After the Edinburgh Congress, I was feeling pretty good about my chess in general. However, it turned out to be the last serious chess I played until September of that year! I like in general to take at least a couple of months off playing in the ...
Hi all, We return, two months on from the travesty that was BUCA 2018! See my previous blog post if you're not sure what I'm talking about - or, The process of shredding my play from that event left my ego bruised, but don't worry, it soon recove...
Hi all, Following last time's wrapping-up of the league games I played in Spring 2018, I can finally no longer put this off ... it's time to write about my experience at the British Universities Chess Association (BUCA) team tournament, February ...
Hi all, Time to move on to my games in the Lancaster and Morecambe District League from early 2018. As you'll see, I was in pretty patchy form throughout this period, and the results aren't too impressive - but they're not too bad either, if I'm ...
Hi all, Going through my games in chronological order means I have to address the rough with the smooth. So, 2018's recap begins with the Shropshire Open, a new tournament for me I decided to try in Telford. The centre of Telford is a soulless m...
Hi all, In this post, I will recap the games I played in the Lancaster, Morecambe and District league in the autumn of 2017. This year, 7 teams contested the league: Uni A and B, Lancaster A, Dragons (in effect Lancaster B), Morecambe, Kendal and...
Hi all, With OTB chess looking increasingly unlikely in the short to mid-term future, I have decided to venture back to look over my old OTB games - and thought: why not return to writing them up once more? The analysis will perhaps not be as cri...
Hi all, Played in a simul at Lancaster Library vs. GM Keith Arkell today. Actually, I didn't expect to be able to play, but arriving almost 2 hours late to spectate I was able to join in! Keith is one of the most active GMs in the UK at the mome...
Hi all, So, a slightly different post for this blog. There's no chess analysis here! Instead, I'm attempting to dive into the world of chess prediction/modelling by coming up with some predictions for the World Cup. It's going to be pretty basic ...
Hi all, It's been a long time since I wrote anything for this blog. That owes itself to a few reasons: 1) Preparation - I'm trying to ramp up my participation in strong over-the-board tournaments recently, and don't want to make it too easy for ...
Hi all, I recently participated in the Preston Chess Congress 2016, a 5 round Swiss tournament held over a weekend nearby. This was the second time I had been to this congress, the first time being 2 years ago. I travelled to the tournament with ...
Hi all, Lancaster Uni A Team just got done playing Dragons in the league. We won 4-0, as expected! This took us to a net 12-0 vs. Dragons, since we beat them 8-0 in a rapidplay last week. My game was the first to finish: We have one more match...
Hi all, The exceedingly prestigious Lancaster, Morecambe and District Chess League is back under way. The University A team (of which I now play board 1) has made a strong start to the season, with 2/2 matches won! We do have yet to face one of t...
Hi all, Long time, no post on my blog, I'm sorry to say. Summer has occurred, which has meant no chess, either in the league or at the university club. Hence, my chess ability has been steadily regressing over the past few months, due to a com...
On the weekend of the 20th/21st February, the BUCA 2016 Championships were held in Birmingham. These are the annual team championships contested by UK universities. I'm now at Lancaster, and this was the first time that the university had entered...
We played Kendal in the league last Wednesday. On paper, we had grading edges on all boards, so were looking for a victory again! My game was pretty sharp - I played the opening poorly, but got back into it with a well-timed opening of the centre...
Another league match last night. This time we faced Lancaster's A team at their chess HQ, the Reform Club in town. A change of personnel - we replaced Nikola (who couldn't make the match) with Sam. Sam's grade is actually 165 (2 points higher tha...
Just got done playing Dragons in the LANSIL Cup (an 8 team knockout tournament). This is a competition we defaulted out of last year, so it will be a nice aim to try and win this in addition to our league. The match was held in the university lib...
Friday 23rd October saw a simultaneous chess event held in Lancaster University Management School - the second to be held in Lancaster in the space of a month! IM Alexander Matros, a professor at the school, took on 18 challengers. Most of the ch...
It's a new season in the Lancaster, Morecambe and District chess league. After winning it last year, we (the University team) are aiming to make it back-to-back titles. Our first match of the season was against Morecambe Knights (Morecambe's "sec...
Today I had the chance to play in a simultaneous exhibition against veteran English grandmaster Nigel Davies. The event was held at and organised by Lancaster Library, and in total around 20 players played in the event. After the end, Nigel was go...
The last match of the season for Lancaster University in the league - this was a top of the table clash against Morecambe Knights! We had to win the match to win the league - a draw would see the Knights crowned champions on game points. My game ...
New ECF grades out today - up 6 points to 163 (~1920 FIDE)! Not bad for 4 games. Managed to celebrate it with a win for Lancaster Uni in our league match against Dragons. Blanking Dragons 4-0 should put us top of the league!
Had the chance to play a 90|30 game against Faarian recently, a very strong player. It was an unusually interesting game which swung back and forth! A good game from my opponent, who found lots of strong moves in complicated positions to gain th...
Monday 1st December, I played my first game representing Lancaster University (where I now study). The match was against Lancaster A in the local league; so a 4 board team match! I got the opportunity to play on Board 1, which gave me Black again...
