Perhaps the same with the perception of am/pm here.In my Little brain PastM or AfterM is more or less the same,so...;)

But the lady is comming home today,around 17-17.30 so it gonna be great.House is better with her :),though I enjoyed the days on my own.

So the final 2 rounds start today. And a cautios guess from here is that there will be a lot of fighting on the boards.And what a demolition job yesterday in Carlsens game !?...and a higly entertainig post mortem with MC which is higly recommended.

Hope your lady is satisfied with her trip and it will be good to have her back !

Very nice to have my wife back and she has had a very good trip and now shes very glad for being home again.Noe can not ask for more.Even in the games in Norway I dont complain.Money on Topa and Kramnik and Aronian and they all go for the jugulars ! As did Kasparov yesterday.Very very impressive.

monday and going to se JWH at town.Need to do something ells.

Glad to hear your wife and sister in law (does she also study the law ? ;)are safe back.And to boot you are going to Onesti...hope your weather will be as good as here were it is almost summer ! I prefer colder,but for now I´ll look at the glass as half filled:)

Still very impressed by old Garry´s performance and off course kudos to Magnus once again.

I've been trying to contact Alan Benson (malthrope on CG.com) today, but to no avail. Apparently he has been active up to summer of 2015 on that chess24 account he had. Last time I've spoken to him there in oct. 2014. I've sent him an email on his gmail adress but it was sent back as account not anymore existent. I hope he's alright though.

And what about our former aquaintance <achieve> - do you know anything about him? How was the latest meeting with JWH? How good is he at chess - close to your rating? No, my sister in law hasn't graduated law :), she is a teacher of French in Onesti.

Juat made a fine long post to you and then I scrolled back and it vanished ):):

Will be back tomorrow or monday and hit the pillow now.

Eveything is fine and I send you all my best wishes!

How about you, any meeting with your friends? So the needle apointments have finished? I take it you are satisfied?

Yes <malthrope> s death was a loss for CG.He was a gentleman.And came across as a gentle man.I enjoyed very much our conversations.Always was he helpful and curious.

Havent been much too the needleman lateley due to a trip to Japan he made.But he said I was moving in the right direction.So...!?Well meet in less than 3 weeks.And I am satisfied but still a long way to go.So no miracles.For yet ;)

Have seen a couple of friends lately and it is usually a big joy and inspiration I couldnt live without.

Good to hear you are fine mostly.But what is endocrine problems?,if you would like to tell me.

Wife is out in town with friends so now my plan is to enjoy a good movie !

Take care and see you soon.

And best of luck with your bloodsamples !

Ah your acupuncturist went to Japan, ok - but he's not Japanese himself, is he? Truth be told is one of the trips I sometimes like to dream about, Japan and all its culture so different from the European one...who knows, maybe someday will become true.

The blood samples analysis showed good results for the first time in more than 2 years, so hopefully now the doctor will stop the medication, or at least lower it. The endocrine system is concerned with regulating the metabolism, its most important centre being the thyroid gland, located somewhere at the base of throat. This assures a ballance in some of the most important functions of the body - and sometimes this balance is disturbed, like what happened in my case. But apparently now everything's back to normal :) I will have to have the doctor's confirmation when I see her on Thursday.

Other than that the temperatures outside are back to normal and we have a sunny day since a few hours. Just played with black a very epic attacking game on the internet against a Finn, which I finally won and I was very proud of it - only to find out after that from Fritz 11 that in fact the game was marred with 3-4 blunders, both mine and him, just that he commited the last one. Nevertheless, an excellent opportunity we have to verify the real level of play with a computer when the game finishes.

[Event "Friendly Game, 15m + 5s"]
[Site "Café"]
[Date "2016.05.09"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Guest2292629"]
[Black "Guest2294276"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A02"]
[PlyCount "84"]
[EventDate "2016.05.10"]
[TimeControl "900+5"]

Cross my fingers and verything ells for you today.So far it sounds good!

Has just dusted my board and chesspieces off,litterally,and has been through your game.And I can understand why you are proud of it.Very heavy and interesting sacs on f4 and g2.And with a happy and deserved touchdown on f1 !

Today is spanish lunch.White bread with garlic and oliveoil.Everything is blooming outside.And enjoyed very much an evening in town yesterday.To see PK again and also all the people in the streets and bars and cafes.I think we solved half the problems of the World and agreed upon how foolish our fathers gave acted.Leffe blanc nétais pas malle :)

Yes I miss <achieve> and I hope he didn´t hit the bottle to hard.And always wellcome back,anytime.

So hope you will come out on top, on this sunny day !

This weekend I will work to compensate for the days I've been procrastinating finishing job related stuff. Weather was bit ugly yesterday, but looking good this morning.

I was not aware of the content of a Spanish lunch, interesting. Please send PK my regards. And an excellent weekend ahead! Maybe time for you and your wife to have a glass of wine by the seaside?

Sounds like good new from the doctor,no!? And fingers still crossed from here..

Weather a little of this and a little of that.With grey days to come I think. But that is ok and up my alley :)

Wife was on a little trip and I took the occasion to be with JWH and we had another one of our magic sessions.A tru gift it is.

