Commonwealth chess - closing thoughts...

The conclusion of chess tournaments always brings a heady cocktail of emotions into the mind of the happy or depending how the round went, unhappy amateur. 11 round tournaments are particularly nasty to those of us whose competitive chess consists of the odd league game, and bouts of 3 minutes blitz whilst a drunk in the nearby corner tries to understand the names of the pieces. The physical exhaustion, the 8 straight days of constant emotional and mental strain, and that was just trying to deal with the joys of Australians. Add in some heavy chess games and you are absolutely broken. The last time this 30 year-old played this sort of schedule, was as an 18 year-old at Nationals, and whilst the mind is willing, the body is tired. Couple this with the flu at the end, and you have excuses worthy of David Haye.

The funniest and most predictable thing about the conclusion of chess tournaments was immediately seen upon conclusion of the tournament. You are broken, tired, and have no urge to see a chess board. Yet, if MER had a dollar for every time after a major tournament a friend had come up to him, normally on about 5/11 saying "This time next year, its a 2000 rating for me", then he would have about $16. Its amazing, the hope is there, you start thinking about perhaps you need to change your openings, maybe lets embrace some dodgy gambit. Or perhaps you have been spending too much time with GM's, and you decide to work on endgames. Either way, the hope is there. Its fleeting, unlikely and almost inevitable you won't get there, but you soldier on anyway. Its the great joy of chess.

The last few frenetic days of the tournament continued as they had begun, a whirlwind craze of nights spent drinking with GM's, the undoubted highlight being the absolute demolition of the Bird defence. Short of strapping a hydrogen bomb to a sparrow, there can be no better response shattering of the Bird than watching a 2520 GM demolish it with 1f4 g5, whilst having less than 40seconds on the clock against a solid 1800. For the non-chess players among you, its the equivalent of demonstrating golf supremacy by electing to use only one hand. Unbelievable. MER even had a blitz shot at the GM, but suffered severe stage fright and was horribly pummelled.

The tournament concluded with an exciting climax as Gawain Jones monstered his opponent, and Nigel Short beat Pablo Lafuente. With scores locked, the winner would be determined by an arcane system of tie-breaks that would require several advanced degree in mathematics and a large supply of cocaine to understand. As a result of Dave Smerdon pulling a swindle on Watu Kobese and winning a game that looked as tenable as a drunks self built tree-house, Gawain was declared the winner.

Its a couple of days later now, and MER didn't attend the after-party or prize giving, primarily as a result of the flu that had kept him out of action for the past few days. Its monday night, and he is planning his next adventure, an attempt to ride the 94.7 in a respectable time. But whilst sitting with his Captain and coke, he does feel strange urge to log onto chess cube and play. Its like a scene from Fools and Horses, with the phrase being mangled to "Next time this year, I will be 2000". Well, that's the thought anyhow. As an insurance policy I decided to donate a couple of boards and sets to a local chess club that needed it. There's probably a better chance of the 2000 coming from there. Its been amazing, chilling with GM's, bouncing back and forth in games that resembled a war, and meeting all the old war horses that we haven't seen for years. Now, all we need to do is get GJ to organise it once again in two years...

All the best

MER

Final round beckons for MER

Just a brief post to keep you up to date. Since the last traumatic event where MER managed to totally blow a winning position, things have been relatively quiet at the tournament. The subsequent round saw MER manage to scrape a draw against a former junior national champion. Unfortunately MER has been down with flu for the past 3 days including that one, and will update once the final round completes today. He managed to scrape a solid win against a 1730 from CT last night, in a game more noteworthy for its grind than its glory. Going into the last round, he is on 6/10. The top is chaos, with Nic van der Nat having a brief leaderships stint.

More to follow after the game today.