is almost completely unilateral. The United Nations passed many resolutions urging the US to lift it's embargo by overwhelming majorities. In 1994 for example only the US, Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau voted against. Check it out here. I'm sure more recent examples are available.
Of course this policy does not reflect the views of US citizens any more than the world wide bank-bailouts or the recent Greek bailout reflect the views of the public in the nations affected. Democracy in our time means you get to choose which puppet pretends to represent you. Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse. You still get Disneyland.

Nevertheless there are idealistic people everywhere who try to make a difference. I had the pleasure of meeting such a group of people. They did not destroy property or wave placards, they did not shout at people or insult those of other opinion. Their efforts involved meeting people, making friends, exchanging ideas and playing Chess! I wrote about them briefly before but now I will allow Robert Lubic to tell you about his Cuban adventure in his own words.

A CUBAN CHESS BREAKTHROUGH

Forty years and one month after the Ping-Pong Breakthrough between the People’s Republic of China and the U.S.A. in 1971, followed by President Nixon’s momentous trip to Beijing and the eventual establishment of diplomatic relations between the two nations, the Cosmos Club Chess Group traveled to Havana, Cuba, for another momentous trip. The journey began on Friday, May 13, 2011, when the Cosmos team of eight players and one translator-photographer boarded a charter flight from Miami, Florida, to Havana, followed by chess matches on Saturday, the 14^th, and culminating on a May 15, 2011, visit to the grave site of Cuban chess Grandmaster José Raúl Capablanca, one of the greatest chess players in the world and world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. Although Capablanca’s name might not be familiar to non chess playing Americans, his fame is so great that all Cubans, whether involved in chess or not as well as many others throughout the world are well aware of his fame.

The idea for a chess match between the Cosmos Club Chess Group and a chess team from Cuba, first came to me in the spring of 2009. I am chairman of the Cosmos Inter-Club Chess matches and, in this capacity, had scheduled tournaments with teams in London, Paris, and Washington, D.C. From past experience, as a director of international legal studies programs abroad in the Soviet Union, Poland, as well as other international sites, during the years that I taught International Trade Law, I knew how important chess was in Marxist societies where there is a limited number of recreational activities. I had been to Cuba twice before and observed the interest in chess by young and old on the street corners in Havana. As a result, I had arranged a meeting with the First Secretary of the Cuban Interests Section (CIS) in Washington. Because of the lack of formal diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba, neither nation has an embassy in the other.

The First Secretary of the CIS was quite positive and agreed to go to lunch at the Cosmos Club, together with me and the head of the CIS, Ambassador Jorges A. Boleños. The Ambassador was also quite positive, advising me that he would try to obtain an invitation from the Cuban government for the proposed chess match. Unfortunately this is where it stood for approximately the next twelve months, despite continual inquiries from me to the Ambassador and a new CIS First Secretary who was chosen to serve as our new liaison. Finally, out of the blue, I received notice on November 30, 2010, from Ambassador Boleños that the Cuban National Institute of Sport, Physical Education, and Recreation (INDER) had issued an invitation to the Cosmos Club Chess Group to visit Havana to play in a chess match in January of 2011 or any other date that might prove convenient.

As a result, I assumed incorrectly that practically all of the serious handicaps to the proposed match had been overcome and began to assemble the Cosmos Club Chess Team according to those who wished to participate. Eventually a team of eight player and one photographer-translator were selected. Among them were the chess team captain, Arnold Leibowitz (a well known constitutional and administrative lawyer), and his wife Sandra who served as the photographer-translator; Professor PC Huang, the chairman of the Cosmos Club Chess Group and a Bio-Physics professor at Johns Hopkins University; Dr. Hugh Hill, an emergency hospital physician and his daughter Andrea; Sophy Burnham, a well known author, Ray Berg, an eminent actuary and probably the best chess player on our team; and finally yours truly, Chairman of the Cosmos Inter-Club Chess Group and my wife (also a chess player), Benita.

The initial application for a license was filed on December 12, 2010, with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Treasury Department, containing the names of the nine members of our team plus three non playing chess wives. As a result of a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court many years ago in what is known as the Paul Robeson (a well known African-American singer and Communist) ruling, the U.S. Government is forbidden to refuse anyone a passport if they are not a security risk. In view of that decision, the embargo placed against travel to Cuba precludes the expenditure of U.S. currency in that nation without special permission from OFAC. I was quite surprised when OFAC refused to issue a license to the New York Philharmonic Orchestra to travel to Cuba (despite its most recent triumphant appearance in North Korea), because the Board Members were not part of the orchestra. Shortly thereafter, on January 4, 2011, I received notice from OFAC of its denial of the Cosmos Club application on the ground that three wives accompanying the group were not chess players and that I had accepted an invitation from the CIS of a sightseeing tour for our group in Havana, which constitutes tourism and is therefore in violation of the embargo.

As a shot in the dark, I immediately filed a new application, removing the names of the three wives and providing notice of the groups’ decline of the tour of Havana. On April 28, 2011, I received notice from OFAC of the issuance of a license to the Cosmos Club Chess Group to engage in a chess tournament in Cuba. Although elated by this information, it soon became apparent that this was not the end of the Group’s troubles.

