A blog post??

Whats this? An updated blog post? Its true. I have just returned from the Bulgarian/Macedonian/Greek leg of the world chess tour, having taken in Plovdiv, Skopje and Leros. European Championships, Plovdiv. The strongest event so far on the tour, with a bucketload of GM's. Bit of an experimental tournament for me, wheeling out the french defence for the first time in round one against Viktor Bologan (rated 2687)- managed to draw!! Some good wins, including one against a russian 2600 and a 155 move game against GM Kempinski from Poland. This was offset by a couple of bad games, and I finished with a mighty rating gain of 3 points! Congratulations to GM Gawain Jones of England, who qualified for the World Cup to be held in Tromso in the summer. Skopje was the 3rd Karpos Open which was a really strong event won by GM Kiril Georgiev from Bulgaria. I played pretty well for a rating gain of 6 points, including draws with GM's Delchev and Kozul. Hoping to get some photos up soon. IM Lorin D'Costa also went from England and he finished on the same score as me (5/9) And then back to Leros for the Aegean Cup and Championships. I was playing board 1 for Leros, and we won the rapidplay event on the first day. Second place in the cup was followed by victory in the championships, meaning qualification for the Greek 1st National League in the summer. We are still deciding whether to go. My own play started with 5/5 in the rapid but a loss to Michael Singleton (elo 2169) in the championships. I drew one other game to finish with 6.5/8 in the cup/league and a rating point loss. After a whole month away, I am packing my bags as we speak for the World Schools championships in Romania, which I am going as a coach to. The link is here.... http://www.wscc2012.ro/

Welcome to paradise part 3....Leros Greece