The Last Post

I always seem to find myself reminiscing around the time of my birthday and the Christmas/New Year period. I don’t so much look back on my life as a whole, but on the previous twelve months. In the lead-up to my birthday I tend to look back on my own life – what I have learnt about myself, the areas I have made progress and what needs to be put on the ‘To do list’ for the next year.

With regards to the current time of year, my reflections turn more to the wider world and the people/organisations that have helped to make up the year. Here then is my own Cooks Tour of 2007.

Chess: A fourth Woodhouse Cup for York (and a third for me) was a great achievement. What made it even more special was that after dropping one draw in each of the previous triumphs, this time the team went through the card with eleven straight wins – a fantastic achievement!

With regards to The ‘Railway Institute Gambit’, I’ll keep my musings to a minimum (I wish to go out tonight…). Suffice it to say that it caused a major blot on the landscape. I just hope in 2008, the twin fangs that constituted the rule changes passed will be removed from the neck of the York Chess League and we can see the daylight of common sense again. Once that happens, The ‘Group-thinkers’ (A fictional band name, based on an e-mail I wrote regarding the matter) will disperse.

University life has continued to be a highly enjoyable experience overall. However 2007 has not been without its wobbles and one of them threatened to derail me entirely. The sad part is that the troubles all revolved around exams – an area where I have spent (too many) years trying to demonstrate that I don’t have a problem with ‘hot’ ones. Sadly the end of 2006 did nothing to dissuade this view and 2007 looked to be going horribly wrong as well.

The nadir was reached during the preparation for my four August deferrals. During this time one of my lecturers had resigned and despite promising otherwise, had removed half of the work for the module that had been placed in a visual learning environment.

The night before the deferrals started was the most horrible feeling of nerves I have ever endured. It had kicked in during my preparations and steadily got worse. Simply put, whenever I was revising for the ‘missing work’ exam, I felt I was neglecting the other three and vice versa. I got no sleep due to my heart rate struggling to get below 120 and all sorts of scenarios flashing through my mind, such as what I was going to say at forthcoming job interviews.

It was then that the ‘miracle’ occurred. Getting up at 5.30am and travelling to the exams I felt no better nerves-wise, but strangely felt no worse for the lack of sleep. Upon entering the exam and seeing the questions, I knew I could do a half-baked job of one and a potentially good job of the other. Suddenly I felt galvanised and all the fitness work I had been doing over the summer kicked in. I suddenly felt mentally sharp to a level I hadn’t in a decade. Now I felt like if these exams were going to be the nemesis of my university experience, then they were going to have to give me one almighty shot to knock me over completely.

Moral of the story – plenty of exercise, 2+ litres of water and five portions of fruit and vegetables a day for 3 months can turn your life around! On a serious note though, for me to take all the credit for getting through that experience would be quite wrong. There are three other ‘groups’ who I would also like to take my hat off to.

Firstly my lecturers and staff provided me with a lot of much-needed academic support and constantly assured me that my capabilities were going to be easily enough to get through.

Secondly my family, who for years have defied ‘the authorities’ that have tried to suggest that I was not capable of getting over my health issues and have never let their love, belief and support of me, be lessened by outside opinion.

Finally, my wonderful, wonderful girlfriend deserves some serious plaudits too. It is her who has been on the front line with me throughout the year and had to deal with these wobbles of her supposedly calm and collected partner first hand.

To all of the above – thanks again.

However, for others a by far more tragic event was the death of my famous slippers who had to go to the big footwear store in the sky just before Christmas…Rest in peace my comfortable slip-ons!

The other major experience of the year for me was my first official holiday since August/September 1999 - a truly wonderful experience that I will never ever forget. Quite simply it was a beautiful location with wonderful people and enough memories to last a lifetime. I just hope it will possible to relive at some point!


Other than those three main areas of Hopwoodian life, there has been a veritable selection of other highlights this year.

January the first was a big day for me (and probably most of Holland too) when Raymond van Barneveld beat Phil Taylor to win The PDC World Darts Championships. Not most peoples idea of a dream come true, but there we are!

