It has been a long while since I did anything chess related. So long, in fact, that even the blogging platform that I use to publish this blog looks completely unfamiliar! I had to take a few moments to find my way around.
However over the last week or so I've been quite completely absorbed in chess, thanks to the Istanbul Olympiad. Rushing home after work to watch the games, re-signing up to Playchess and even reading Australia's numero uno chess forum again (same old, same old threads). It's been great.
While the 2010 edition in Khanty-Mansiysk passed over me, this year's event in Turkey had something special. Well, a few actually. The Aussie teams are filled with young debutantes. Good to see the ACF give some of these young guns a chance. And it looks to have paid off!
Max Illingworth is now an international master. I think those of us who have known this kid (I still think of him as a kid) for a long time will feel quite happy about this. Well done Max. I'm so happy about that, I thought it deserved a post. He can play with style, too. Check out his round 4 finish.
And a hat tip to ever intelligent and well-informed fellas over at Chesschat for bringing me this news.
Speaking of news, I do have a disappointment. The so-called "chess media", and we all know who they are (hint: bloody Europeans) are as dull as ever. They still apparently have not learned that there is far more to chess than who won, lost or drew; or that Kasparov is visiting. And that's if they can even be bothered to be timely with their so-called reports.
Sayonara.
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1 comment:
I agree with your assessment of the news sites which is why we did things differently at the Fantasy Chess Olympiad. Our Olympic Diarist was Rupert Jones of Papua New Guinea and we spent plenty of time covering the lower reaches of the Olympiad via him. Shame you missed out on the contest at www.fantasychessteam.com. I think you'd have had fun! (And by the way me and my partner in crime are European so we don't all feel the same way about the top boards and Kasparov!)
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