Upon receiving the license from OFAC, I immediately telephoned our liaison at the CIS, only to find that he had gone back to Cuba without naming a replacement. This left me in a quandary since it was important that we be advised of the chess venue in Havana and that the dates of May 14^th and 15^th were acceptable for the match. After continually telephoning the CIS, I was finally put in touch with the press attache’, Sr. Juan Jacamino, who would be the group’s new liaison for the Cuban match. Finally, after considerable apprehension, I was given the email address in Cuba of Sr. Jose L. Vilela of INDER. It was then that I was informed, approximately three weeks before our group was scheduled to depart for Havana, that the 46^th annual Capablanca in Memoriam Chess Tournament, which is considered one of the most important chess tournaments in the world, would be taking place at the same time as our scheduled visit to Cuba. As a result, I was advised that the Cubans would be unable to host us. at the time we were scheduled to come to Havana for our proposed matches on May 14 and 15, 2011. I immediately sent an email to Ambassador Boleños, requesting his assistance since we had been pursuing this matter for over two years. Within a couple of days I received another email from Sr. Vilela, that due to the assistance of Grandmaster Silvino Garcia, the President of the Cuban Chess Federation, arrangements would be made for us to travel to Havana and engage a team of eight Cuban Chess players on the dates requested. With dates of the match confirmed, the members of our group agreed that we would keep the matter confidential until we returned from Cuba, for fear of one of the anti-Castro members of Congress blocking our trip.

Our group arrived in Havana late Friday afternoon, May 13, 2011, from Miami, Florida, by charter and were greeted by a delegation of Cuban chess luminaries including Srs. Vilela and Garcia. After taking photographs, we went by chartered bus to the Parque Central Hotel, a five stat hotel in the center of Havana, which had been arranged by us. That evening, the group dined at a Palador, a privately owned restaurant which Castro permitted to be operated by the owners of the residence where located. The food and service, as differing considerably from the state owned restaurants, was excellent.

The next morning, May 14^th, we took taxis to the Havana Riviera Hotel, one of the several operated by the American Mafia in the days before Castro and directly under the management of the infamous gangster, Meyer Lansky. The four women in our group were presented with bouquets when we arrived at the hotel. We then played against a team of eight Cubans according to our skills as determined by Team Captain Leibowitz. The Cuban graciously permitted all of our team members to initiate play with the white pieces, which is usually an advantage among good chess players. Unfortunately, all of our members lost their matches except Roy Berg, our best and oldest player (83 years old) who had a draw. We were then asked if we would play against a group of Cuban youngsters (6 to 12 years old) who were in the lobby of the hotel waiting for the Capablanca in Memoriam Chess Tournament to begin at 3:00 pm. Once again our team lost the majority of matches but not as badly as duriong the first round. We were then taken to lunch, followed by a lecture on Cuban chess. It was there that we learned that one of our hosts, Grandmaster Garcia, the President of the Cuban Chess Federation, as a young boy was a favorite opponent of Ché Guavera. Sr. Garcia also told us about a game he played against Fidel Castro during which the latter refused to accept a draw. Finally, Roy Berg from our group told about a time in New York City when he visited the Manhattan Chess Club and played a speed chess match with a thirteen year old Bobby Fisher, the U.S. chess phenom. Subsequently, after returning to the U.S., I researched the Internet to learn that the last time a U.S. chess team had played in Cuba was in 1966 and that during one of the matches, Fidel Castro had defeated Bobby Fisher.

After the chess lecture we went to the ballroom of the hotel to watch the tournament consisting of some of the best chess players in the world.. After observing several matches which were shown on an electronic screen in the main lobby of the hotel, our group was driven to the Capablanca Chess Club which is the main focus of chess in Havana. That evening, we attended a performance by the world famous Cuban National Ballet company where we watched an excellent presentation of Swan Lake. The next morning the group traveled to the Christopher Colon Cemetery to lay a wreath on the grave of Grandmaster Capablanca. That afternoon the group walked around Havana and, in the evening, attended a small cabaret showing of the Buena Vista Social Club. The next morning the group split up with members returning to Miami on various days, the last of which was Thursday, May 19, 2011, when Arnold Leibowitz and his wife, Sandra, and yours truly and my wife, Benita, returned by charter to Miami and then to Reagan National Airport in Washington.

Every member of our group was fascinated with what they saw and the kindness of everyone in Cuba that they met. No one in our group felt intimidated at anytime regarding where they could go or what they could photograph. In other words, none of us observed any security officials. The Cubans who hosted us were considerably accommodating. During our stay in Havana we observed relatively few Americans; almost all of the tourist groups we saw were Canadian or European..

Whether we continue this chess rivalry between the Cosmos Club Chess Group and Capablanca Chess Club depends upon the circumstances although the Cubans did indicate that they would like to have us return. Regarding a visit by a Cuban chess team to Washington, it depends who will underwrite their costs. It is, however, not inconceivable that our chess match with the Cubans might lead to a chess breakthrough (similar to the Ping-Pong breakthrough in China in 1971), which could lead to President Obama going to Havana the same as President Nixon traveling to Beijing. (2023 words)

By Professor Robert Bennett Lubic, Professor of Law Emeritus and Chairman of the Cosmos Inter-Club Chess Group.

Thanks Bob for your report and for allowing me to read it and publish it in my Blog.

