Monday August 1
SPRAGGETT ON CHESS
Monday, August 1. Normally I don’t like Mondays, but today I make an exception: starting today I am officially on vacation!
This past July has been quite busy for me-chess wise: I participated in the International Open in Aveiro (Portugal), the International Open in Coimbra (Portugal) and I just finished the 1st Division Team Championship in Torres Vedras yesterday. And in between I gave several lectures at the University of Evora on the history of chess.
This past July has been quite busy for me-chess wise: I participated in the International Open in Aveiro (Portugal), the International Open in Coimbra (Portugal) and I just finished the 1st Division Team Championship in Torres Vedras yesterday. And in between I gave several lectures at the University of Evora on the history of chess.
My team (AA Coimbra) tied for first place but narrowly lost on tie-break.
My team on the podium. I am on the extreme left. The prez of the Portuguese Chess Federation is the one with the tie (Anton) . The second to right is the team Captain, sponsor and principal force of chess in Coimbra (Bruno Pais).
I look forward now to just relaxing and doing some training with my students. After the health scare in San Sebastian earlier this year (a bad case of food-poisoning) I have stayed away from tournament chess, and this July was the first time that I became active again. I will start playing again in September.
As for this blog, somehow I have managed to keep up to date, but at some cost. There is a joint project with Natalia Pogonina that is in the pipeline (I am sorry, Natalia , for the delay!) and July saw a record number of readers to my blog. (Thankyou, everyone!)
AS FOR TODAY, below is a small tactic for my readers to solve. This position arose in the recent game (from the Quebec Open ) between IM Noritsyn and GM Bojkov. White to play and win (solution later today)
GM BOJKOV
IM NORITSYN
WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN!
(SOLUTION: 1.RxB! RxR 2.Nd5!! winning the house. Black resigned)
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