English Sport in 2007 – What in the name of all that is sane happened there? So many lowlights to pick from, but I’ll single out the whitewash in the Ashes and the interview with Glenn McGrath after it was all over. He has predicted a whitewash for as long as I can remember and to see the look on his face, as it became reality was difficult to take for a red-blooded Englishman!

Tom Adams and his Swan Quiz for being easily the best I have ever done. The questions were ‘generation-proofed’; all on a good level and the quizmaster himself made it seem more like a stand-up routine with questions interspersed – full marks Tom!

The creation of the concept of ‘Linuses’ – Reti and 1. f4 players, you know who you are! I also have to thank Jos Woolley in helping me create this concept and for the greatest blitz chess session I have ever been a part of.

No summary of the year would be complete without a big thank you to Chateau Townsend, who were able to cope with my near-collapse form low blood sugar back in June and being able to deal with the matter with a smile on their face. For those worried by this occurence, it was another one-off due to exceptional circumstances - My health is much better!

The Swiss security guard who was trying to give my girlfriend and I directions to lunch, whereupon after spending five minutes doing so, my better half suddenly felt that perhaps an alternative to Chinese was better. At this point, the guard looked at me with mock concern and asked, ‘You want to marry her?’

So in summary, the plan for 2008 is:

1. Cut out the wobbles! They’re all part and parcel of life, but some have been distinctly unnecessary.
2. Finish degree with 2:1 and sort out postgraduate study.
3. Keep playing some chess. I don’t wish to fade away.
4. Keep working on and improving general fitness.

There are also some other short-term goals, but I will deal with them as and when the opportunity arises.

That’s all from my blog for now. Please feel free to point out other anecdotes of the year, both good and bad; and I will update the list later on. For now, I wish everyone a happy start to 2008.

The greatest comeback since Lazarus?

Gata Kamsky has won the second World Chess Cup. He managed to do it in impressive fashion too by not losing a single game. Given what was at stake in both cash and chess terms, I take my hat off to him.

The next stage will, I hope, lead to a simmering down in the chess world by there being one World Champion AND one qualification system. The next step in this process involves the matches Topalov-Kamsky and Kramnik-Anand.

With regards to the first match, I feel that Topalov should have a bit too much in the tank. Kamsky was renowned for his incredible fighting spirit even before his ‘retirement’ and he demonstrated that it is still there in abundance when winning in Khanty Mansiysk. However I feel that Topalov is the one player who can match him in that area. If those factors are neutralised, then I feel it will come down to specific chess factors.

The main one that I can foresee is in opening preparation. Topalov has become renowned for being ‘Kasparovesque’ in this department in recent years. Kamsky has been rustic to say the least since his return, but seemed to have done some work for the World Cup. However, he will surely need some Seconds for the match and I feel it is a question of who will work with him.

Those with long memories will recall the ‘horror stories’ of when Gata was competing in Candidates matches in the mid-nineties and the many incidents that revolved around his father. Hopefully people will realise that he is not on the scene any longer and have nothing against the Gata himself. If he can successfully manage this and recall his former devastating work ethic, he has a chance.

On the other hand, the Anand-Kramnik match is a highly juicy prospect in my eyes! Whatever the issues surrounding Kramnik and his right to a return challenge, it seems that there is widespread agreement about a match being the best way to decide the ultimate prize. For the system mess-ups, one can look to FIDE, but I am not going to criticise them here. Plenty of people have done it already and well, it’s just too easy it seems!

My current opinion is that Kramnik will score a narrow victory, but that is on the basis of where the players are today. How they will be playing next autumn is hard to speculate. My reasons for thinking that Big Vlad will be victorious are as follows:

Kramnik has shown himself to be a better match player over the years and one of the reasons behind this has been his steely personality. Contrast this with Anand who has shown degrees of grit, but has also gone on bad runs after a setback. Examples of this are Dortmund 2001 and of course his match against Kasparov. Looking back over the intervening years I feel sure that he has toughened up though. Despite that, I still do not feel that he is in Kramniks’ league yet.

