The tournament that never was......

A first in my experience. Cancellation of an international tournament just a few days in advance. The Cala Millor Open was due to take place alongside the Amateur chess festival in Majorca from 24 September-2 October, and myself and Ginger GM Simon Williams had both booked up our flights and accommodation for the tournament. Becoming a little suspicious that no list of players had been posted a week before the event was scheduled to take place I emailed the organiser, who responded on the 19th (last day of registration) to say that sadly the tournament had been cancelled.

I understand that if there aren't enough entries it can't go ahead, but you would have thought that he would've let us know this might be the case just a bit further in advance! Anyway, we are off to Majorca anyway for a warm weather training camp :) I'll let you know how it goes.

Livigno- the review

Livigno goes down as one of the best tournaments I have played in. Stunning location, Great food (and wine!), Strong, well organised tournament.... I could go on. But the chess itself was a huge success, not so much for me as my travelling buddy and former student Callum Kilpatrick. Callum made his first IM and GM norms in the same event (probably part of a select few) as well as earning almost 60 rating points, which is enough to lift him over 2300 and give him the FM title (and he won 400 euros!) So big congratulations to him. My tournament also had good moments as I finished on 5/9 against an average field of just under 2500 to gain 13 rating points. At one stage it promised more, after defeating GM Fedorchuk (2635) to go to 4/6 and a good norm chance myself. However two poor games followed to squash that chance. I'd recommend this tournament to anyone looking for a tough, interesting and spectacular open to play in next year.

Gingers on tour (1)

We've arrived in beautiful Livigno and after a loooong sleep we took to the boards today for the first round. I managed to win against a promising 13 year old on the black side of a Najdorf, which is better than I managed for the whole of the british!

However headline of the day goes to room-mate Callum Kilpatrick, who clearly hasn't lost the (ginger) magic, defeating experienced GM Arkaidy Rotstein (fide rating 2515) in a long tussle. Hopefully he'll annotate it for the website. Double round day tomorrow.

The tour starts here......

Having spent 2 weeks in beautiful Cuba on holiday, but with no internet there have been no updates possible unfortunately. Tomorrow me and fellow English player Callum Kilpatrick will be flying to Italy for the Livigno Open. We are staying at an apartment which apparently has wi-fi so should be able to keep you updated on our tournaments!

You can follow the event here