Again Hurray!

On my last tournament I had 2 draws against stronger players!
Me: rating 1420
He: rating 1674
Another he: rating 1726 !
Ok the other games where not so good, allthough I gave away good fights, but all my opponents where very, very strong.
This is a begin.
I have good hope for the next tournaments.

People you meet at chess tournaments

What I like most at chess tournaments is to see such a diversion of people.
People of all ages. My oldest opponent who beated me was 90, and the youngest was an 8 year old boy. Beware of such children! During the game they look totally uninterested, while drinking their lemonade, and when they move they never seem to think about it. You allways loose on time with them.
In the chess-world you get to know a lot of people. And on every tournament you see your old friends.
And if you have won from them or not, after 1 game they remain friends.
Some people have a handicap.
I play often with a blind guy, because we have allmost the same rating, and we both like the tournaments. He has his own little chess board, where he can touch the fields and pieces, and to record our moves he uses a cassette-recorder. He is a specialist with his laser-beam bishops, they seem to pop up from everywhere.
Sometimes there are hilarious situations: One time a blind guy was placed against a deaf guy........(computers have there own handicap)
I played a few years ago against somebody in a wheelchair who could not do his moves by himself (he was paralysed). I had to do the moves for him.
He won from me, so at the end I had to checkmate myself.
Sigh...
It is nice to see the really old men and women play their game. They are old-fashioned polite and so relaxed, they just play for fun. They still have their sharpness of mind, which makes me conclude that playing chess is good for us.

About the circles:
TCT
Step 1-4, completed the 7 circles
Step 5 :
circle 1 for all levels, average 88 %
circle 2 : level 15
circle 3 : level 13
circle 4 : level 11
circle 5 : level 4

Blind as a bat

The good news: I have my new second hand computer. No more fighting with TS whose turn it is, to use it.
Result: I've finished step 4, all 7 circles !
One step to go.
One problem I have, there is no internet yet, and my music programs are not installed. I cannot do this myself, I'm blind as a bat with computers.
It took me 3 months to make my first music sheet. There were so many buttons in my music program, and they never did what I wanted.
When I install a new program I have allways difficulties with it.
So TS must do all this work for me.
I would like to make my blog nice with pictures, music, links. But I simply don't know how.

There is maybe a new knight on the way.
Satishtalim, from India, wrote several times commentary. He has his own chessblog. But my computer gets hick-ups when I visit his blogs. I don't know why.

Now, back to the tactics. I've only one week to prepare for the big tournament.
7 Rounds, 2 ours pp. and the opponents are strong!

Alive, well and buzzzzzzzzzzzzzy

No, I did not forget my fellow knights. And yes, I'm working hard on my tactics.
But I have to do a lot of work for my two choirs. And I have formed a new small group, we are going to sing madrigals and close harmony. With a lot of work, I hope. Also I did a lot of composing, and that costs a lot of time.
For chess I prefer to do training, and so that leaves not much time left for blogging.
Besides, with only one PC Tempo and I struggle a bit who can use it.
Now this week I'm getting a second hand computer (yahoo!) so there is time again for blogs.
Nice to see our family has extended with new knigts.
For all of you: Welcome, brothers.
I'll ask Tempo to put your links on my list.
And now, back to my trainings!