Hastings chess 2009-2010

previews, round 1, and players blogging

The 85th Hastings International Chess Congress takes place from 28 December 2009 to 5 January 2010 at the Horntye Park Sports Complex in Hastings. The Hastings Masters Tournament, the main event of the competition, is a nine-round Swiss system event running from 28 December to 5 January, while the 27th Hastings Weekend Congress will take place on Saturday and Sunday 2-3 January 2010.

Round 1 of the Masters event is already complete. Most favorites won their games, but there were a few surprises like GM Hracek and IM Philippe were held to a draw by FM Eames and Alan Grant, and IM Andrew Martin was defeated by WIM Worek.

Official website / Results / Entries / Download games

Tournament preview and spell check by Stewart Ruben

It is highly desirable for there to be at least 10 foreign players of the status of grandmasters, international masters, woman grandmaster, women masters and a total of at least 20 foreign rated players in the Masters. This is in order to ensure there is the possibility of a player gaining a title result. Since our resources are strictly limited, this can require a fine balancing act between inviting leading English players and foreigners.

Yuri Drodzovkij GM 2627 and Natalia Zdebsaja WGM 2410 both Ukraine are obviously a husband and wife pair! As are Nikolaj Shalnev GM 2450 and Olgar Shalneya WIM 2153 of Germany. These two pairs are receiving hospitality at the White Rock Hotel, a valuable sponsorship. Zbynek Hracek GM 2624 Czech Republic is another very strong player from the Czech Republic. Andrei Stratescu GM 2624 Roumania is the second of 19 year old Roman Edouard GM 2620 France.

Other foreign leading players include: Dietmar Kolbus IM 2320 Germany, he lives in the Isle of Man which is why sometimes he can be found playing in the British Championship; Diana Arutyona WGM Ukraine and Joanna Worek WIM 2226 Poland are welcome newcomers as are Christophe Phillippe IM 2430 France, Dennis Breder Germany IM 2427, Gudmundur Kjartsson Iceland IM 2391. Petr Marusenko IM 2264 is another player from the Ukraine, but he seems to have been playing here forever. That is not true of course, the congress only dates back to 1919 and he has only been coming here since the USSR broke up. Vladimir Prosviriakov USA IM 2311 is back again; and I don’t remember whether this is the first visit by Nicolas Giffard France IM 2351.

The English challenger is led by 19 year old David Howell GM 2620. Simon Williams GM 2530 will be here with his partner WFM Aly Wilson Switzerland. Mark Hebden GM 2500 has celebrated the New Year here many, many times. Keith Arkell GM 2478 had a rather devastating autumn due to ill-health, but he says his health and therefore his results are now much better. He did give up chess for a few years, but could not resist the lure of Goddess Caissa. Keith and Mark really should do a book of their 100 best games against each other.

Foreign names can be tongue twisters. Drodzovkij, being originally in Cyrillic script, means the best transliteration may be something like Drodzyovky and Zdebsaja Zdebsaya. You can tell Shalnevya is simply the female version of her husband’s Russian name. Worldwide, any name ending in ‘a’ is likely to be that of a woman. Hracek is probably Hrachek. Romain Edouard is straightforward – but I thought Edouard was his first name until he corrected me. When issuing formal invitations for visa purposes, it is all-important to get the same spelling as appears on the passport. While having dinner at my home Bojan Kurajica spent 10 minutes teaching my parents and me how to pronounce his name. It is approximately Boyan Kuraiyitsa.

But strangely enough my name causes the greatest problems. My cousins don’t even spell Reuben the same way, many use Rubin. Then there could be Roubin, Rueben, Rubens and so on. My father was told by the registrar that Stuart is the correct spelling. My father demanded, ‘Write down Stewart.’ Steuart is a rare variation. People often think my name is Reuben Stewart. In Cyrillic the last name becomes RBN. My spellchecker had a nervous breakdown as I was writing this.

Media coverage

The Hastings Congress has received solid media attention in UK right from the start. The Telegraph and a few other major newspapers have published preview articles, but the good news is that chess blogs and participants have been active as well.

Peter Smith writes in his blog, "Arrived at Hastings on the afternoon of the 28th. A bit of heavy traffic on the A21 meant that I only arrived at my accomodation about an hour before my first game at 2.15. However, found my digs which are really nice, (Senlac Guest house is to be highly recommended), made my way to the tournament hall, had fish and chips in the bar and then straight into my game. It was a Sicilian Dragon which I haven't encountered for a while. I got a slight edge and kept on with the plan of advancing on the kingside to open lines for attack. My opponent went wrong a couple of times which allowed me to win the ensuing endgame. I'll annotate this at a later stage. The masters is headed by a group of strong Ukrainian Grandmasters and Young David Howell from England. If he plays like he did at the recent London Tournament I think he'll win."

IM Jack Rudd published on West Country chess, "For all its faults, I do actually like the British public transport network. Which is not to say I like everything about it. Yesterday's journey, in which I made my way from Bideford to Coulsdon and then from Coulsdon to Hastings, is a case in point. It had all the normal joys of a post-Christmas journey, coupled with Sunday scheduling. Thus: Bus from Bideford to Barnstaple. Train from Barnstaple to Exeter - fortunately, they had decided to run four carriages instead of two; they needed them. Get to Exeter St Davids. Can take a packed Paddington train or wait an hour for a slow train to Clapham Junction. Choose Paddington train, do not get a seat until Reading. Go through the London Underground system to Victoria via Oxford Circus, hauling huge suitcase in my wake. Hauling huge suitcases through the Underground is always spectacularly fun for everyone. Get fast train from Victoria to Purley, and then one from Purley to Coulsdon South. Complete stuff that needs to be done at Coulsdon pretty quickly, with time to kill before the next train. Go from Coulsdon to Gatwick Airport station. Just miss connection with Hastings train. Wait an hour at Gatwick Airport for another train. Note that there is nothing to do at Gatwick Airport station unless I go into the airport itself, which is confusing and likely to cause me to find myself lost in short order. Get on Eastbourne and Ore train. Find out as I'm approaching Eastbourne that I'm in the wrong half of the train; hastily move through Southern train with narrow aisles with the aforementioned huge suitcase. More spectacular fun for everyone. Eventually end up in Hastings. It's a good job I like this tournament so much. Today, I'm taking on GM Romain Edouard of France"