I hope you are fine and wish you and your wife an excellent New Near 2016, with good health and full of joy!

Good to hear from you again.

I am fine, thank you and it has been a nice and guite Christmas in the best sense of the word.Many routines, but we like them.You may also say hello to your wife from me and I should send you greetings from mine too,who is sitting here and looking lovely as always !

We are both going to town today,her to see a good friend and me too meet a former collque for the first time in perhaps 3 years.Really looking forward too it.

And you ? How have your Christmas been ?

Qatar is over and another triumph for Carlsen.Can only congratulate him for his outstanding play and performance. But the highlight for me was the daily lectures from Peter Svidler ! Full of insight and higly entertaining :)

Thanks for your bithdaywishes,but I may disappoint you and say it is the 4th of February.I dont want to be a capricorn :)...

May also you and your wife have the best New Year with good health and joy too ! With many thanks for all our fruitfull exchanges in 2015 !

How have been your celebration of New year's Eve? We've been in the family, at my sister's apartment. It's very cold outside since 2 days (-12), but no snow.

We come to 2016,you too ! Hope that the entrance to the New Year was a good one.Here it was quit and cousy and the best menu you can imagine :) I(we) enjoy not drinking alcohol..that is reserved to the visits in town with friends :)

Hoping for a more peacefull globe in 2016 and off course great chess tournaments like Wijk an See (or Tata)which is to start the 16th this month. With the usuall mix and likely to be a fighting tournament.

Brrr,it is cold now,around zero,but with the wind it is more like -15.

The Google and you made a very charming effort which is appreciated:)

♘Tata Steel♘ !!! Tata Steel 2016 !!! ♗Tata Steel♗

This tournament will run from January 16th thru January 31st 2016.

Participants include: Magnus Carlsen, Anish Giri, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Sergey Karjakin, Ding Liren, Pavel Eljanov, Shakhryar Mamedyarov, Michael Adams, David Navara, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Wei Yi, Hou Yifan & Loek van Wely.

*****

<<> The 'Prediction Extravaganza - Tata Steel' event! <>>

< 3 Prediction Contests: (Win virtual medals - Gold, Silver & Bronze) >

User: lostemperor - Predict the order the players will finish. (3 categories to medal in)

User: Golden Executive - Predict the result 1-0, 1/2, or 0-1 (3 categories to medal in)

This year will be the 10th Anniversary for this contest! (from 2007 to 2016 - 10 years running)

User: OhioChessFan - Predict the result 1-0, 1/2, or 0-1 & the number of moves. (4 categories to medal in)

All three of the organizers <lostemperor>, <Golden Executive> & <chessmoron> have confirmed they will be running their contests for this event 'Tata Steel'.

*****

Also don't forget about <chessgames> ChessBookie game for this event. He can't wait to take some or all of your chessbucks. ;)

ChessBookie Game

Hope everything is fine !?...

Haven´t really got much time for Tata today,but tomorrow I´ll be glued to the seat :)

I didn't follow much Tata either, although I did participate in result prediction contest.

We are having a calm winter up to now, at least our region, while in other half of country snow and wind came up.

Very good to hear from you again ! Sorry to hear about your mother in law,but it sounded like it was "the right time" !? Please correct my if I am wrong.And please give my condolences to your wife.

And I am fine,thank you.The health is all in all in a good shape and I am still enjoying life and has "small" moments of a kind of happiness.

Looking forward to go deep into Tata.Always some twists and turns.Same actors, but not same script ;)

Weather here is a little frosty 3-4 cm´s snow.Kind of afterchristmas show, better late than not...But I can imagine you prefer your calm winter as you like the warm weather in the summertime ?

Take care et a bientot !

I've followed Tata a bit but not much, and mostly on the video relay. Pretty good performance by Hou so far, what do you think? Looks like it's frosty there too - a bit like all over Europe. In Iasi cold, but no snow.

Yes I also think Hou has made a great performance so far and today she has a clear advantage vs Navara.And now it is interesting if she can convert !?

Yesterday I went to the bookies,paid for my bills, lost them somewhere in the snowy landscape,made some duplets,paid for them too,found the first set in the snow and cashed double in today !! ;) Tripleluck in the keygame where Eljanov was supposed to win as he duly did ;)... Life is funny sometimes isn´t it ?

All is good here and I am looking forward to tomorrow where I have for the first time to see my new acupunktourist (dont know if it is the prober way to spell it,but I suppose you know the meaning).Meanwhile things are getting tense in Wijk an Zee.

Hou ahead of Carlsen in standings after 4 rounds! Carlsen not able to beat Wei Yi and now they're equal, in the middle of the pack - is this a sign of a future rivalry?

More answers in just a few hours. Get ready for the joy! And I hope you will have a gentle encounter with your acupuncturist needles :) - mind you, I did have an acupuncture session myself, some 15 years ago. The trick was to inspire (inhale) deep and fast right in the moment when the doctor pushes the needle into your skin. In my case it had effect, almost no pain at all.

Yes,a very funny story with the bookies.Think it is first time for ages I have felt so Lucky ;)As normally I focus on skills..

