Bournemouth Weekend

Around the 7th October I got the idea into my head that I should play some more chess and enter the Bournemouth Congress which was on the next weekend 14 to 16 October. Thanks to the internet and email I managed to send an entry form, book a bed and breakfast for two nights and work out a railway journey, along the south coast, changing at Brighton and Southampton Central.

The travelling went very well apart from getting a slow train from Southampton and having to change again at Brockenhurst, to catch the Cross-Country train from Manchester that I should probably have caught in the first place.

This was the first time I'd been in Bournemouth since the memorable BCPS weekend there in 1989. The weather was excellent and I did a lot of walking around the central areas of the town; probably too much as by the end I was struggling to get up the hill to the venue with a stiff right knee.

My results were as poor as at Leicester, winning only the last game, and that only because my opponent blundered away a rook, and refused to agree a draw, which I thought would have been fairer, since he had played well and had the advantage up to that point. There are photos of the event here.

Since I got back on the Sunday night I've been feeling pretty tired and have endeavoured to take it easy and rest my brain and my leg. The photo is of a tethered balloon on which people were booking rides in the Winter Gardens.