Edinburgh Live Games

[George Neave]

George it's a London System not Barry Attack!

If it's good enough for Carlsen...

Would have been willing to bet this would provoke this response from Mr Redpath. Of course it's true what you say; the opening is perfectly fine but I'd like to encourage eveyrone who plays it to try a few other things occasionally as well. Also, Andrew G is training lot of juniors these days so when I see him playing it, it fills me with dread for what we can expect form the next generation of juniors ...

PS I refuse on principle to even learn the names of these setups properly

[Alan Tate]

I'm still curious where Neil could have won (don't tell me the move, a move number will do!). 60 ... Rxf2 looks like a draw though. Archibong played the ending very well as far as I can see?

[andyburnett]

I'm still curious where Neil could have won (don't tell me the move, a move number will do!). 60 ... Rxf2 looks like a draw though. Archibong played the ending very well as far as I can see?

I was talking about after 42.Bg1. Pretty much everything, including what Neil played, is 'winning'. Lines allowing e6, though, are very suspicious!

[Alan Tate]

Aha, so something like 47 ... Kf8 48 Ra7 Rb3 intending a3, b4, Rb2, a2, b3, Rb1 slowing pushing the pawns forward or just taking on d3 and running the d-pawn.

[andyburnett]

Aha, so something like 47 ... Kf8 48 Ra7 Rb3 intending a3, b4, Rb2, a2, b3, Rb1 slowing pushing the pawns forward or just taking on d3 and running the d-pawn.

Pretty much Alan - I don't see any need to hurry as long as f7 doesn't fall.

[Alan Tate]

Being chased by the clock is a reason to hurry.....

[andyburnett]

Being chased by the clock is a reason to hurry.....

play quicker earlier on...you've got to be practical!

I can understand Neil not finding the right way though under clock pressure - pushing the pawns seems strong enough until you realise you're getting mated, and then it all falls apart :/ Fair play to Ubong though - he survives a lot of bad positions by making life very difficult for opponents.

[Graham Kerr]

Games from the Premier event on my google drive account here
cbv-https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6mXoowN55ZqSTBSRHhYbU8zVmc/view?usp=sharing
cbv w/Stockfish- <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6mXoowN55ZqTXFia0QzeFk0UDg/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6mXoo ... sp=sharing</a><!-- m -->
pgn-https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6mXoowN55ZqdDRIaV9jZTlFYU0/view?usp=sharing
Sorry for the long links...

Before I submit to site admins for inclusion on the official downloads page, I wonder if anyone can help me out with the round 3 game between Jim Doyle and Jesper Morch Lauridsen, I was unable to decipher the handwriting… I’ve scanned the scoresheets, pdf here-https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6mXoowN55ZqQU1FYVEyT0Z0ZFU/view?usp=sharing

Photos from the event to view/download – <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B6mXoowN55ZqcmhzQTZaYlhJdFk&usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing</a><!-- m -->

There aren’t too many from the Premier event, on Saturday when I was in the Premier hall I noticed one of the players who seemed to be distracted by my shutter, which I didn’t think would be heard. I didn’t take any further pics in that hall. Apologies if I disturbed anyone.
If I can address a few points…

Heating – I was aware of a few complaints about the heating, and upon reviewing my photos of the weekend there were more than a few who were keeping their coats on. This was quite disappointing, the janitor told me that he could try fixing the heating if it were broke, but his control panel says it’s working as it should, but that he had no control over the temperature. I hope this is something we can improve for next year.

Increments – There were no increments this year or last, but Alex McFarlane has recommended we switch to increments, stating that 2 games in round 5 were effectively decided by the clock. Having gone through the scoresheets I reckon there are probably 3 or 4. I think we’d be foolish not to switch, and will suggest to CE Council that we do.

Scores etc. – we had no wifi, Andy had his phone occupied with the live boards and everything else was just that little bit more difficult to do without internet. Janitor says that the school’s ISP was changed the week before, I had my laptop and tablet with me and we could all see the school’s strong signal, the passwords (we tried 4) just didn’t let us in. Bookseller Jim Fisher tried attaching his laptop wired into the wall in the janitor’s office but still couldn’t connect.

Numbers… were down quite a bit on last year, some I’ve spoken to privately have indicated study for exams quite a common reason for not common along. It’s around this time every year so that’s probably not the reason for numbers being so low. I’d be interested to hear from anyone their reasons why they didn’t play.

Canteen – great… so I’m told… I didn’t get much opportunity for a bite.

Thanks to all who did make it along, I’d be similarly interested in any feedback you might want to give;-)

[Andy Howie]

Photos - My camera is in for repair at the moment or there would have been some from me.

One of the suggestions we made was to use TMS next season. That would allow us to publish the draws and results for each section. Had we had wifi it could have been done (I did a quick check with my dongle but it did not have the range needed to cover both halls).

I was using Vega initially to produce my draw sheet and wallcharts but it crashed on me and I had to switch to Swiss Master. Lara and Fiona were using Swiss Manager. Alex was using an I-Pad version 0.1

We were still doing the draws manually (thankfully)

[Jonathan Livingstone]

Good informative feedback there from Graham. I was one of the players that had issue with the cold. I think most can manage, but if you have asthma or chest problems (not to be mistaken with chess problems!), it can be a right slog of a weekend to get through. No idea what the thermostat was set to, but the main problem presumably was the carpet that had been taped down to the gym hall floors was suppressing the underfloor heating. There was heat coming through as I had a sweet spot in the last round where a little vent of heat was sneaking through a gap in the carpet underneath my table. I wonder if the carpet is really needed? Are chess players that messy? Or maybe there is concern over scuff marks, I don't know.

I think when venues are raking in hire fees that were presumably not far of £1500 or more for this weekend, they have a duty to provide adequate heating. A few electric oil radiators would have made a huge difference. It might be worth CS or individual congresses purchasing, or borrowing oil radiators from the players. It won't have any impact on the tournament finances as its the venues electric bill. And I did observe while playing there were loads of covered up double plug points around the hall walls.

So yeah, heating a big issue but otherwise a fantastic congress and still one of the best on the circuit. Agree on the increments. Heating to one side the venue is absolutely brilliant, sort that issue out and it could be a 10/10 review for the congress. Having missed last years event I was told parking was a nightmare, however I got free parking in the school car park both days with no issues.

Would be a shame to see the congress moved again, after various venues changes now in recent years. I hope the problems can be ironed out, it would be good if this could be the permanent home of Edinburgh Congress.