Best wishes,

Alex (aka Doubleroo)

Santiago de Cuba

2011-06-22T15:54:00.000-07:00

This was our destination and the final leg of our journey. After seeing the Church in El Cobre we headed back to Santiago to look for our Casa. We had been given the address by our host in Baracoa and directions how to get there but it still took us a while. Not only were there few street signs but our street had two names! Anyway, eventually we found it. It was only a short walk away from the centre on San Felix (aka Hartmann) no 306. The Casa has the Doubleroo seal of approval.

The central park with it's impressive church is a good place to start. The Casa de la Musica is around the corner as are many Bars like this one.

Everywhere you will find live music, food (average) and in this one, Hatuey beer.

Music is held in high esteem here.

Another little park. At night lots of cafe's and restaurants beckon but expect to be "friended" by lots of tourist hunters. A nice "no thanks" is usually enough although some can be persistent.

The Moncada Barracks

are a must-see attraction of Santiago de Cuba. This is where Fidel Castro made his first attempt to overthrow the Batista dictatorship. It was very short-lived, badly planned and incompetently carried out. Fidel was lucky to escape with his life, even luckier not to be executed and ridiculously lucky to be released after serving just a fraction of his sentence. This debacle has been elevated to a heroic saga just like Gallipoli has been in Australian folklore. Fidel obviously learned some important lessons from this attempt and as we all know his next go was more successful. He did have a chess player (Che) with him when he returned from Mexico.

The holes in the wall were recreated. The Batista regime removed them but after the revolution they were put back.

Only a handful of rebels were killed in the initial assault but many more were executed later. Here they are remembered.

Some of the weapons used.

Art plays a prominent role in Cuban culture. Santiago and the east in general was instrumental in all Cuban resistance movements starting with Hatuey's native uprising a bit north and the first independence from Spain movements early in the 16th century until Jose Marti's battles at the beginning of the 20th century. It was here that the Americans intervened to finally kick the Spaniards out. Finally the Granma brought Fidel and his troop to the Playa las Colorados. Santiago is proud of it's music, art and revolutionary history.

Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca

is the other must see attraction of Santiago. It is the most impressive fortification I have ever seen and was the largest in the southern hemisphere in it's time.

The entrance over a drawbridge

The lobby?

This contraption was used to ferry cannonballs to the cannons and was the cutting edge of technology in it's time.

Weapons again.

Paintings from local artists.

An inside Cannon

And more outside. Like the view?

From this vantage point they hoped to sink pirate vessels trying to plunder Santiago.

Lots of security guards, few tourists. This is a story which repeated itself throughout Cuba. While the bars and beaches were full, the cultural attractions were nearly empty despite being well kept, free or almost free and well staffed.

We also enjoyed a great view of the city. Lastly, every evening a group of young cadets fires a cannon ceremonially and lowers the Cuban flag. Here they are arriving.

I made a Video of the event but a warning. It is long so unless you can spare 12 minutes watching nothing much.....

This was our last major sightseeing event. The next morning we headed back to Havana via Bayamo and Santa Clara but took few photo's and did little sightseeing. After 6 weeks in Cuba we were quite exhausted

and although we had a great time we were ready to head back to Europe. I personally missed internet, clean bathrooms and a cooler climate. If you are not used to the tropics it can be quite tiring after a while. In Havana we returned the Car and were told that the spare tire was missing! Remember the insurance? Well after some discussion they asked us to sign for it plus a fine for not doing a dubious warranty checkup but finally it seems they were too incompetent to actually charge it. This is the last installment of the road trip but I have one more story about Cuba to tell! Stay tuned for this highlight. Tomorrow morning I am heading to France to play in a chess tournament, the famous wine tournament so soon you will have chess games to follow again. G'nite all <3

Visiting the Virgin

2011-06-21T16:47:00.000-07:00

I was quite sad to have to leave Baracoa but we had more than 1000km to go to get back to Havana and a lot to see. If truth be told I prefer to hang around in a pleasant place, play blitz, go to the beach and get to know a place than to play tourist and photograph landmarks but now I know where to go. The drive from the north east to the south east was very pleasant. Our next target was Guantanamo city. On the way we passed lots of little towns like this one.

No cars and no tourists but an excellent road made of concrete. Apparently made for tanks. What amazed me was how clean the streets were compared to the western part of the country. Our first stop was in San Antonio de Sur. We saw some signs for a Jose Marti monument but all of a sudden they stopped at a beach and we couldn't find it. Oh well. We saw Guantanamo Bay in the distance from the road but taking pictures in this area is not advisable. Next stop Guantanamo city.

There was no hotel anywhere near the centre of town and the Casa's we asked at had no secure parking so we had to stay several km's away at the hotel Guantanamo. After many hours driving we just walked back to town, had some dinner in a restaurant with a wonderful menu but only chicken was available. This was a recurring theme in Cuba btw. Do not bother reading menu's, just ask what they have today. A few beers in a bar later we headed back to the hotel for an early night.

Before going to our Casa we went to see the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre. Opposite the Church was a nice horse happily grazing away and not trying to sell trinkets. To reach the Virgin we had to run a gauntlet of vendors but finally we made it.

Outside

and inside I saw the light!

and then I saw the Virgin.

a painting depicting the appearance of said Virgin. I apologize to my religious friends for my irreverence but seriously, the stories some of you believe.......

Some of the offerings, including a bottle of soft drink.

"Take my picture" said this friendly old fellow.

