Hi all,
I think everyone enjoyed the lecture and simultaneous display by Grandmaster Alexander Baburin. The list of players was as follows:
Jack McHugh
Colin Power
Diego Lionello
Zbigniew Zdziarski
Matthew Berkeley
Nicholas Bland
Hugh O'Connor
Charles Dillon
James Vaughan
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| Deep in thought... |
A big well done to Ennis captain Colin, who was the only one to take a draw off him. In fact, it was Alexander who offered as he was down on material. Also, 0.5/9 against a GM rated 2540 gives us performance rating of 2096. Just thought you'd like to know.
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| Colin looking happy with himself. |
Before the simul, GM Baburin answered a few questions. The main points to take from his answers were:
- Always go on what the position demands, there are no rules that apply to every position.
- Play what you think is right, not what you think should be right.
- If time trouble is a problem, try be more confident in your moves. Spending too much time too often does a lot more damage than making a small mistake every now and then by playing more quickly.
- The best way to improve involves 3 things: Analyzing your own games (your losses most of all), practicing your tactics, and working on your endgame technique.
He also said that he was banned from playing swap chess in Russia when he was growing up. No swap chess you say? What kind of a deprived childhood...
Anyway, feedback was generally positive, so we might look at organising another early next year, possibly around fresher's week.
If anyone feels like looking over their game with Alex, remember you can always bring it down to the club. I'd be very interested in seeing some of them.
See you then,
Stephen
