London Chess Classic 2012 - Day 1. The Piano

"There is a silence where hath been no sound. There is a silence where no sound may be in the cold grave under the deep deep sea."

Today is the day.  Round 1 is upon us.  The plan is Mini concert, pull piano offstage, move tables into position, pray cabling I ran last night holds and play starts.  Simples...

Malcolm thought it was hilarious that a senior Director of Chess Scotland is providing the muscle to move a piano.  Just shows you  :D

That's my pen!

Aronian arrived today without a pen, I gave him mine. Nice bit of product placement, it has a Dell Logo on it.  Wonder what marketing would make of that one...

We have a real touch of glamor this year.  Judit Polgar is playing in the tournament.  I am rooting for her as it is brilliant to see the best female ever playing here.

Behind the scenes we are having our usual day one dramas. The focus has been on providing a link to the guys in the analysis rooms to use for their shows and to keep the servers alive.  There are three severs being used and by all accounts they are currently sitting in a corner whimpering for their lives...

I have come to hate that piano, I am glad it is sitting backstage.  All I need is a chainsaw and I will feel better.  Much much better :D

Some late testing after the end of play tonight to resolve a clock issue and all will hopefully be well in the morning.

London Chess Classic 2012 - Day 0 - GOOOOD MORNING LONDON...

"Excuse me, sir. Seeing as how the V.P. is such a V.I.P., shouldn't we keep the P.C. on the Q.T.? 'Cause if it leaks to the V.C. he could end up M.I.A., and then we'd all be put out in K.P." 


Quote of the day has to be Nigel Short who in the middle of a bounce game with Aronian, came out with the classic, "Oh no, what a boring move", four moves prior to being checkmated!

Honestly, exciting chess wins...

Yep it is that crazy time where I spend a week in London doing about a million hours work and chewing the ends of my fingers in nerves!

Another Arbiter gets into the "McFarlane" Admonishing routine...

 The start up was delayed this year by a PC, not a computer but a Press Conference.  It was 30 mins late due to Judit and Magnus having a trip up the London Eye for a press shoot.  Traffic was a problem...

 The rest of the world took on the combined grandmasters in a "Come and have a go if you think you are hard enough" match.  Predictably the rest of the world lost horribly giving up a piece within 20 moves and the king not long after.

It was a long day yesterday and I was grateful to pour myself into my bed.  Tomorrow has its challenges, the first being and "Andy v Piano" challenge as I have to move a piano off stage so we can get play started

Is this for when the players get bored???