I have a confession to make. I went into the Church with a very cynical attitude partly because of the gauntlet of vendors and the general commercial nature of the area. Having just come from the tourist-free east and being confronted with religion and commercialism in a Socialist-Secular state was too much and so I wrote

("Religion is the Opium of the masses" Karl Marx) in the visitors book. That was uncalled for and I confess and apologize. I am hopeful the Virgin of Charity will forgive me.

Tomorrow Santiago.

Baracoa, my favourite place in Cuba.

2011-06-17T04:06:00.000-07:00

Many moons ago I received an email inviting me to a tournament in Baracoa. It was the first time I had heard of the place and so I Googled it. This is where Christopher Columbus first landed although this is disputed.

He proclaimed this the most beautiful place on Earth and in that time it is easy to believe. He is said to have planted a Cross here and this is supposedly that Cross.

In 1511 Baracoa was officially founded and pronounced the first capital of Cuba. Until the revolution there was no road linking this area with the rest of Cuba and it still seems like another country. People here are very friendly but not as intrusive as in other places. The town centre is charming.

The Church in the background is being restored as are many other things because in August the city is celebrating it's 500th birthday.

Our "Casa".

An unfinished project.

Town hall I think.

And this was the children's playground before it was destroyed by a hurricane. Much of the town was damaged and has as yet not been rebuilt. Despite it's desolate appearance Baracoa was my favourite place in Cuba. The first night we went to see a concert by the famous Reggae-ton artist Chocolate (pronounced Choco-latte). For some reason after one of the greatest live shows I have ever seen, comparable with screaming Jay Hawkins decades ago, the Band came out of the Club and I found myself in a photo op with the band. I hesitate to publish it but...

I did take some Videos but they turned out unusable. One disappointment was the beach. It looks very nice and has fantastic development potential but we were told not to go swimming because the water was filthy.

We had to drive about 15km out of town but it was worth it. Next to the road we saw a lot of these strange looking plants.

Finally we made it to a beach which at first sight looked deserted

but as soon as we pulled up locals started appearing out of the trees and offered us fresh Coconuts, Pineapples and Banana's. One young lad scurried up a tree and cut come coconuts for us as we watched.

The water was also very inviting.

After a swim and a fruit feast for next to nothing we went back to town and I went to the Barber shop because I was unable to find any disposable razors.

A haircut, shave and face massage costs 5 peso (24peso=1$US). Leaving a whole dollar will leave your Barber smiling. A fellow on the street insisted I photograph his head.

Next I felt like some Chess and headed over to the local club where I played some blitz. My first opponent asked me if I knew how to use the clock but very soon they found out that they were not dealing with just another tourist :-). Some of the youngsters were quite talented and one nearly got a draw. I can now say I played in Baracoa and won every single game. hehe. Anyway, to sum up, Baracoa is a place I could very easily hang around in for weeks, maybe months. It is a very relaxed place and I can imagine spending evenings blitzing and mornings on the beach. I do hope they organize a tournament here one day and if not I'll just have to come for a vacation. Two days was definitely not enough but we had a plane to catch and some other things to see before that.

The wild east featuring Moa

2011-06-15T05:55:00.000-07:00

Baracoa is usually reached via Santiago but we noticed on the map that there was another road via Moa. No tourist services take that route and that is mainly because the road is quite bad. The bright side is that we were off the beaten tourist track and got to see places few tourists see. The downside was that the going was slow and parts of the road were just potholes. Luckily we had a hire-car :-)

We were now away from the developed part of Cuba. For hours at a time we saw no other car, only horses, bicycles, trucks and pedestrians.

Still, even out here amongst the straw huts and jungle there were billboards proclaiming the glory of the revolution. Finally we reached Moa. Our tourist guide did not even mention the existence of this quite large town.

We were greeted by

one of the Heroes of the revolution. For a biography in Spanish you can google him. Since we had plenty of time up our sleeve we decided to check out the town. Near the Harbour we found another monument to Cuba's struggle against imperialism.

and since I am not getting the translations right I will leave it to you

Moa and the east in general has had a revolutionary spirit since Columbus's time. It was in this area that the famous Chieftain Hatuey led the indigenous uprising and was executed in 1512. He is now honoured by a great beer that bears his name. We had one immediately after taking these pictures in this bar.

From here we had a good view over the whole bay and enjoyed some fresh fish and local Hatuey beer. It is rather hard to come by because most hotels prefer to sell tourists the more expensive and bland Crystal or Bucanero.

The bay.

Main street. Hey look, another Car!

Like every town in Cuba there is a central park. Nice sculpture in this one. There was actually not so much to see in Moa but it had a nice vibe about it and the people were very friendly. Given more time I would like to spend a few days here assuming there is somewhere to stay. We did not see any hotels but didn't look.

It was time to hit the road again if we wanted to reach Baracoa before dark. By now avoiding driving at night had become a priority. Just outside town was an industrial area. I think Nickel is mined here. There were signs forbidding photo's and after my Havana experience I was taking these notices a bit more seriously. Our next short stop was the tiny village of Navas.

and if you are going to be buried anywhere

at least here people will enjoy visiting you.

The road although unpaved was not so bad in parts. Do drive slowly though because huge potholes appear out of nowhere.

Here we were really in the "Campo"

If you knew what I was thinking.....

Our last photo-stop before Baracoa and I was sorely tempted to go for a swim but didn't know exactly how much further it was to Baracoa, and like I said, wanted to avoid driving in the dark. Besides, Baracoa was right on the sea, surely I could just go for a swim there. Yeah right.

