All,
A shame that Chris has suffered another loss. However, he is right to put some
blame on the environment. Like myself, Chris has extremely good hearing and
night-time in a hotel is not necessarily as quiet as one might expect. However,
if the playing venue includes your overnight stay there's not much one can do
about it.
That begs the question if one could change hotels during an event then is it
worth it?
Well, I've switched hotels twice during my playing career. The first was at the
British Championship, Eastbourne 1990. I'd lost the first three games and the
fact that my bedroom was adjacent to a general bathroom may have had a lot to
do with it! I moved to a different hotel, upgraded to an en suite room and
scored 4.5 out of my next 7 games.
At Hereford in 2008 I was in a ground floor room. During the night some idiot
in a house across the street decided to start playing very loud music at 3 in
the morning. It stopped at 3.20 after I got out of bed, dressed and walked over
and banged on his front door. That may have had a lot to do with the poor
opening the next morning, and I had to scramble to save a draw a piece down
against someone graded well below me. At lunch time I changed hotels to one
recommended by a fellow competitor. It was worth it for the peace of mind.
Three wins followed and I won the tournament outright.
I appreciate that for a VH player changing accommodation may not be easy but
sometimes I find it is the only thing to do. Changing rooms is probably easier
and I've done that a couple of times too. Seen other people do it too and once
lost track of a team captain!
This advice may not help Chris in Calgiari, but it may help someone else in the
future if they wish to follow it.
Regards,
Tyson
On 10 April 2019 at 22:23 Chris Ross <c.ross@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
All,
Sadly, another loss for me today has pretty much taken me out of medal
contention. Very frustrating. Two losses with white now and it's been nearly
3 years since I last lost with white.
The answer lies both in the environment of the tournament and simply, that
I'm pushing too much. In every single game so far, I have been offered draws
at differing stages and I keep turning them down, pushing the limits and
taking too many risks to win the games. Just like today. Forced draw by
perpetual, which I declined and tried to complicate and just got myself
tangled up and eventually lost.
Then, comes the hotel conditions. The food is good, but takes so long
between courses. The evening meals is taking over 2 hours to arrive. The
portions are very small and the delay makes it a boring, unsatisfying
experience.
The seats are uncomfortable and the noise generated through the small hotel
is pretty incredible. For the vast majority of the time since we have been
here, it has rained constantly, making it almost impossible to get out and
walk around.
Sleeping conditions are also very challenging. There's a tremendous amount
of noise, with dogs and cats yowling through the night and there is no
insulation between rooms and floors, with no carpets, making noise travel.
You can hear people in their bathrooms, running water, washing, moving
furniture and even talking amongst each other. None of us are getting any
kind of decent sleep. It is certainly not a 4-star hotel and is, at best, a
2-star.
Sorry, this sounds like excuses, but as it is, this doesn't make for a
pleasant, relaxing condition to play chess.
Bill won today, bringing him up to 2/5. I'm on 2.5/5, which is OK, but
nothing spectacular. I need 4 straight wins on a row to give me 6.5/9 which
would redeem the tournament somewhat, but is not enough for any kind of
placing. A top ten finish is the best I can do now.
Cheers,
Chris