Smart play by van Wely so far.After Bc7-Bg3.Same with Hou after Rg8(which I dont fully understand.But those deep profylactic moves show the difference between the very best and the average player.)And let us not forget to cogratulate Hou for her game of the tournamnet,so far.She seems to appear very relaxed in the best sense of the Word IMHO.Smart play by Giri after -Qc5!? and may be time for Wei to burn some time.

<Carlsen not able to beat Wei Yi and now they're equal, in the middle of the pack - is this a sign of a future rivalry?> Lol ! But a bit funny as it may sound you may have a point.In 3-5 years Wei may be the best bet for a contender...At least the place for the next contender seems wide open,unless Caruana makes another(sorry):Caruana :)

So you also tried an acupuncturist !?
Did it work on you ?
My new one yesterday turned out to be extremely plesant and occured highly qualified and as a sort of bonus the needleds (not needless to mention;)did not hurt at all.He is taught in a seldom japanese tradtion and knows a special technique.His mentors were blind so he uses a technigue were he uses the sense in his fingertips to make the diagnosis !...Well if that isn´t interesting,then...

So high spirits yesterday and things are heating up in Tata meanwhile.

See you around and let us enjoy the show and the snow,including the always present Yasser and the fine way he communicates with his/our guests.

And Anne Haast, after beating Nisipeanu, won again yesterday! Such is Caissa!

I'm glad you have no problems with the acupuncture. I hope they will also have the desired effect.

But what application are you referring to? Maybe you meant the papers for symposiums I was preparing, or some other stuff I need to write for my research work - they are still going on, hopefully I will manage to finish them in due time. Actually, I will, because I have to.

No other hews here, other than my brother in law came to Iasi to stay in the hospital for a few days, for liver and tension related problems. He's been a chain smoker since some 40 years and he really needs to quit. He did it, twice, for one-two weeks, but started again.

Nice to hear from you again.

Here the weather is grey/sometimes a little sunshine and the snow we had almost totally gone.Just a few spots here and there,perhaps telling a story about a short winter.

Yes,Carlsen in the front in Tata and may very well stay there till it is over.with 3 fine wins in a row.Especially the one vs Eljanov IMHO. And the game vs Tomashevsky was interesting for me as I had the same postion as Carlsen twice(!!)tll move 14 and both times won rther easily.
But I haven´t followed thr B-Group very closely,but will have a peek today.

<Maybe you meant the papers for symposiums I was preparing, or some other stuff I need to write for my research work - they are still going on, hopefully I will manage to finish them in due time. Actually, I will, because I have to.> Yes,I think these were the ones I had in mind and hope you will succes....Papertigers can be the most annoying ones,can´t they !? ;)

And I hope your Brother in law will find the energy to quit ! But saying goodbye to cigarettes can be so tough. At least he seems to be in good cmpany for now.

Now back to Tata.My keygame (at the bookies)is Eljanov-Giri which shall NOT end in a Draw :)

Take care and see you around.

Strange round yesterday.Several winning positions that were not converted.And it seems that Carlsen is cruising for for (a welldeserved)first place.He has been very impressive IMHO and right now the challengers spot in the candidates seems to be "everyones" claim.

Going to town to have brunch with wify,but will be back to see the final moves of todays round.

Hope that you will have a fine and joyfull weekend and that your brother in law will find a way.Nicotinedependence can be so difficult to quit.

In addition to that nerves came from the fact that I don't like what I am doing, as a job, law that is, and that I would have preferred a thousand times more stuff like history, literature, philosophy, geography, music, cinematography, whatever...! But that's another story for another time....

Yes, Tata going into the last round with chances intact for Carlsen, Caruana and even Ding Liren to grab the crown, exciting hours ahead.

Thank you for your thoughts regarding my brother in law, during stay at the hospital he is not smoking, so we will see if he can continue this decision after that too.

Sorry to hear about your situation right now.It really sounds like an awfull feeling and I sincerely hope that you may find the energy to,either change direction,or find a new acceptance of the circumstances. If we were younger I would have mentioned how important it is to feel(at least a kind of) love and compassion for ones profession and that you should choose what feels the most right thing to do,but it sounds like you are fully aware of that and this awareness certainly doesn´t make it easier.For the moment being.Please correct me if I am wrong and please let me know if I can be of any help/inspiration to your further steps in this process.

So Tata is over.Day one after the big clashes and Carlsen showed that no one is close to his level at the moment.Lots of kudos to him.I am not gonna miss Seirawan, but he was a fine commentator during the event and it is not the last time we have seen him.His friendliness with the guests maybecome legendary in times to follow. And with more people like him in the World,it would most likely be a safer and nicer place.

Wei didn´t show something special(concernig his possibilites in a match against the great norwegian),but nor the opposite.Time will tell.Time as 3-5 years in this case IMHO.

< It's just that I got nervous with Batsiashvili not being able to beat Adhiban, I mean who could have predicted by move, say, 33, that she will draw that game? And what kind of play for a 2650+ was that for Adhiban in that game? He did manage to salvage a draw alright, but that thanks to (possible) black's belief that the game was already won so that she could afford to sacrifice a lot.>

Well,I guess I now this frustrating experience.With some of my own games as well.I had some of the same with Karjakins loss vs Adams."How could such a worldclassplayer misshandle the London in such an amateurish way-grr" Chess is a cruel game...

Let us have a glass of scotch and share some poetry !