Let me show you Kuala Lumpur.

2011-06-12T23:32:00.000-07:00

Don't worry, my Cuba series is not over, I am just interrupting it for an important announcement.

KL Open 2011 (click for info)

Kuala Lumpur is one of my favourite cities mainly because of the food. If there is a better city to eat then I have not been there yet. The organizer Peter Long is a friend from our Junior days, and besides organizing great tournaments he is also an excellent host. Besides playing in the open last year which I reported on here, many times I have dropped in on the way to Australia just to hang around a few days with Peter and let him show me the best laces to eat.

Well this year Peter, at my request has offered to put together an exclusive

Doubleroo package!

Fly in on the third of September and we will pick you up from the Airport, take you to the Swiss
Garden Hotel where the tournament is being played, then dinner at the famous night markets. On the fourth we will explore KL in air-conditioned comfort. It is good to have a day to recover before the tournament. On the days without afternoon rounds we will do some light sightseeing for those up for it culminating of course with dinner at one of our favourite eating establishments. Then on the 11th we take you to the airport again.

The cost of this package including hotel 8nights (twin share) is RM 2400 or US$800 or Euro550.
Hedonists only :-)

If you have any questions please email me or Peter, or leave a comment below.

The Cuba roadtrip continues next...hasta pronto :-)

Guardalavaca and Chorro de Maita

2011-06-11T22:13:00.000-07:00

This day we managed to leave the hotel quite early as we had gotten a good nights sleep. Without a tourist guide we headed to Holguin's best known tourist destination Guardalavaca (watch the cow). The road is great and it is only about half an hours drive away. One of the reasons for going was that I was having wi-fi withdrawals and wanted to publish a post. We were told that one of the resort hotels had wi-fi. It did but only for residents and since the rooms started at about 300 CUC (300$US) a night we gave it a miss. On the other hand the internet was only 5 CUC for 24 hours. Hmmmmmm, sorry, you had to miss out. The beach however.....well look for yourself.

Lots of shade

Sailing

Beach-bars with food, drinks and music

a first-aid tree

carob?

a little creek

and a "special effects" picture for you. Got lucky :-)

a view from the point. I could go on but you get the picture. We spent quite a few hours in a cafe, very cheap by western standards but I had to go to the Museum at Chorro de Maita because it shuts at 5pm. Thomas preferred to stay at the beach. This are is very rich in Archaeological sites and a mere 5 minutes drive away is one of the most interesting ones I have ever seen.

For German speakers I found an interesting link about the museum but the rest of you will have to find one yourself or content yourself with my synopsis. The excavations here started in 1986 and unearthed 108 skeletons of which 56 are on display in the museum in their original state. They belong to the original inhabitants of the island and date from about 1000AD to about 1700AD. One skeleton is of a European, perhaps a missionary.

Apart from the skeletons they also found lots of tools, pottery and other everyday items of the Taino people.

the excavations

tools

kitchenware

and gold statuettes. The staff were extremely friendly, spoke English when my Spanish did not suffice and stayed long after closing time. They were a bit lonely as I was the only tourist in sight. The thousands of others could not be bothered it seems. Sad. Across the road from the museum was a recreated Taino Village which was closed by the time I left the museum but the caretaker beckoned me in as he was also bored. Nobody all day.

the entrance to the village

recreation of village life

planting corn.

a nursery

and finally a wooden Idol. I highly recommend this excursion if you are in the area.

By now I was gone well over an hour and would have stayed longer if I had not left Thomas at the beach. I need not have worries as he was quite happy speaking with the locals when I got back. This entry is a lot longer than I had intended but there is so much to see. The day was by no means over but I have kept you long enough. More tomorrow. Bye :-)

Puerto Padre and Herradura.

2011-06-10T16:44:00.000-07:00

One of the things I find hard to understand in Cuba is why it is so hard to get down to the beach. The country is a very thin Island with coastline everywhere but compared to Australia, very little beach culture. Most of the people we met can't swim! As usual we got up later than expected and didn't hit the road till after the crack of noon :-) A girl we had met on a visit to Holguin two years ago offered to guide us to a beautiful beach called Herradura but instead of meeting us at the hotel at 11am as agreed she turned up just before 1pm. Nothing unusual. We did however assume that she knew the way. Oh well. One thing about Cuba that one needs to get used to is the lack of road signage. I did read somewhere once that in some area the signs had been taken down to make life harder for the yankee invaders and I guess they have just forgot to put them up again. Our guide, Yusmary, was good at leaning her head out of the window and asking people for directions. What if there are no people around to ask you may say? Doesn't happen. There is always someone around....everywhere.

Anyway, we missed the turnoff and ended up in Puerto Padre. A lucky mistake as this charming little town is not listed as a tourist attraction in our tourist guide but deserves to be.

The main street leading to the port

where a sailing club seems to be.

Don Quixote?

next to a windmill.

And next to the Church

Jose Marti!

So what is this? Next to the church we thought this was a grave but it bears the inscription of Jose Marti... but this Cuban hero (well worth clicking the link) is supposed to be buried in Santiago de Cuba. We remain confused. The beach beckoned more than historical curiosity. On our way out of town we passed a fortification.

the front

I would love to tell you what it is but since it was already late afternoon and we had already spent a few hours on this detour we left.

