Nikos and I have already discussed our lines after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 for Playing the French, but as he has analysed everything with usual tenacity, it was quite interesting for us to see what the public thought. Especially as 3…Be7 is the current trend in repertoire books (and Emanuel is working on 3…Nf6) and we were heading more for 3…c5 in general.
We are still analysing, so we take everything on board, although we have some ideas. I am uncertain about 3…Be7, especially as when we looked at the recommendation in THE MODERN FRENCH it was straight to +- for White when we compared our recommendation for John’s 1.e4 books (which are a team effort as always, when John’s name is on the cover – but remember that John is the brutal dictator of Quality Chess, who has chosen to do the King’s Gambit alone!). All you had to do was one logical move (top 3 in all 1.e4-players’ candidates for sure) and tap the spacebar every 30 seconds. TMF seems a bit shaky at places, but is still a very interesting book that deservedly has received rage review.
For most playing the Olympiad, this was a disaster of a tournament. Bad food, bad internet, ok hotels, RUBBISH location, decent playing conditions, inexperienced arbiters (who did not understand the three time repetition rule before move 30) and a general low-cost attitude to everything.
The internet coverage was probably not bad besides a glitch in round 1.
2014 and 2016 are both likely to be top-class events. Sadly I am now retired, but John, Colin and Andrew are all possible on the Scottish team by then! Maybe Cathy will play for the Scottish ladies team?!
It seems that people really believed in Russia this time around. Well, they should have won, but didn’t. Armenia has won three of the last four and Ukraine two of the last five. Russia last won in 2002 with Kasparov on the team.
At the closing ceremony the organisers did not present the Armenian flag (I think it was the Colombian in stead?!), just as they were insensitive to the winners in a few other ways. There is an old conflict between the two contries that sadly not only lingers with the victims. One Armenian said about the flag incident that ‘it was not the worst thing that had happened to Armenians in Turkey…’
Worse is of course that Armenia will not play in 2016 in Azerbaijan. At least this is my prediction.
My first day of retirement has passed. If this is anything to go by, I am going to be busy! Getting awards, talking to world champions, business meetings and presentations – and not the least analysing the Slav defence until 2am in the morning! All of this without the pressure of playing and the feeling that I should want to win/prepare, knowing that I care about the results, but do not have the hunger to play for them myself anymore…
Meanwhile I am trying for the first time to embed a video. I have no idea if it works…
I don’t think it is a secret anymore than I am not going to play the last round tomorrow. This means that I ended by tournament career with two losses and a total loss of 16 elo points, landing me at 2516. I think I could play much better than this, if I had the hunger, but I don’t. This is by the way the answer to the question I received from at 2700-player yesterday: “When should I curb my ambition?” Answer: “When you lose the hunger.” He is in his 30’s, but “still wants to beat these guys”. So he should.
I was ground down against Almasi. I overlooked a nice little move at the end of a long line, which allowed him to make a seemingly natural move. The tactics preventing it did not work and then my position was eseentially lost. We lost 4–0, with a horrible end to Hansen–Leko.
Today I then had to enjoy retirement. So, as a way to enjoy the morning I went to the FIDE Congress to receive the Boleslavski-medal for the best chess book in 2011 (for Attacking Manual 1-2). Originally we tried to put these in for 2010, but there were problems with the way the rules were written and what they were supposed to say. So, I first had to become a FIDE Senior Trainer (last year) and then I could compete for this rather sexy trophy.
After receiving the award, we took a look at the Mediteranean and a taxi to town where we saw The Great Basar, Blue Mosque and other postcard shops. Having retired from tournament chess I spent about an hour on being a tourist, before going back to the room to work on the a6-Slav…
Judit came up to me at lunch and expressed her regret that we were not playing. However, it was not possible, if Lars had played, I was ripe for a rest. However, I look forward to a tough game with Almasi this afternoon.
Nikos and I have worked a lot on the Grandmaster Repertoire 1.e4 books already (although they have been pushed back a bit back to make room for the Grandmaster Preparation series), but I still decided to go for The Scotch against Norway yesterday. Very quickly he made a small mistake (13…Ne7 instead of 13…Nb6 followed by …d5) and I got a huge advantage from the opening. However, I also made a mistake in playing 17.Nb3. If I had played 16.Re1, he would still have been forced to play 16…Rg8, when 17.Ne4 was simply devastating. The reason for my mistake was that I did not realise that 17…Rg8 18.exd6 would be replied with 18…cxd6(!) and not blundering a piece in some ridiculous way. Still I was better and made the best of it from that point. A nice win in a 3-1 win.
Today we will play FYROM (I am not allowed to call them Macedonia for Nikos), who yesterday lost on board four. I assume I will play Nedev with Black. A sharp Sicilian looks likely.
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