The openings will be a massive battleground. Firstly Anand has to find a way around the Catalan, which I predict will be the Semi-Slav. This will not be easy to dent, but I feel there is more of a chance of Kramnik applying pressure here than in the Petroff. I'm basing this on the fact that Anand has exclusively stuck to 1. e4 for a good while. However, he learned how to play 'left-handed' after the Kasparov match and may choose to exercise that option in the match.

Both players might try and play the match in ‘plus-equals mode’ and if that is the case, it will come down to who can grind and withstand being ground the better. This point also links in with the psychological profiles.

I’ll no doubt return to this issue many times over the coming months!

"House!"

I’m now home for Christmas, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it. Due to problems with my student loans/grants, I have been living on a tight budget for the last six months. However, now that the festive season is here the limited social options are pinching even more than usual!

As mentioned in a previous post, I do have plenty of academic work to be getting on with during my vacation. However, once again the lack of readies has made itself felt by my being unable to purchase an essential piece of equipment for my dissertation experiment. I had to try and buy the equipment off the Internet and thought that I had budgeted for it correctly. Unfortunately there was not enough in the bank to cover postage and packaging as well!

As a result I have been getting on with my essays and it has been nice to be able to work in my room on an evening without being disturbed at all hours. However my recent experiences in student halls have led to the invention of a new game, which I have christened ‘Rievaulx Hall Bingo’. The rules are very simple – each time I get disturbed by a room, I mark it off on my ‘Bingo Card’. So far, I have completed four corners (Rooms 10/6/50/44) and am one away from completing a line, having being disturbed by 32/33/34/35. Suffice it to say if I get anywhere near a Full House in the second term; I hope serious action will be taken!

What has amused me is that in certain quarters I have developed a bad reputation for ‘complaining about the noise’. Given that there is a clear ‘noise curfew’ that kicks in at midnight, I thought I was just stating a fact about a rule being broken. Perhaps a Lexicographer can accurately tell me what the difference is between the two; then I can add another useless piece of information to my collection!

First Years – bless them! At such times I tend to recall a scene from ‘Fried Green Tomatoes at The Whistlestop Café’, where two ‘young upstarts’ dive into a parking space ahead of Kathy Bates’ character and smugly point out that they are ‘younger and faster’. After entering the building, the upstarts hear a large crashing sound and cheering coming from outside. They then race back outside to find Kathy Bates repeatedly ramming their car. When the upstarts ask what she is doing, back comes the gleeful retort, ‘Face it girls, I’m older and I’m better insured!’

Oh to be 26 and a mature student!

b2 or not b2, that is the question...twice!

Term has ended for me and so I have been letting my hair down in typical Hoppers fashion by enjoying a few steady beers and indulging in some Najdorf analysis. I find one of the beauties of openings study is that there is always the chance to discover something new. However with so many people having powerful chess computers these days; the odds of discovering something truly original are probably very small indeed!

This has not stopped me from trying though. For once I have tried to give 'that' memory of mine a fractionally easier ride by cutting out some learning in the Poisoned Pawn variation.

In my earlier post 'b2 or not b2, that is the question: part 2', I briefly referred to the line.

If this line did work, then it would cut out the large chunks of analysis needed to play the long main lines after 20. Bd6 - again see the earlier post for further details.

However, my analysis revealed two 'black holes' that seem to render the line unplayable. I therefore concluded that 14...Qd5 is the only move for black.

This time England didn't even make the quarters!

Despite my workload, I've been keeping up with events in the chess world. The 2nd World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk has provided me with a good deal of entertainment. As an England fan it was sad to see Michael Adams go out in the fourth round, but in being beaten by Magnus Carlsen it made my task easy as to who to support for the rest of the event!

As an avid chessbase website follower, it has been possible to follow the progress of prodigies right from the very beginning of their international playing careers. I was aware of Magnus from the age of ten and when he was first splashed all over the media after Wijk aan Zee 2004, I was not surprised.

Since then, I have simply been astounded by not only his progress, but also the way he plays the game. Unlike most prodigies of the computer era, he has the capacity to play excellent positional chess as well as being a tactical whizz.

I have also played again myself in the last week, when I turned out for my home town in the annual York-Lancaster Roses Match. I have not played in the event for three years, which has been a great disappointment because it is without doubt my favourite match of the year. The County Roses Match is indeed special, but it somehow feels to me that playing in a match where one can only be a member of two chess clubs in the whole world is even more so.