This time we found the turnoff and got to a nice bay with a small beach and no other tourists except a Cuban-American visiting his family. He had not seen them in years as only recently were family visits allowed by the US government and only once a year for 21 days I think. Since we were talking Spanglish I may have some of the details wrong but anyway, here is the beach.

and the other direction.

This town had suffered a lot of damage during the last Hurricane so there was not a lot of infrastructure.

Like everywhere else we were offered Lobster but a word of warning. They are often not fresh. On the right was a plate of Banana, not potato chips. Delicious.

And our guide Yusmary enjoying her food. Were were not dining in a restaurant but rather a private house.

as you see the accommodations are quite modest. By the time we had finished Dinner, which turned out to be more than agreed upon (not much) we drove back to Hoguin.

But not before spotting another Rainbow :-)

Road to Holguin.

2011-06-09T16:43:00.000-07:00

After some lazy days in Santa Clara we picked up the car several hours later than planned. Getting an early start in Cuba is not easy. Everything takes longer than expected and our late music+beer evenings didn't help. Instead of getting away at 9am we cruised out of town at 1pm. Despite this we soon saw a good omen for our adventure.

Not just a rainbow but a double rainbow if you look closely. Already in the first hour I was convinced that a car is the best way to see Cuba. The countryside is magical.

and then the Sun came out and shone on our Gilly, the most popular hire car in Cuba.

I know, two picture of the same rainbow but we really felt inspired by it. Although the road was good and there was no traffic to speak of we made slow progress and did not take many photo's along the way. We passed many little towns like Florida (!)

and Sibenicu

but we took them on the way back so putting them in here is cheating a bit.but it is the same stretch of road.

Although we got a good idea of normal life along the way the more picturesque areas were still ahead of us.

One thing I wanted to avoid was driving at night but exactly this was necessary to reach Holguin. In retrospect it would have been better to spend the night in Las Tunas and continue the next morning. Warning lights on bike's, break-lights and street lights are almost non-existent. Also people just wander along the roads as if they had no care in the world or worse, if they notice you jump in front of you to display whatever it is they want to sell you. Tractors, horse-drawn carts and assorted animals became more frequent the more east we got. Driving in Cuba at night is dangerous, not so much for you but for everything else on the road.

Anyway, at about 9pm we made it to the Hotel Pernik in Holguin. Why a Hotel and not a Casa Particular? Now the downside of having a hire-car. It comes with full insurance coverage EXCEPT for tires and car-radio (remember this for future post). Therefore you need secure parking at night.

Yes, a boring post but it was a boring day picture-wise at least. Tomorrow I will present to you the beaches near Holguin with many great pics. Stay tuned amigoes :-)

Hasta Siempre Comandante

2011-06-08T15:26:00.000-07:00

Santa Clara is the city of Che. It is here that the decisive battle of the revolution was fought. Batista sent a lot of reinforcements to this strategically important city which is less than 300km from Havana. Troops came in an armoured train which the rebels overcame by first cutting the tracks with a Caterpillar which now is an exhibit at the Tren Blindado outdoor museum.

The train itself houses captured arms and other items such as uniforms.

In another carriage photo's from the time are hung.

And in another information about the train and the battle.

Bullet-holes are visible on the outside of the carriages and they are tastefully laid out in a nice park.

The museum is definitely a must-see attraction of Santa Clara.

After stopping the train they threw Molotov cocktails on to it and forced the soldiers to surrender.

The next day we went to the Che Guevara mausoleum

where his remains and those of his compatriots who were murdered in Bolivia are held along with personal items, documents and picture. Unfortunately pictures are not permitted to be taken inside the mausoleum.

His chess set which he used to pass the time in the Sierra Maistra was amongst the exhibits as was at least one photo of Che playing chess.

On our third day in Santa Clara we went to the Loma del Capiro, another landmark and also of important historical significance to the revolution. Click on the link for the story. On the way we passed another statue of Che carrying a child

not to mention quite a few posters expressing Cuban patriotism.

I will risk translation again. If I get it wrong please don't hesitate to correct me.

"This country you cannot occupy...EVER!"

Achieving progress victoriously ?

The revolution, powerful and victorious moves forward? Yes, I know what a dictionary is, thanks :-)

After a half hour walk in 30+ degree heat and high humidity we reached our goal

and were rewarded by a very nice view of the city.

We did not feel like walking back so took some local transport back to the hotel, something like this.

Evenings were spent in a Bar next to the theatre on the main square. Every night a band, Los Gimez, played traditional Cuban music while we drank the local brew, Bucanero and watched the locals dancing. One of the guitarists was 84 years young and could not remove the smile from his face.

After four days we decided to move on but travel in Cuba presents its challenges. Train travel has to be booked the day before and buses from anywhere but Havana are even harder to book. We were told just to go to the station and wait and hope for the best. Having waited for buses before in Cuba we were not so keen on that. We spotted a Car rental agency and that was surprisingly easy. After a quick calculation we decided it would not be much more expensive but significantly easier. The challenges this option would present we would become aware of later. Stay tuned for those and other stories as now our road trip started.

:-)

Plugged in to the Matrix again.

