I went to the championship with Piotr Murdzia – 7 time world champion in chess solving and British champion of 2015.
Since my daughter lives in London, I was already planning a trip there. In this case I did both – visited her and went as a guest to the Albion Championship in chess solving, Anno Domini 2016. I had never been to England before, and it was my first time on a plane in a long time. I’ve chosen a flight from Warsaw, with polish airline LOT. To make this article more humorous, let me tell you something interesting. From Poland to England the flight is one hour long and from England to Poland is three hours long. I believe that everyone understands why, for those who don’t – try it yourself. While traveling I often come up with interesting ideas, just like this time. As I was entering the plane, I’ve asked our stewardess to show me her hand. I looked at it and I told her that she has a very long life line. Now I could travel with no fear.
We were surprised by the unusual London weather, with no fog or smog. This was one out of 365 days of the year when weather in London is not foggy! From there everything went as planned. My daughter picked us up from the Heathrow airport and transported us to the place where championship took place – Slough. Since the championship took place the next day, my daughter took us to Gordon Ramsey’s restaurant (one of the most popular chefs in the world) in which she works. Inside, I was warmly welcomed by her friends who made me feel like at home. We had champagne and seven different kind of dishes, including sushi. I won’t try to describe the incredible taste of the food but concluding it was the most amazing, beautiful and tasty supper in my life. And to think that all it took was to visit London…
British Championship happened in a beautiful Eton College auditorium. You can see it on the pictures attached. There were strong players from around the world, which caused a hard battle for points. Our grandmaster scored second place, losing to Belgian who scored 5 points in the last minute and took lead by 2,5 points. You can see our grandmaster’s game on www.goldchess.com, as I though of it as beautiful and I found a solution to it.
British chess solving championship have one interesting specificity. All players play in one group and are subjected to a general scoring. Then the organizers divide them between English and foreign players, and Englishman who scored the best in general group, becomes a British champion. It look humorous, as for example first 100 of places are scored by foreigns, and Englishman can still become a champion by taking 101st place :). This year was not so bad for English as pure Englishman took third place. Belgian, Pole an English.
After returning to the hotel, the atmosphere was pleasant, as I discovered that it is Piotr Murdzia’s birthday. I’m not going to narrate on our hotel party for the known reasons :). It’s a skill taken from chess tactics :). Concluding, there is many Poles around and there is no problem communicating in polish.
LK
Championship info:
Problems-http://www.wfcc.ch/wp-content/uploads/WCBCSC-2016-Solutions.pdf
Results-http://www.wfcc.ch/wp-content/uploads/WCBCSC-2016.pdf
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