Happy New Year

The club will be open on Wednesday 30th December and again on Saturday 2nd January. However, please be aware that turnout on Saturday 2nd will be greatly reduced because many of us will be playing in the Weekend part of the International Chess Congress in Hastings.

win will it happen?

Continuing my series of crushing defeats, here is my latest: my game against Dona Strauss of yesterday evening. I improve but so does everyone else! Will I ever win again?

Message from Sharon about Neil and Flick

Dear all

I have just had this message passed by Mum to send to you all…………

"Neil and Flick are not sending cards or presents this year, instead they are donating to the Southern Spinal Injuries Trust (www.ssit.org.uk) who support the Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre where Neil is being cared for.

We want to thank any of you who have sent us cards and we appreciate how hard it is to find appropriate words. We have kept them all but have no where to display them so please don't feel obliged to send them, although they bring great comfort.

Flick will be staying at the hospital over the Christmas period, joined by family members.
We want to wish you all a Happy Christmas and a healthy New Year.
Thank you all for all your kind wishes"
Much love Flick and Neil xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Neil is making slow but steady progress. He can now sit all day in his chair and is allowed chewable food. He is on the second stage of being weaned off the assisted breathing-which he is desperate to complete so he can have the trachy tube removed. He has physio every day on his hands to enable him to be able to use an electric wheelchair in the future.

Mum is very tired and feeling the strain of the past 4 months, but we are doing our utmost to get her to come home on a weekly basis so we can feed her and look after her. Neil always has Mum or a member of the family with him each day.

On behalf of Mum and Neil we thank you all for your support and kind wishes. If anyone wants to visit Neil please do as visitors really do lift his spirits and give him stimulation from the daily routine. Please feel free to contact me on 01293 862039 or 07775 655039 if you want any updates.

Much love and have a happy Christmas

Sharon xxxx

Why don't you play them simultaneously Duncan? I believe your new doctrine is to create two weaknesses, this might make it easier ;-)

If Dona Strauss resigns quickly, I could play you Simon. (Played two match games on Saturday afternoon.)

Denman Cup Match

Unfortunately for me, Nathan Gregg has collapsed with fear at the prospect of taking on my chess playing might. He claims to be ill, and even has a note from his mum.

As such there I will be at the club tonight (Weds 16th) from about 6:30pm, if anyone in the Denman Cup wants to play then please let me know and I will play our match game tonight.

Cheers

Simon Hayward

Visit to Salisbury Hospital to see Neil

Geoff, Dona, Duncan Badham and I went to see Neil in the Spinal Unit of the Salisbury District Hospital last Sunday 6th Dec.. He beat Dona over the board but without the ventilator speech was difficult. (He is learning to manage without it during the day.) Kevin gave us an electronic board to take which hopefully some one at the hospital may be able to set up for him. I think he really enjoyed the opportunity to play as no one there plays, although he said some one wanted to be taught! I showed him the simul video on my laptop and hope that some one else might be able to help him access the rest of our website for news and videos. I also showed the correspondence blog to Flick, who is spending nearly all her time with Neil at the hospital. I hope this may be something he can use in time. He is able to sit in a chair but has very limited arm movement. Flick was very pleased that we had made the journey, as I'm sure Neil was too. I think anyone who can go and give him some company and a game will be very much appreciated - take a set with you. The journey takes about two hours and the hospital is large, pleasant and outside the town to the south. Hopefully continued treatment will bring about some further improvement but it is sadly a long and painful road.

Match on Wed. 16th?

Jack Icaza is very keen to play an Eric Cohen or Plummer Knight match on Wednesday. Please contact him if you would like to play on 07722 321 089. He may not be around all year but would like to play all his matches if he can. Thanks.

Duncan Roy v Paul Selby (Challenge Shield match)

Continuing my theme of cathartic release from lost games, here is the game I played against Paul Selby at the club on Saturday. Played two match games on Saturday afternoon (Is this a club record?). Andrew Shoulders softened me up and then Paul Selby beat me up (on the chess board, of course. I'd be grateful for suggestions as to where I could have played better moves, except the bit where I blundered into a Knight fork checking my King and attacking my Queen at the same time. Even I can work out that! What a pleasure it is to get beaten by Paul Selby - what a charming fellow!

Index of Openings

I've added the index of openings to Brian Denman's book on the history of chess in Brighton, republished on our club's website. Please use the historical tab on our website's menu to navigate to the book. The index links to all the games it mentions and is an excellent way to read through the book, since the vast majority of the 270 games in the book have a link themselves to an graphical game viewer.

I haven't forgotten about the three games which don't work properly on the game viewer or the formatting errors from Chapter 10 onwards; the index of openings was a project of its own.

What a brilliant and thorough account of yesterday, Kevin, fantastic - I almost feel I was there myself!
(Oh, hang on, I was. Very late night Tuesday.)

Live games and chat happening here.

London Chess Classic

I met with Sue and went to the London Chess Classic at Olympia yesterday. Outside of playing at Hastings last year this is the first major chess event I have attended and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

We went straight to the main auditorium to see the introductions live, and watched the players start the game. The auditorium is not large and was not too crowded so we were quite close. After a while we went out to get refreshments and found seats in the GM commentary room. Here we were entertained by GM Stephen Gordon and IM Lawrence Trent as they discussed the games and explored possible lines. I was suprised at the level of interest I mantained, though I was unable to match the intensity of our dear president. Such was the level of her concentration that she remained silent, eye's shut, for long periods of time, no doubt exploring side variations which I could only dimly conceive.

(One thing I did forget was a camera, I attempted a few shots with my naff phone camera, this is the best of a bad bunch).