2011-06-07T11:16:00.000-07:00

Hi folks, am back in Frankfurt and a fast reliable internet connection. Once again I can open my mail, chat on several different platforms (gmail, facebook and skype), catch up on the news, watch streaming south park episodes, check chess sites for the news etc. I fear I may not leave the computer for several days :-)

It seems like a lifetime ago when I left Havana and the expensive and slow wi-fi at the Cohiba hotel. All did not go as planned. The tournament in Santa Clara did take place but without us. The day after the tournament we went to the lobby at 10am to wait for our bus. That it was not on time was no big surprise but at around noon we got a bit impatient and asked what was happening. It will be here at 1pm at the latest. It did finally arrive so we went over to it and.....waited.

After another hour of waiting we saw several players jump into a private taxi and asked what was going on. Well it seems there was a mix up. This bus which was some sport transport had other people to take to Santa Clara or somewhere and the driver didn't want to take anyone who was not a participant in the tournament which had not been finalized yet. Of course no list could be shown nor could any documents be produced. I have no idea how it ended because at about 2pm after 5 hours of pointless waiting we left and took a taxi like some other players. You will never guess where our next stop was. Really, NEVER.

No way I was gonna miss this mate :-)

What exactly is this? Well I did ask but got no clear answer. It seemed like any other Cuban village except for a Chimney with Australia written on it. Apparently there are other Chimneys with the names of other Countries written on them.

Not much happening in town. Then we hit the road to Santa Clara again. Traffic on Cuba's only Autobahn was not a problem.

The 270 km took us about 3 hours including the short stop in OZ. Apart from the lack of traffic you can see the gathering storm which we soon drove through.

We arrived at the Parque Vidal in the centre at the same time as the players, organizers and arbiters and again it seemed that everything was back on track. One of the planned foreign players had decided not to come so we were told the tournament was no longer going to be international and were asked if we wanted to play anyway. No problemo.

One of the local players told us he knew of a nice "Casa particular" just around the corner from the Hotel Santa Clara Libre , Casa Mercy, and we did like it and decided to stay there. This information was however not passed from one organizer to the other so when the uninformed one came to look for us at the Hotel and couldn't find us he assumed we had left and didn't want to play. In the end instead of a 15 player, 14 round tournament or a 13 player, 11 round event, they put together a 8 player 14 round double round robin with only Cuban players.

Anyway, if all had gone according to plan we would have spent all our time in Santa Clara and could not have undertaken the road-trip which I will report on for you over the next few days.

Hasta manjana amigoes :-)

Adios Havana Bienvenidos Santa Clara

2011-05-21T22:03:00.000-07:00

Well folks, the tournament is over and I had a hair-raising encounter with a Spanish GM. Whereas quick draws were being agreed all around , neither my opponent or I felt like a quiet day. No draws were offered although a repetition claim by me was being discussed for so long that I just offered to keep playing as the position was totally drawn and after a few more moves my opponent also called it a day. My scoresheet was confiscated again but anyway there is no point in boring you with the last 30 or 40 moves. There were many repetitions so impossible to remember. Here tis.

Our game was one of the last to finish at 8pm. Then it was time for Dinner and then I got interviewed by Cuban TV! They have a four hour chess program once a week. Then came the prize-giving ceremony where to my surprise Ivanchuk was pronounced the winner! This miracle man was struggling on 50% last time I checked and Le Quang Liem was on +4. Vassily turned on a spurt in the second phase and beat Le in the last round today while I was busy trying to keep my disastrous position together. Congrats to both.

After the prize-giving I asked about a rumoured tournament in Santa Clara and was told that yes there is one but they can not offer any conditions so they assumed I didn't want to play. I informed them that naturally I would love to play and the next hour a few more players were approached and now it seems that an extremely strong round robin will start on Monday! Yippee :-)

I love Santa Clara having visited Che's city in 2001 but I doubt very much that there will be wi-fi there so this is probably my last entry for a few weeks but Cuba has surprised me before. If it is the case I wish you all a good time and hope you don't miss me too much :-)

Round 9 and a few more pictures

2011-05-20T20:03:00.000-07:00

Today I was a bit lazy I must admit. I did spend more than two hours preparing for my game but was naturally surprised in the opening. not nowing my way around I played a novelty early on, at least according to my database, and equalized easily. My opponent offered a draw on move 11 and I took it although I suspect black already has a microscopic advantage but 100 elo points more. Since the game is not really worth looking at I am going to show you some photo's of Paseo de Havana.

Some guy on a Horse :-) These immortal words were spoken by my Portugese mate Luis Gallego when I asked him about a similar statue in his home town of Porto.

The middle of the Paseo. As you can see the trees are in Bloom. Is there a Botanist out there who can tell me what they are?

A wonderfully restored Colonial house.

A house yet to be fully restored :-) See the tree on the first floor? Wait, here's a closer look

Nice no?

And finally a nice old Car

That's all for today folks, tomorrow is the last round at the civilized time of 3pm.

Revolution square and Round 8

2011-05-19T20:02:00.000-07:00

Plaza de Revolution

Today I had an encounter with internal security. I was bored with hanging around at the Hotel and felt I should show you some more of Havana so I took a walk to Revolution square. The walk from the Riviera is a good half hour along the tree-lined Paseo de Havana. Along the way you won't see any advertising billboards as they are banned in Cuba which I really don't mind. You do however get lots of Inspiring Slogans like these.

Socialism, today, tomorrow, forever.

Together with Fidel and Raul. Revolution.

52 years of light and victory.