Do you BTW know when the next big Chess Tournament is taken place ?

Say hello to your wife from here and hope you both have had a lovely weekend !

Great, I'm glad you have the opportunity from time to time to enjoy those lovely sessions with JWH. Thanks, we had a good enough weekend. Weather was aceptable, morose yesterday byt mostly synny (although windy) today.

Hope everything is fine on your behalf !

Have had and still have some stomachlike issue,which I cannot really explain in english.So I have laid low in the last couple of days,but hey I am still here and wife and I are waiting for the great final Liverpool-Sevilla to begin.It should make for a big fight and at least on paper they are even paired.

Hope you will enjoy what is ahead of you and I will try to post some more when I am better fit.

Till then : auf wiedersehen and

[Event "Friendly Game, 15m + 5s"]
[Site "Café"]
[Date "2016.05.19"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Guest1280618"]
[Black "Guest1280894"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C35"]
[PlyCount "26"]
[EventDate "2016.05.19"]
[TimeControl "900+5"]

1. e4 3 e5 2 2. f4 2 Be7 2 3. Nf3 3 exf4 3 4. Bc4 9 Bh4+ 2 5. Ke2 3 Nc6 2 6. d4 8 d5 2 7. Bxd5 12 Bg4 11 8. Bxf4 13 Nf6 7 9. g3 24 Nxd5 7 10. exd5 20 Qe7+ 4 11. Be3 34 Bg5 10 12. Qd2 10 Nb4 39 13. Nc3 13 Nxc2 Guest1280618 resigns 12 0-1

[Event "Friendly Game, 5m + 5s"]
[Site "Café"]
[Date "2016.05.19"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Guest1219167"]
[Black "Guest1229072"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C45"]
[PlyCount "22"]
[EventDate "2016.05.19"]
[TimeControl "300+5"]

1. e4 1 e5 1 2. Nf3 3 Nc6 1 3. d4 3 exd4 2 4. Nxd4 1 Bc5 1 5. Nxc6 5 bxc6 3 6. Bc4 2 Nf6 2 7. Bg5 9 Bxf2+ 12 8. Ke2 103 d5 12 9. Bxf6 16 Qxf6 5 10. Rf1 1 Bg4+ 2 11. Kd3 39 Qd4# (Lag: Av=0.31s, max=0.8s) 2 0-1

[Event "Friendly Game, 15m + 5s"]
[Site "Café"]
[Date "2016.05.19"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Guest360313"]
[Black "Guest357462"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C57"]
[PlyCount "41"]
[EventDate "2016.05.19"]
[TimeControl "900+5"]

Hope you,and your wife will enjoy the upcomming weekend ! And I will have a look on your games later on.

Till then :

Coming soon Shamkir 2016 (Gashimov Memorial Tournament)!!!

♘Shamkir 2016♘ Gashimov Memorial ♗Shamkir 2016♗

This tournament will run from May 26th thru June 4th 2016.

Participants include: Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri, Sergey Karjakin, Pentala Harikrishna, Pavel Eljanov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Teimour Rajabov, Eltaj Safarli, Hou Yifan & Rauf Mamedov

*****
*****

<<> Shamkir 2016! (Gashimov Memorial) <>>

< 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)

***<Golden Executive> & <chessmoron> have confirmed they will be running their contests for this event. I am hoping that <lostemperor> will be running his as well.***

*****
*****

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

Today I've played a few moves in a simul Against Karpov, he signed my score sheet and we shook hands. I told him it's an honor to play with him and I congratulated him for everything he has done to chess. he smiled and said thank you. And...that was it, the organiser announced that the great champion is feeling tired and will retire, and we will continue the games playing against local champions. I've played against a local guy who I've known from the days when I was going to the chess club, and who is the actual romanian champion at 20 years juniors category. Of course, he beat me. Didnt manage to get a photo with Karpov, instead they have filmed/photographed the event and in the local newspaper I appear in 2 photos posted, one in which Karpov shakes hand with the guy near me, and another with me and 2 others just seated at the table (games not started yet). It turned out the guy in my left was the Romanian champion at 20 years age juniors - I didn't recognized him at first - when I met him at the club he was about 10-11 years old, and now he's 20-21. It was fun. Karpov was very affable, smiling, accepting photos with a lot of people etc. Yesterday he participated in a chess symposium (I wasn't there) and also he inaugurated a chess school in Iasi. Tomorrow he will be in Mamaia resort at seaside to open the Women European Championship taking place there.

Good to see you Again !

And hopefully your dizzinessattack was an exception,which it usually is. Visited the needleman and hopefully he has made the stomach better.Fingers crossed,for you as well.And nice to see KJ in town after a weeks break.There is more to life than Giro dÍtalia ;)

Wife is doing one of her prawndishes in the background.Her husband is hungry.

And you met the old master and legend !
Congrats.Was it an interesting impression ? And/or was it different from your expectations,if you had any? He is up there between the absolute best in my book...Imagine if we could catapult Carlsen back to Karpovs prime and have a match between these two! It sounds like a most inspiring event for you.