Chess Train 2014 — day five: Kraków-Prague: All the good memories
To avoid the long bus journey, in the morning I take a cab to the railway station. Tomáš Bajcar, a young Czech player, joins me. When I tell him about the garden chess sets and chess tables outside the shopping mall, he seems equally surprised as I was.
In the tenth round I play white against Mr. Ove Hartzell from Sweden. To confuse my opponent, I drift early from the London system, taking the knight on b8, and then initiate exchanges, pushing to an early endgame, in hopes that my solid pawn structure and better time management would allow me to win. Unfortunately, when only two knights and 14 pawns remains on the board, I make a fatal mistake which allows my opponent to reach the key white pawn with his king. Mr. Hartzell duly seizes an opportunity, then forces the exchange of knights. The rest is a matter of technique...
After the round I chat with Ruslan and another Russian player, Oleg Maksimov (who has just drawn his game against GM Hort). Mr. Shakessi passes by; we engage for a drink and some chess after the last round.
In the eleventh round I play black against Mr. Pavel Popelka. My opponent enters the compartment with his wife, who kibitzes us during the whole game and later asks me to sign a chess book — a present for their eight-year old son, who has just begun his chess adventure. The game is practically lost right in the opening: Mr. Popelka, whose ELO is almost 600 points above mine, pushes me back to deep defensive positions, and calmly begins to collect my pawns. When he is already three pawns up, I expect the decisive blow every moment, but to my amazement white slows down and allows me to castle, then strengthen my position to such a degree that I begin to hope for a draw. The endgame RB vs. RN arises, white being still three pawns up. I relentlessly push my strong c passed pawn, protected with a knight. Suddenly white realizes that they will have to sacrifice their bishop to prevent me from promoting. Unfortunately, right afterwards Mr. Popelka forces me to exchange rooks. In a most nervous ending my knight turns out insufficient to stop three joined white pawns. I lose.
A bit dissatisfied with two lost games, I eat lunch with Tomáš Bajcar. Then, in the compartment, we analyze his game with Mr. Jiří Navrátil from the tenth round, lost on time. Then we play some blitz. Tomáš wins the first few games easily, so I turn off the clock, to give myself a chance to play some decent chess. When I play London system, Tomáš laughs heartily and says that this doesn’t look very decent either. He is however forced to change his view, when in the endgame I respond very solidly to his crushing attack with two rooks and the knight (material is equal). Facing the mating threat I don’t waste a tempo till the very end of the game: after having exchanged the knights, I calmly and precisely force the perpetual.
In the last round I play white against Ms. Šárka Husáková. My opponent resigns when I am a knight and some pawns up. During the game the deputy arbiter Václav Hrdlička presents us with nice Chess Train statuettes.
After chatting for a while with Mr. and Mrs. Shakessi, we proceed with Mr. Shakessi to the tournament car to play some chess at last. He responds dynamically to my London system. My first combination backfires — my opponent takes not the piece I intended. However, not long afterwards he carelessly ventures with his rook deep to my queenside. I surround the piece and exchange it for a bishop. Unfortunately, I then overlook the simple pin and in turn lose my own rook. We make some more moves, paying little attention to material, instead having a real good time playing. After another unsuccessful combination I lose, having four pawns against Mr. Shakessi’s bishop accompanied with two pawns. A truly friendly game. Regrettably, Mr. and Mrs. Shakessi will not attend the closing ceremony.
When after arriving to Prague we once again gather in the presidential salon and Pavel Matocha decorates winners in various categories, all the good memories come back to me: night photographic excursion in Trenčín, Holger and Volker, with whom I shared an extraordinary experience in Fatima restaurant, the lights of Budapest, the amiable Mr. Braun, witty Mr. Špaček (who, incidentally, has already started posting his Train account in his blog), Mr. Klimeš, with whom it was so good to talk, young enthusiastic Ruslan, the train manager Mr. Stanislav Šalda, who on the last day visited every compartment only to ask the players whether they enjoyed the ride, the ever smiling Eliška the hostess, Pavel Matocha, for whom, as it seems, there is nothing impossible (Czech speaking readers can read about his achievements and plans here), Mr. and Mrs. Shakessi, Tomáš Bajcar, who played so well, the cheerful photographer Anežka Kružíková (you can find her photos here), Mr. Milián, a good companion — I would really like to see them all next year. My two friends visited me during the closing ceremony; upon seeing my face, one of them exclaimed „Look how happy he is!” I was indeed, and I would like to live the experience once again.
Mr. Hossein Shakessi, with whom I played the friendliest game on board...
...and Tomáš Bajcar, against whom I played quite decent chess after all
Eliška the hostess...
...and train manager Mr. Stanislav Šalda
Marianne Hartlaub, GM Hort and WFM Hana Modrová
Mr. Jockum Wahlberg congratulated by Pavel Matocha
The tournament winner — GM Ian Rogers...
...and the winning team (50 moves)
And, of course, Jake the chess dog, patiently as ever waiting for the closing ceremony to end...
Hopefully to be continued next year.
