It is very rare that we make advertisement for other chess products here – maybe we never did? But I just wanted to say that to those who have children interested in chess (like myself), there is a new app available for Ipad (and later on for Iphone, but not yet as far as I understand).
Here are a few screen shots from the presentation video:
Yesterday we had a surprising 15 minutes for christmas shopping, when the fire-alarm went off. Apparently the cafeteria for the call-centre that occupies the bottom three floors of our building had decided to heat up a christmas pudding in the microwave!
We were not upset. It is all about perspective. The previous building we were in had a fire-alarm going off almost weekly at the time we left. One time, towards the end, when we were crossing the street for the standard drink in the pub during “the fire” I noticed that 2 of the firemen ran into the building and then ran straight into the chip-shop…
We do our best to check our books for mistakes; even painstakenly so. In version 34 of the proofread version of Positional Play there were no big errors. In the print version (35) there was one. Sympathy is appreciated; abuse unnecessary, I feel bad enough already, even if this time it was not my fault!
Knowing how journalists rewrite us, the answers below are probably more or less what Nikos said 🙂
5 questions
To
Nikos Ntirlis (“Reporter”, 29/9/2012)
Famous…away from home
He has got an enquiring mind and that’s why from a little kid he studied a lot of things, like astronomy. He also got involved with sports and especially martial arts where he got 2 Black belts. Today, Chess is his primary pursuit. He has got the title of “FIDE Trainer”. We are talking about the 28 year old from Patras, Nikos Ntirlis, the coach of Danish National Team…
How did you start working on chess?
N.N: When I was 17 years old, a big age for someone that wants to become good at international level. My first teacher, Nikos Karapanos, said to me that someday I’d become a good player, but not a great one, but if I was determined enough and worked hard I’d become a great chess coach! My teacher sadly passed away in August 2009, at the age of 42. In his memory I wrote my first chess book that was published in English.
How come an English-speaking publication house got interested for your work?
N.N: In Greece, today especially due to the financial crisis, it is next to impossible to publish a chess book if you don’t posses in your own the money for it and you don’t have the necessary support. Abroad, those things don’t count. What really counts is the quality of your work. The best world-wide publication house dedicated on chess decided to publish a book with my name on it, in their most prestigious series, the Grandmaster Repertoire series, where only famous authors sign the books. At the beginning I couldn’t believe it (and still, sometimes it seems that everything is a dream), but the book got published, it sells relatively well, the reviews are good (it was even voted for the second best book of the year) and the publishers are pleased with it. I don’t need more than that to be happy.
How did the work for the Danish Federation happen?
N.N: As a trainer I work mainly today with students abroad. Some of them are very successful players in their countries and this is always a good referral for a trainer. In August 2011 the European Team Championships took place in Halkidiki and this is when I was first approached to work for the Danish Team. After the event they went pleased with our co-operation, so I got a proposal for working again for them in the Chess Olympiad at Istanbul this year, 27 August to 10 of September. The Chess Olympiad is the biggest and most important tournament in chess.
And how did the team perform?
N.N: Among 158 countries, we ended up 18nth which seems to be the second best placement of the Danish team in their history (they were 9nth at 1978 but before the Soviet Union and the Yugoslavia destruction produced so many new countries) and we left behind teams with great tradition in chess like Israel, India and also Greece who has done well in the last times.
What are you future plans?
N.N: I’d like more people to know about chess and especially young kids to get involved with it because chess offers so many tools to use them later in their lives.
I will get a few nice photos up from my retirement lecture and simul. It was a nice quiet event at my local chess club with a few friends. I won all the games, some of them against 2100’s. I had a nice finish against a team mate, that was more or less like this (sorry, a few pieces are fuzzy in my mind!):
1.Qe6 Rd7 2.Qxf7+ 1-0
I do know that 1.Ne6+ was stronger objectively, but I quite like it the way it came :-).
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?!
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…
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.
Aagaard – Hansen
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nxc6 bxc6 6. e5 Qe7 7. Qe2 Nd5 8.
c4 Ba6 9. Nd2 g6 10. Nf3 Bg7 11. Bg5 Qb4+ 12. Qd2 Qxd2+ 13. Bxd2 Ne7N 14. O-O-O
Bb7 15. Bc3 Rd8 16. Nd2 c5 17. Nb3 d6 18. Re1 Rg8 19. h4 h5 20. Rh3 Bc8 21. Rd3
Be6 22. Nd2 Nc6 23. exd6 cxd6 24. Bxg7 Rxg7 25. g3 Nd4 26. Nb3 Nxb3+ 27. Rxb3
Rd7 28. Bh3 Re7 29. Rb8+ Kd7 30. Ra8 f5 31. Rxa7+ Ke8 32. Rxe6 1-0
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