praha2002uk

Monday January 28th
Hmm, seems that our snowy expectations have to be adjusted a little Today, it was about 11 degrees in Prague, when we arrive this Friday, it'll be some 4 degrees. Canal biking after all!?

The tournament programme looks like this. Please think of us when you decide to stay in you bed for some more time at Saturday the 9th...

Friday February 1st
10:30 Arrival at Praha Holesovice after the nocturnal trip from Amsterdam (woke up quite some times but not feeling very tired) in which we were lucky to have a three person cabin for the two of us. At 7AM we arrived in the sleepy Dresden to spend some of our last Deutschmarks (still possible!). After this, we drove to Praag Holesovice together with Celena en Bert from Limburg who we met in Dresden. At 11:45 we got into our Hotel in Praha 5, Jinonice, much to our satisfaction. Contrary to earlier weather expectations it is simply warm (about 15 degrees), with neither clouds nor wind. Thus, no complaints from the east, although the D?da Mládek album was not available at Tesco. To be continued, till soon...

Saturday February 2nd
10:00-14:00 registration in the playing room
16:00 1st round

Sunday February 3rd
Yesterday's results were:
Reinhold Heinlein (GER 2146)    - Roel                                 1 - 0
Martijn                                    - Petr Besen (CZE 2126)      1/2 - 1/2
Since there were 104 participants and we were 72nd and 73rd seeded based on our Elo, we got into a 2100+ clash at the very start, lucky bastards... Roel got crushed by a terrible invasion of his by then unprotected king, I played a draw against some not very happy Czech guy, who played on until 20:15 to accept the inevitable result...
Beside all this we bought the album yesterday!!

Today we first went to the beautiful Praha Zoo, near Holešovice nadra?i. Go there when you are around!! The chess-part of the day was successful as well, gaining us a unique 100% score, the first ever in our Czech Tour history! Hear, hear! (all of it much to the un-amusement of our opponents....). Roel kicked off an Italian guest of the White House hotel after facing some truely awkward moments, I beated my opponent after a marvelous (if I may say so) combination in the end game.
Christopher Kyeck (GER 2044)   - Martijn                                 0 - 1
Roel                                          - F. Fassino (ITA 1250)           1 - 0

Monday February 4th
Today was dedicated to the Nove M?sto city part. Although the Emmauschurch was under construction from bottom to top, the Jezuits college didn't catch up with our expectations and the Ignace-church was closed between 11AM and 4PM, the Botanic Gardens were worth the visit. And of course we bought the "Pravo" ("Right"), to see what the Czech Opinion on our royal wedding was.
The games in the Tourist were less exciting, featuring a draw after a mere 9 moves by Roel against good-old arbiter Otto Gutdeutsch. I played a hell of a match against Anton Cvicela. Although I avoided the direct Meran, I think I ought to check it again for white. A short yet joyful post-mortem showed that he'd seen about the same as I had (unfortunately a very nice trick as well...) but it was very useful after all.
15. Martijn                                 - Anton Cvicela (SVK 2156)   0 - 1
31. Otto Gutdeutsch (AUT 2041) - Roel                                 1/2 - 1/2
OK, off we go now, getting up at 730AM tomorrow.... :-(

Tuesday February 5th
Hardly awake, the breakfast not yet in the stomach by far, and an annoying lack of hot water from the shower for Roel, we faced yet even more zombies when arriving in the playing hall at 9AM. My match against a sympathetic 67-year odl Slovenian became my shortest of the tournament up until now, after a mere 19 moves and two hours of top level play we shook hands. During the analysis, the draw turned out to be the right result. Since Roel and his opponent were both puting pieces on certain squares and back again, I hoped for a free early afternoon after all. HOwever, Roel decided to give it a go, and put the board on fire. Things looked marvelous for him, with his Prague opponent facing a tremendous king attack, which cost him two exchanges, and eventually even two more pawns. I still don't understand how things could get into a second time trouble phase leaving both players with half a point.

29. Roel                                      - Vladimir Mrna (CZE 2016)   1/2 - 1/2
30. Slavko Marjanovic (SLO 2034)- Martijn                               1/2 - 1/2
In the afternoon session, Roel was allowed to play white again, this time against good old Slavko Marjanovic. Once again, he got a nice initiative, with aggressive pawns placed on the fourth rank from file b to g. Although things looked good, he played a3 instead of Rb1 to support things. Bad luck, and a mistake in the endgame took the full point to Slovenia. By then, I secured my draw against yet another Hamburger Sv 1830 (!) player. Suppose for a moment you might be interested, then check the Dutch section.
More dead than alive, we got ourselves to Malostranska, to end up at Namesti Republiky after a long walk and find the restaurant of our choice.

Wednesday February 6th
Bad day, bad day, both losing with the black pieces

30. Josef Kabat (CZE 1915)      - Martijn                        1 - 0
33. Jyski Pesola (FIN 2107)      - Roel                            1 - 0

Before the matches we went to the National Museum at the Vaclavske namesti. It's a truely beautiful building, with a collection of natural history.

Thursday February 7th
Today was the day of our visit to the Prague castle, a must go for anyone visiting Prague. The entire castle is one big attraction, featuring the cathedral, the Golden Lane, the royal gardens, the changing of the guards, the historical part of the National Museum and much more.
Roel secured his place in the main hall for tomorrow after a win today on the last desk of the big playing hall. I played a NimzoIndian against a Czech player. Everything seemed to go well, although the man had a 2 against 1 pawn majority on the queenside. In the endgame he had a trick of which I still am not sure if it was ok. Eventually, bot being in time troubles, a rook + 4 pawns was not enough to draw against a queen + 2 pawns.

33. Martijn                                 - L. Marsalek (CZE 2085)         0 - 1
45. Roel                                     - H. Jensen    (FIN 1453)         1 - 0

Friday February 8th
Roel played an opponent who seemed to think it was a rapid game. After an hour and a half, he used 15 minutes, with the rest for Roel. But then again, when a combination is not worked out to the bottom, it features some severe problems. Roel finished the match beautifully and won again. I played a lemon against some Danish player playing the Ruy Lopez. In the last round he played the Guioco piano, why not against me??!
33. Milos Hebelka   (SVK 2113)   - Roel                                     0 - 1
44. Uwe Hansen     (DEN 1613)   - Martijn                               1/2 - 1/2

Saturday February 9th
810AM, fresh and well we got to the playing hall. After all, it wasn't that bad (why not do it like this every day??), and those ten minutes, well....
Roel played rapid chess but did run into an isolated double pawn on the f file. With a rook, a bishop and some pawns hands were shaken like on more boards today. I decided to give it a serious go today (just see my opponent's elo to know why). A game of introducing weaknesses into the enemy position and then use them. Sometimes you have to wait but it pays off eventually.
After this finish we played some pool at the Tourist Hotel and got ourself the proof print of our results at the tournament, which will be forwarded to Fide.We both played against 6 Fide-players, with results being ok...
14:00 price giving, end of the tournament and recovery of early wake ups.   After surfing (on the web) for a couple of hours and having had diner, we found out that watching 'Bandits' in the cinema is even more fun when there's Czech subtitling!

Sunday February 10th
A final breakfast, dumping our luggage on Holesovice to have a last day in Prague. Today we crossed the entire city to find names and addresses of all restaurants for our great in-depth research of the Prague cuisine (check the results at the bottom of the Dutch section). After this, we climbed the tower of the old city hall on old town square and had a last soup at Giovanni's. More people found out about it... After updating this page we took the night train back to Amsterdam, and of course, as soon as we entered our country, rain fell down on us. Welcome back!