Hastings update

I'm currently on 1½/2 at Hastings; my first-round victory against Chkhaidze got a mention in the daily commentary.

My second-round game featured two recent winners of the Brilliancy Prize; I won it in last year's event, while Simon Williams won it the year before. Expectations were high going into the game; we did not disappoint.

Unfortunately, chesspublisher fouled up when trying to process this game. It's available on the commentary link, though.

If it's just after Christmas, it must be Hastings

Yes, it's that time of year again. The time when I go off to the Hastings International Chess Congress, which has some claim to be England's longest-running tournament. (The British Championship started later - 1904 to Hastings's 1895 - but has been running every year (except the war years) since, whereas Hastings didn't run between 1895 and 1922.)

This year, the live game coverage has been expanded from five games to twenty, so there's every chance you'll be able to watch my games live. Not in the first round, though; I'm on board 24, with black against a Georgian player called Nikoloz Chkhaidze, rated 2203.