Wednesday 30 November 2011

The Budapest Marathon

The Eastern european leg of the world chess tour started in Budapest for my first taste of the famous 'First Saturday' tournament series. Upon arrival I was greeted with the (not totally pleasant) news that due to there being only 8 participants the event would be a 14 round double round robin event (over 12 days). Better value for money Mr Nagy said. Hmmm.

Well it started well enough, with an easy win in the first round but that was tempered with a loss to GM Czebe (who I beat at the Artemis Cup earlier in the year) in round 2, before winning in Round 3. Exciting start eh?!

Well what followed was a sequence of draws as my opponents didn't seem to be making any mistakes which soon finished off any hopes of a norm. By the halfway mark people were halving out after 10 minutes (not me I hasten to add) as the players were becoming more and more tired. In the second half of the tournament Czebe beat me again, fully exacting revenge for the Leros tournament. In fact Mr Czebe was on form here, winning the event comfortably. I managed to beat GM Ilincic 2-0 before another sequence of draws.

I finished with a dreadful defeat against FM Battey of the USA in round 13 with white, and an incredible draw against IM Arnold in the final round.

Total result for 14 rounds of chess: -5 rating points :(

But a lovely time in Budapest...

Pros of the tournament:
In Budapest
Cheap accommodation
Norm chances guaranteed

Cons:
Entry fee is high
All the players are good!
Quite noisy at the venue

Anyway next up is Legnica, Poland in a few days. I shall let you know how that one goes.