Equal first!

Much to report over the last few days, with a lot of interesting chess being played.
Sadly none of that came in round 6, where the Mastrovasilis brothers (the world's strongest active chess playing family I am reliably informed)

comfortably held both me and Stephen with black.

Round 7 and Stephen came unstuck at the hands of a man who seems to love chess more than anyone else in the world. GM Mirzoev from Azerbaijan (check out the number of games he has played in the last few years if you don't believe me) I managed to win a very hairy game with FM Pavlidis, where my opponent rejected the chance of a repetition only to blunder.

Round 8 and I was facing GM Czebe from Hungary, who very kindly made a serious blunder in the opening in a slightly worse position, allowing me to win in 23 moves. Stephen also finished reasonably quickly, drawing with GM Nikolaidis in a Queens Indian.

And so to round 9, and me and Mirzoev found ourselves half a point clear of the field. His slighly dubious opening choice left me a bit better but a crafty draw offer left me with little choice...

So I am sitting here hoping that the guys on 6/8 draw and Stephen does the business against IM Mezsaros for more money for me and him.

A full report, with some photos and games I hope will follow soon! Full results, photos etc are here

Can anybody stop this man??

5 rounds played and we have a sole leader, ladies and gentleman. GM Stephen Gordon won a fascinating game against a dangerous opponent in Monica Ruiz Calzetta to move to 4.5/5 and take outright first. Hopefully if he gets the time he will analyse it for us.

Meanwhile I managed to win a good game (I think) to move to 4/5 and IM Max Deveraux drew to get to 3.5/5

In the other big contest of the day I managed to win the title for 'biggest sunburn' sadly after we had ventured into the sea for the first time. I've got to go- traditional greek dancing lessons are just about to start.

The Battle of Britain

Much to report from today's double round affair, starting sadly with my first loss on the world chess tour, to top seed Dimitrios Mastrovasilios who gradually outplayed me in my beloved Sicilian Najdorf. Grandmasters 1 Adam 0 :(

Whilst that was going on we witnessed the first battle of britain on foreign grounds of the world chess tour, with English IM Max Deveraux facing off with white against Stephen. The game finished in a hard fought draw.

Both me and Stephen won this afternoon, putting him on 3.5/4 (equal 1st) and me on 3/4.

More distressingly though is the news reaching me that Liverpool have agreed to sign Stuart Downing for getting on for 20 million quid (at least we got rid of Konchesky). I mean, no offence Stuart if you're reading this but really??!

I've been promised some photos from the organiser to stick up here. Keep your eyes peeled.

Welcome to Paradise...

So we've arrived, after 24 hours of travelling Heathrow-Athens-Leros. The 'Superfast' greek ferry took 13 hours to get from Piraeus to Leros, and 'Stevie G' was not impressed. But after arriving about 5am this morning and a few hours sleep we both managed to win our first round games- I even got checkmate! (with an extra queen)

Tougher challenges on the world chess tour are sure to await. Watch this space......

Freedom!

School's out, and I'm about to embark on a year off from my job teaching chess at Woodbridge School, with the goal of trying to become a chess grandmaster. First stop is Leros, a small greek island in the Dodecanese. I'm going with GM Stephen Gordon, and the tournament website is www.leroschess.gr