Despite playing like a drain in a mainline Spanish, I nonetheless succeeded in drawing after my opponent generously agreed to split the point in a position where he was slightly better and could torture me with good knight versus bad bishop. This was a bit of a disappointment because I normally make a big effort to get fire up for the match, which has led to some pleasing performances in the past. However, as a relative veteran of nine fixtures, I was pleased to be one of the few players to maintain a healthy unbeaten record of + 5 = 4.

However, what my own game lacked in excitement and cutting edge, the match more than made up for. York went into an early 4-1 lead in the nine board fixture, only to be pegged back to 4-3. Richard Larkin then drew after a heroic defensive effort to guarantee a share of the spoils. This though was nothing compared to the extreme drama and tension surrounding the board one encounter.

Yorks' Jos Woolley had outplayed his opponent Bob Newton all game long, but his clock handling had left a lot to be desired. With a couple of minutes versus half an hour Jos steadfastly kept control in an advantageous position with mutually exposed kings. He eventually managed to swap off to a position where he had rook and g-pawn against Bishop h and g pawns, which from the match perspective suited us fine.

However, with only seconds left on the clock it looked certain that he would be flagged and no-one had much of a clue what to do if Jos had tried to claim a draw. It was at this point that Bob Newton wrote himself into the folklore of this great fixture forever by agreeing to a draw, 'in the spirit of the match'. This gave York an extremely narrow 5-4 win, but the real winners that day were chess and the indomitable spirit of friendly rivals.

Bob Newton, Caissa and the chess-playing fraternity of York salute you!

Re-emergence

My last deadline for 2007 was today and I comfortably met it when handing in my Mental Health and Counselling essay this morning.

Since my last post, I have handed in two essays and given another presentation. As well as this I also performed a reading from the Book of Genesis at the College Carol Service, which was very well received. With regards to the latter, I’d like to thank all those who failed to volunteer and let me have my moment!

Last Thursday, I handed in my Cognitive Psychology essay on autism. The title was, ‘Is there a single factor that could unify the symptoms of autism under a single cognitive umbrella?’

For this work I looked at the three main theories that have been put forward to try and collectively explain the disorder:

1. Theory of mind
2. Central Coherence Construct
3. Executive Dysfunction

Unsurprisingly each theory has holes and cannot be seen as unifying all the symptoms. However, I also argued the case that there doesn’t seem to be universal agreement on what the symptoms that should be included in any theory are and that until this is done, it seems highly unlikely that any all-encompassing theory could be developed.

Furthermore, it may even be possible that one of the existing theories does actually cover all of the symptoms, but lack of agreement as to what they are prevents it from being seen as such. In my opinion, if any of the theories is going to achieve this, then it will be the Central Coherence Construct.

The presentation was also for Cognitive Psychology and involved talking for fifteen minutes and taking questions on a particular research paper that I had used for the autism essay. My paper endeavoured to expand on the knowledge I had picked up from the lectures and writing the essay by looking at the neuropsychological theories of the disorder.

Once again, I was pretty unhappy with how the presentation went, but I do set myself very high standards when it comes to public speaking! As with the Sports Psychology presentation, I simply didn’t have the mental energy in the tank and my voice lacked punch. Apart from that I forgot one point in the main body and one when answering a question, but other than that I muddled through and once again I predict a 2:1. My Mental Health and Counselling essay was entitled, ‘Critically evaluate whether the diagnosis of schizophrenia can ever been seen as valid using recent research evidence to support your argument’.

I thoroughly enjoyed this piece of work because I finally had the chance to get my teeth into a really meaty topic and go to town with it. I can only hope that this shows through in the mark. Suffice it to say I am a much wiser person for the experience!

The Christmas period is looming large, but there is no rest for the weary. The next four or five weeks will be spent collecting dissertation results (for which I still need more volunteers! – Please see my November post, ‘It’s chess Jim, but not as we know it’ for further details) and writing my Deconstructing Psychology essay.

So far everything in this academic year has been good. Not great, but good.