Chess Train 2015 — day five: arrival in Prague
Five days in Czech Republic passed in less than no time. Although in the meantime I visited some interesting places and even had an occasion to participate in chess tournament in Prague (about which I’ll be sure to post here), I must admit I was already impatiently waiting for the arrival of the Train and on Tuesday, October 13, showed up at the railway station long before the planned hour. When the Train finally arrived and players began to pile off from the carriages, I immediately found myself a subject of funny misunderstandings:
‘Adam, here you are! I was talking with Karel about whether you traveled this year, and so it turns out that you did’.
‘Well, actually I didn’t...’
or:
‘That’s Adam. He could not travel this year, but he spends his holidays in Prague’.
‘If he spends his holidays here how come he could not travel?’
...and so on. Then we went to the presidential salon and the prize giving ceremony began.
GM Vlastimil Hort and Mr. Antonín Blažek, head of the Railway Research Institute (Výzkumný Ústav Železniční) were among the first to arrive at the station
This year’s choice of prizes
GM Hort along with Pavel Matocha
The winner, GM Lars Karlsson from Sweden (10 out of 11), is awarded the glass trophy by Mr. Jiří Ješeta, director of ČD’s Department of Long-Distance and International Transport
Continuity is an important thing: the old GM (Vlastimil Hort) dresses the young one (Julio Catalino Sadorra from Philippines who finished second with 9.5 points) in a Chess Train jacket
Sven Roemling from Germany, clearly satisfied with his performance (he finished fifth with 8 points)
Seventh place: Slovak GM Ján Plachetka (7.5 points)
The best woman with her most beautiful smile: WIM Martina Kořenová from Czech Republic (6.5 points)
GM Hort giving a speech
Chess knows no age barriers: the oldest participant of the Train, Marianne Hartlaub (89),...
...and the youngest one, Jakub Kůsa (10)
The Train veteran squad — these gentlemen participated in all editions. L to R: Josef Bára, Pavel Popelka and Dr. Günter Hälsig with their prizes. A moment later Mr. Popelka exclaimed merrily “Hey, my wine is from the Popela winery!”
Dr. Hälsig, in turn, showed much emotion in his speech
GM Julio Catalino Sadorra with his wife
Taťána Šeráková chatting with Pavel Popelka
The Train arriving from Vienna
The fifth edition of the Chess Train took place between 9 and 13 October 2015 on the following route: Prague – Dresden – Wrocław – Bratislava – Vienna – Prague. 120 players from 19 countries participated, among them 4 GMs, 3 WIMs, 3 FMs and one WFM. Top seed was GM Julio Catalino Sadorra from Philippines (FIDE 2501). Full results can be found here.
Hopefully to be continued this year.