The commentary was very entertaining, Sue described the presenters as the 'Ant and Dec' of chess, which I think was a compliment to the obvious chemistry between the two presenters rather than a suggestion that the content was banal ;-) In fact Stephen Gordon and Lawrence Trent managed to keep us very entertained, happily interacting with the audience for a good 3-4 hours before they took their first break. To one side of the room there was a large screen displaying all the board positions and moves, behind them was a big projected image of the position under discussion, to the other side was another large screen displaying a video camera feed of Carlsen-McShane. One of the funniest moments of the day came when Stephen and Lawrence were asked how they thought McShane was doing against Carlsen; IM Trent turned round to look at the screen at the very moment that McShane was hunched over the board in concentration whilst Carlsen appeared to be stretching and yawning. Mr. Trent made a comment to the effect that this pretty much summed the game up, perhaps a bit harsh on McShane but funny none-the-less. There were a few technical glitches with laptop re-boots required as the commentary was being broadcast via Playchess.com and the network side was clearly having problems (from personal experience on the technical side Chessbase are trying to catch up on the ICC market but I feel they haven't quite got the hang of it yet) but these interruptions were few and minimal.

As the presenters took a break, we too took the opportunity for another cup of tea - English Breakfast don't you know - and then went back to the main auditorium to watch the games pass the first time control. There was not much excitement here, Adams was low on time but in control against Nakamura, and McShane was under a bit of pressure against Carlsen.

Back to the commentary room for us. Most of the games had panned out to be less than exciting; Hua was probably losing to Kramnik (Kramnik won), Nakamura salvaged a draw against Adams and Short-Howell quickly fizzled out to a draw. Excitement was raised by Carlsen-McShane, the commentary team had not view the game for some time, but on the big screen to the side we could see that Carlsen had what looked like a mating attack. The team switched to this game and spent some time trying to figure out what was going on. With the help of some excellent suggestions from the floor, they did a great job of spotting the tactics and we watched with bated breathe as the moves unfurled. It transpired that no mating combination was to be found, but by the time McShane had manfully dragged himself to the time control with 2 seconds to spare it was all over and he resigned quickly afterwards.

John Nunn dropped in to offer a few amused comments at one point, and as the games finished we were joined by Malcolm Pein (IM and tournament organiser), Malcolm introduced the players that generously came in to be interviewed for us (and Chessbase). Short and Howell arrived having drawn, and discussed the fact that as Short had acted as second for Howell recently in South America they knew each other very well. 'Nige' with a glass of red wine already in hand was very entertaining, at one point when mentioning an unusual move order in his opening (Scotch) he stopped short and stated that he wouldn't tell us the reason for this line after all as he realised his comments were being broadcast to the internet!

'Big Vlad' arrived and rattled through variations in a most impressive manner, I think the Russian accent really helps, somehow to the western ear it lends a 'clinical' air to the dialogue. Kramnik did not stay long as he was suffering from a cold, but at points he displayed a great sense of humour and I certainly warmed to him (I have found some of the comments on his web site a bit egotistical in the past).

When Carlsen arrived a hushed silence fell, it's weird but I think everyone was conscious that they were in the prescence of a potentially great champion and this may have left the audience a little intimidated. McShane arrived a few minutes later (he seemed a very happy chap) but the players lapsed into a muttered analysis of the game amongst themselves which to be honest got a bit boring from a spectator's point of view. Still, it's churlish to complain, both players are young and not as comfortable entertaining the crowd as the 'old hands' (Howell was also quiet), they'd just finished a tough game and were clearly interested in the position. Overall a great finish, and hey, I got to see Nigel Short waxing lyrical; a former world champ; and a probable future world champ, all for the price of a tenner (with a copy of Chess magazine thrown in gratis). Best tenner I've spent in ages!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Charles Holcombe!

Charles Holcombe celebrates his Birthday in France today, avoiding the inevitable praise and congratulations at the club with typical modesty. A keen letter writer to the local and national press, Charles is known for his particular brand of postcard witticisms, his lust for life and for singing in the face of adversity. The club seems all the quieter without you Charles! Hope you're enjoying your Birthday...

URGENT request from Michael Cain

Hi chess teams,

Urgent Request

I need some help, I am one man down for this Wednesdays game (9th Dec 2010) against Uckfield 1 at HOME. Thats me by the way, as staying up in Derby to Look after my mum.

So far I have the following people committed for the THIRD TEAM MATCH.Board 1 DonaBoard 2 FelixBoard 3 BrianBoard 4 Arthur

if you anyone who can play for the third team this wednesday then please give me a ring.

Michael Cain's Mobile :- Tel 07976 739911

Many Thanks Michael

Celebrity

Ooops, I forgot to include the link.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00p7mvy/Adam_and_Joe_05_12_2009/

The relevant section begins at about 1:03:20

Nathan Gregg: A man of acheivement

Listen to the first national airplay for Nathan Gregg's compilation of "found sounds".

I think you will be very proud of him, as I am.

How to blunder into mate

I showed Jack Icaza exactly why it was worth his while to hang on to a lost game, by blundering away a massive advantage. Obviously, I've been kicking myself about this and promising myself to learn what I felt was the key lesson - always eat dinner before playing match games in the evening. Why do I keep posting my losing games online? Catharsis, that's why.

For some reason the link above will not operate if you are viewing the blog from inside the website; if you want to see the game, you'll need to put http://brightonchess.blogspot.com into the address bar of your browser.

Geoff makes off with silverware

(Well done Geoff!)
And thanks Duncan for juggling with cameras and website even while playing chess.

Master Class in Bad Photography

Here's how not to take a good photograph:

1. Borrow a professional camera without knowing how to work it
2. Use the wrong setting
3. Photograph subject under fluorescent lighting
4. Take photograph whilst in a match game

Apologies to Geoff James but I've put the photo of him with the British Seniors Championship Cup on our news & events page and here it is again.