Once there I took some pictures of the buildings. As I was to find out later, this building is the foreign ministry. Since there were Soldiers outside I thought it wise to ask if it was permitted to take photo's and was told “no problemo” by the patrolling Soldier.

This is the right part of the ministry which you may photograph. The left side had a huge Cuban flag that made a great photo but is forbidden apparently.

In the middle of the square is a Statue of Jose Marti in front of a Museum and 109 metre high Tower. For 3 CUC you can ride to the top and get a great view of Havana. I would have gladly paid double if they would only clean the windows but it was great anyway.

Jose Marti, a famous Cuban revolutionary around the turn of the century.

and here a picture of the ministry from the tower. I was allowed to keep this one because it was from far enough away. Weird.

By now I was drenched in sweat (better not to go out in the mid-day sun) so I headed back to the Hotel. Just short of the Hotel a man in civilian clothing stopped me . Very politely he told me that I had been seen photographing the foreign ministry and this is a crime that can get you expelled from the country and/or attract a fine. Having experienced several hustling attempts here I asked to see his identification again. He produced a very unofficial looking piece of paper that definitely did not look like any kind of security ID I but offered to show him my pictures and delete any he found unacceptable. He did identify one and I duly deleted it. We then shook hands and parted ways but I am still not 100% sure that I was dealing with a real agent of the Interior ministry.

Why is taking a photo of a building on Revolution square illegal?

Why did he wait so long to approach me and why alone?

The ID looked very suspicious.

On the other hand

If he wanted a “fine” he was not very persistent

I imagine impersonating security forces is very dangerous.

In all probability he was who he said he was in which case Cuban Security forces are very polite.

I got back at 1pm, had lunch and did a bit of preparation. This went very well and I got a winning position straight from the opening, won a piece but still had to play many moves. Instead of trying to mate my young opponent I just swapped everything expecting resignation. Instead I had to play another 50 pointless moves. I only entered the first 20. The rest were just a waste of Ink and paper.

Hasta Manjana Amigoes

ps: My Buddy Klaus de Francesco made an IM norm with a round to spare today. I'm sure you'll all join me in congratulating him on a great, well deserved result.

Capa Round 7

2011-05-18T18:55:00.000-07:00

I didn't get out today so I only have a game for you. I was playing a Nicaraguan IM today and we had a bit of a wild game in which I got a nice advantage out of the opening but then got greedy, grabbed an exchange and then nearly got myself mated. So a draw was a fair result.

I guess I cant let you non-chessplayers suffer without a pic or two can I. Here are two more from the
Gaudi-like Gardens

There were these charming little walkways everywhere, a bit squeezy though :-)

And a stone hut with stone tables and chairs.

I just found out why my pictures have been taking ages to load and it is not the fault of the connection but the @#$%^& Bill Gates and his @#$%^& automatic updates cleverly hidden under hidden icons. Since this is a family blog I will not write what I suggest he does with them.

Have a nice day all.....except Bill.

Capa Mem Round 6

2011-05-17T23:36:00.000-07:00

Well folks, it's 2am and I should really be counting sheep but I just had to show you today's game. I have just come back from a comedy club, the Cocodrilo which is just around the corner where I and a lovely English Lady listened to Cuban humour. Rosanna was a Spanish teacher and I can speak a bit but both of us found it hard to follow the funny young man who spoke very quickly in a fairly strong Cuban accent. I understood 2 of the dozens of jokes but it was funny anyway.

Now to my game. My opponent was WGM Vigoa Apecheche, a very talented and very attractive young lady, one of the top 10 women in Cuba. She neglected two of the principle rules of chess, development and rapid castling and consequently got into trouble early but then defended quite tenaciously. After getting a completely dominating position I faffed around a bit but finally put her away with a positional queen sac.

AFter the game I requested to keep my score-sheet for 15 minutes so I can enter my game and the arbiter kindly agreed. Now on +1 everything looks brighter. Finally I want to show you two pictures that I wanted to post yesterday but could not due to the lethargy of the connection.

Anybody know what this is?

No mistaking this beauty.

That's all for today folks, time to get some sleep as I have to be up before 10am or go without breakfast.

Hasta Manjana.

Vedado

2011-05-16T21:13:00.000-07:00

Today was a rest day, one of the great things about chess in Cuba. Whereas in the west we have moved to double rounds which neccessarily include the almost universally hated morning rounds here in Cuba the games start at the civilized time of 3pm, one round a day and a rest day. Only in Holland, for example Leiden, do you still see the same respect for the royal Game. Today I took a walk around our neighbourhood in Vedado and this is what I saw.

The ground floor has one of the many 24 hour bakeries I have seen in Cuba

A beautiful Fortification next to the Colonial Club 1830 housing a cafe and restaurant

The mouth of the River

A fisherman throwing his line in the water

Some kind of Temple?

The Colonial Club or 1800 as it's known locally (despite the 1830 sign) has great music on Thursdays and Sundays.

Inside you have a rock garden made of sea fossils that reminds me of the Gaudi garden in Pobla de Lillet in Catalunya, Spain

a closer view

and a stairway to heaven.

and a final one from the top. I did want to show you a few more but these took nearly 2 hours to upload. The wi-fi here at the Cohiba Melia hotel is usually quite good but today is extraordinarily slow.

That's all folks, wish me luck for tomorrow, I am playing my fourth female competitor, a Cuban WGM so I'll need all the luck I can get :-)