Chess train

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Nigel White
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Chess train

Post by Nigel White » Thu Oct 11, 2018 8:01 pm

The annual Chess Train departs from Prague tomorrow morning. There are due to be 22 different nationalities on board, which is a record. Among the 103 starters there are seven registered as ENG, three as SCO, plus another Englishman registered as NOR, which I believe is also a record turnout from this island.

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Michael Farthing
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Re: Chess train

Post by Michael Farthing » Thu Oct 11, 2018 9:03 pm

Nigel White wrote:
Thu Oct 11, 2018 8:01 pm
this island.
Hm. these islands

Brendan O'Gorman
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Re: Chess train

Post by Brendan O'Gorman » Fri Oct 12, 2018 12:03 am

Good luck, Nigel. Looks like great fun. Hope you can give us a full report when you get back.

Nigel White
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Re: Chess train

Post by Nigel White » Fri Oct 12, 2018 5:37 am

Brendan O'Gorman wrote:
Fri Oct 12, 2018 12:03 am
Good luck, Nigel. Looks like great fun. Hope you can give us a full report when you get back.
Thanks! I went for the first time last year which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Nigel White
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Re: Chess train

Post by Nigel White » Thu Oct 18, 2018 12:02 pm

The train returned to Prague on Tuesday after a most enjoyable five days travelling through the Czech Republic and Poland. The overall winner was Australian IM Guy West with an amazing 10/11. The least said about my own performance the better, unlike last year when I seemed to play at a much higher standard. Having not been to Poland for 26 years, the country was was a revelation - obviously, I expected it to be different, but I wasn't prepared for it to have changed quite so much.

The slightly worrying news was that the organisers could not confirm whether the Chess Train will run again next year. All they would say is that they very much hoped it would, but cited unspecified 'difficulties' - an announcement will be made in December.

Paul Dargan
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Re: Chess train

Post by Paul Dargan » Thu Oct 18, 2018 1:11 pm

It would be a shame if it didnt run ... it was on my list of things to get round to ...

Paul Dargan
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Re: Chess train

Post by Paul Dargan » Thu Oct 18, 2018 1:12 pm

It would be a shame if it didnt run ... it was on my list of things to get round to ...

Nigel White
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Re: Chess train

Post by Nigel White » Thu Oct 10, 2019 8:19 pm

We set off again tomorrow morning. Numbers seem to be a bit down this year, which I hope doesn't jeopardise its contiuance, given there were some doubts about its future last year which thankfully appear to have been resolved.

Angus French
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Re: Chess train

Post by Angus French » Thu Oct 10, 2019 8:36 pm

Nigel White wrote:
Thu Oct 10, 2019 8:19 pm
We set off again tomorrow morning. Numbers seem to be a bit down this year, which I hope doesn't jeopardise its contiuance, given there were some doubts about its future last year which thankfully appear to have been resolved.
Some info here.
The Chess Train 2019 is held under the auspices of the Minister of Transport Vladimír Kremlík
... Surely the surname/family name is misspelt?

Might you be able to report back, post event, Nigel, possibly with some pictures?

Nigel White
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Re: Chess train

Post by Nigel White » Fri Oct 11, 2019 7:44 pm

Angus French wrote:
Thu Oct 10, 2019 8:36 pm

The Chess Train 2019 is held under the auspices of the Minister of Transport Vladimír Kremlík
... Surely the surname/family name is misspelt?

Kremlik seems to have got himself in big political trouble by attending our departure today. He turned up early (before 9am) & seemed to have fun trolling the various senior railway officials about delivery dates for various projects.

However, unkown to me at the time, earlier in the morning he went to the lying in state (which opened at 8am) of Karel Gott (a popular singer) who is having a state funeral tomorrow. However, he used his position to jump the queue of those who who had been waiting all night to pay their respects. His actions have been condemned by his Prime Minister who said they were unacceptable. Given the public grief being displayed across the country towards Gott's death, Kremlik trying to be on time for the Chess Train may have cost him his job.

Tomas Petricek the Czech Foreign Minister (and de facto Deputy Prime Minister in the coalition goverment), also attended our departure, but was far more measured in his comments.

I can't imagine two senior British cabinet ministers giving up more than an hour of their time for opening of a chess tournament.

Nigel White
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Re: Chess train

Post by Nigel White » Thu Oct 17, 2019 11:50 am

Angus French wrote:
Thu Oct 10, 2019 8:36 pm

Might you be able to report back, post event, Nigel, possibly with some pictures?
It was again a hugely enjoyable event, won by the German GM Michael Prusikin with an impressive 10/11. My modest 4 points was about in line with rating expectations, given that nearly a third of participants were rated over 2000. As before, the attention to detail by the organisers to ensure its smooth running was exemplary.

Pictures from this years event can be found here, along with links to previous years' photos.

As for next year, which will be the 10th running of the event, nothing is yet certain, but the organisers disclosed their tentative plans, which are a bit different to previous years:
(i) the proposed starting date will be 12 June 2020 (rather than the traditional second Friday in October);
(ii) the event will last 6 days (rather than 5).

At the suggestion of the Czech Foreign Minister, the train will visit the capitals of the four Visegrad Group countries. The proposed route will be Prague - Bratislava - Budapest - Ostrava - Warsaw - Olomouc - Prague.

I look forward to confirmation of the final plans which are usually disclosed about the turn of the year.

Stewart Reuben
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Re: Chess train

Post by Stewart Reuben » Thu Oct 17, 2019 12:36 pm

The only British Rail Chess Championship took place in 1985, London to Edinbrough. Thus Stuart Conquest still holds the title.

Nigel White
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Re: Chess train

Post by Nigel White » Fri Jun 25, 2021 4:27 pm

Apologies for bumping this thread, but a couple of months ago David Gilbert kindly posted a link (in another thread) to my write up of my first trip on the Chess Train in 2017 (while confusing me with my namesake).
I set up at the beginning of 2020, with exquisite bad timing, a travel blog to record various journeys that I had planned to undertake in the next few years. But in the absence of going anywhere since then, I've used it largely to reminisce about previous trips.
Anyway, there are now blog posts about all three of my Chess Train tournaments:
2017, 2018 and 2019

There is no news on when, or indeed if, it will run again.

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