Day 4 at The Tournament.
I'm not sure when Blue Peter will be showing the footage they got at The Tournament. They were in a bit of a rush to get some 'wrapping- up' footage with the pieces before the next game started, so I didn't get the chance to speak to them about it, unfortunately. It's quite possible it'll be on Tuesday, at 4.30 pm, although there's another episode of Blue Peter on Wednesday as well. Sorry I can't be specific.
Wednesday's schedule, as thing's stand looks a little something like this: game 1 Robert Urquhart vs Philip Conneller at 11.30am, game 2 Jai Stokes vs Fernando Villasevil at 1pm, game 3 Fernando Lopez vs Shamal Kamalyan at 2.30, game 4 Angus Montgomery vs Tom Baks at 4pm, and the final game of the day, and indeed the event, is Carl Blinco vs Jeff Page at 5.30pm.
Also, thanks Rob for letting me know how Somerset got on.
Again we were very fortunate to have people willing and able to lend a hand and help with commentating, relaying moves, and standing in for anyone who didn't arrive on time. So Jack Rudd, and especially Michael White, a big thank you to you both.
Game 1 today featured Steven Coles and Joel Knight. Steven Coles, an experienced player, gave Joel a draw when the time ran out. Wish I could add something more on this game, I honestly do, but my mind's gone a bit blank this evening.
Game 2 was originally scheduled to feature Sarah De Haas against Olivier Ward, but when Olivier didn't arrive Jack Rudd stepped into the fray and happily agreed to play. Sarah had only a little chess knowledge, and even with her friend who joined her in the experience, it was looking largely one- sided. Enter chief tormentor, and occasional chess player, yours truly to give them both a helping hand. As you can see from Jack's post above the game was still a bit of a chess lesson for our team, but we at least had fun near the end with Bd4+. I swear if it wasn't for Stewart pointing out the threat on the commentary, Jack would've moved the king.
The third game of the day featured 2 friend's of the lady who's in charge of the organisation of the event, Luisa. I don't have their full names down on my match list, but it was Kien against Adheesha. This was my favourite game of the day. The chess quality wasn't particularly high or exciting, and it wasn't any more entertaining then the other games of the day. But, after 11 games of playing and move relaying, my team finally got their first win
Well worth the wait, although I think some of the guys who were moving the pieces were disappointed that I didn't start singing a certain Queen song, as promised.
The 4th game of the day featured Peter Nickals and Alexandre Paiva. I got the chance to commentate on this game alongside Michael White, and we certainly got a good game to comment on. Peter is an experienced chess player, whilst Alexandre was, and I don't think I'm being too unfair here, nowhere near as strong. Early on Peter developed all of his pieces as per most opening books, whilst Alexandre's queen went rambo-esque into the fore. It didn't quite work out as planned, and Peter soon got a really strong attack. Just as Alexandre's king was being pushed down the board, we thought we were going to see f2-f4 mate, unusual and crowd pleasing. Instead the king got pushed back into the corner and eventually ended in mate about a dozen moves later. One funny anecdote before I move on from this game. Towards the end we asked the crowd to put their hands up as soon as they could see a forced mate. Only one person did, and after I asked the lady what the variation was, her reply came "move the bit from there to there" Well, kudos for enthusiasm, slightly less kudos for accuracy.
Game 5 featured Robert Chan and Lucy Broomfield, both experienced chess players. Unfortunately it's a little difficult, although quite understandable, when one or both players want to think for a while in a fairly complex position. The games are scheduled for 1hr sessions, and in this game with both players taking their time to think through each move, we were faced with the prospect of time running out in the early middlegame, and 2 dissatisfied players only getting half a game. Fortunately after a bit of encouragement, it soon became something akin to a blitz match, with moves flying out, and the game ended in a draw.
The last game of the day featured Anthony Eskinazi against Prashant Patil, and was the most fun of the day for me personally. Anthony, along with the guys moving the pieces, was more than happy to join in the insults and banter between moves, and it became quite enjoyable for all involved. Of course Anthony had good reason to be throwing insults- he played a fine game, and scored a crushing win.
The highlight for tommorow is the biggest game of the week - Simon Williams against Alexander Cherniaev, GM v GM, at about 1pm. Looking forward to that one.
I should mention as a final note on today's blog, how sociable everyone who's played here has been. Certainly putting a needle in the eye of the typical chess player stereotype of being quiet and anti-social, I've had the pleasure of going out for meals on the past 2 evenings with people who I only met whilst they were playing their games. And they've been jolly enjoyable evenings to boot.
The second game featured myself and Stewart playing, with CJ providing the commentary. It was a more exciting game for the large crowd, and aside from lot's of insults in my direction from a certain commentator, again seemed to go well. 
