Budapest Days 7, 8 and 9

Day 7

Was playing against a lovely old Hungarian man called Lajos. I managed to win after playing quite well for a change! Won a pawn in the opening and slowly ground him down. The opening was quite sharp, and when I played a move he sighed and started talking Hungarian. We made eye contact and I had a wee giggle, then he started laughing too and pointing to the move and was obviously saying "I just wanted a nice, quiet game, and you're playing this crazy aggressive stuff!". Was nice to win a game and not have to watch my back for the remainder of the night.

Day 8

Wasn't feeling great yesterday - Being away from home so long definitely takes it toll. The general daily routine is wake up, Prepare for your opponent (About two hours), have breakfast, Play your game (Anywhere between Three and five hours), then have some tea whilst going over your game for the rest of the night. I prepared a daft line, that the computer claims is good, but as you get further into the game it starts to realise its just complete junk. My opponent played well though and managed to beat me.

Day 9

Rest day today - Thank goodness, actually just lazed about playing Bloons TD 5 and Bobber the Robber 2. Went to the playing hall in the evening as the games were finishing, and met up with Nicholas and Simon to grab some food. That's about as exciting as it gets I'm afraid - Tomorrow I play against Zsuzsanna (Susanna) Terbe, and blood will flow! 

Budapest Day 6

A ridiculous win.

I won a game today! Woohoo! I was playing a 2100 Hungarian, who I met yesterday and we agreed we'd start at five today, an hour later than usual. I didn't get much prep done as I wasn't really in the mood, and I thought its more exciting to just play and see what happens. Terrible Idea. He got quite a comfortable position out of the opening and continued to pressure me. I lost a pawn with zero compensation, but he went a bit wrong and I ended up getting a huge attack. He went totally wild after the game - Telling me I was so lucky and mentioning to everyone in the waiting room that he would have beaten me ten games out of ten. I ignored his hissy fit as I know the pains of losing from a clearly better position, and he was saying he's working long hours so I felt a bit bad for him. 

Went with Nicholas and Simon to the kebab place, played over our games and laughed at how terrible my moves were. I kept glancing at the restaurants front window, expecting my opponent to be standing there, teeth barred biting onto a steel blade. Should probably not joke too much about it on-line.

Tomorrow I've got another tough game, but at least I get the white pieces. 

Budapest Day 5

Almost half way, thank heck.

Drew todays game. Was really interesting, she offered a draw in a totally drawn position and played on running my king across the board with Queens and rooks still in play. Made for some serious calculation! I would have lapsed and surely succumbed had Laszlo not given me a bit of raspberry cake whilst in time trouble.

Before the game we got our photograph taken. I tried to time my smoking break so that I would miss it, but I'm sure Laszlo told the guy to wait until I was back. Basically my hairs stupidly long, and was all curly. How female do I sound.

After the game I met another English speaking person. Irish Simon, though he lives in Budapest and doesn't sound Irish at all, so I'm keeping him at arms distance. He seems really nice though, he wants to meet up for pre match banter or after game food and drinks, definitely going to take him up on that offer. He laughed and suggested we should have pre-match drinks when we play each other (Round 10), so maybe he really is Irish.

Another kebab for tea with Nickolas. The kebabs here are mega tasty and only five hundred forint, which is about a pound thirty. We looked over each other's games and had a giggle, then called it a night. Four draws. Not good.

Budapest Day 3 and 4

I've found a friend! Whoopee!

Today and yesterday's games were draws. I've been playing around with opening ideas so not too disappointed, just wish I wasn't complete trash at this game. I've been hanging about with Nicholas, an English man who claims to be Greek. We went for a kebab tonight, Although he was demanding that they arn't actually kebabs, since we're not in Palestine. (I didn't understand it either, just smiled and nodded along.)

Was going to try it on with the receptionist, but turns out she doesn't work on Mondays. Made myself all pretty and nice smelling only to be greeted by a Man at the front desk (A handsome one none the less, and its been a while...) but thought better. Its tough with the ladies, because my hair, beard and general attire make me look homeless, so I tend to rely on my amazing chat (And ridiculously effeminate eyelashes). Problem is no-one speaks English in Hungary, so I end up just making weird hand gestures and shimmying around like a fool, with more chance of getting spare change than a date. 

Budapest Day 2

First Saturday Tournament

Today was the start of the first Saturday tournament. Got to the venue and registered - everyone took their seats, then some Hungarian art student started singing and dancing. The music was really good, but the whole thing was a bit cringe. I got a draw - The position was weird, no doubt I wont analyse it and probably end up in the same mess in about four games time.

Had an hour long shower, just stood revelling at the metallic wall fixing. After the game I went out to get some food, although the selection process was cut short by a group of about 20 hooligans parading down the street, closely followed by about five police cars with their sirens on. Everything is really expensive here compared to Prague. And you cant smoke inside either. The food is good (Had a spicy sausage and mushroom pizza.) but would be better if I wasn't sitting on my own like a twazzik. Found a cracking little bakery for breakfast too - Its like a Hungarian Greggs, only instead of Steak Bake's they have Chicken liver bakes. I laughed at the woman when she told me what was in it - She wasn't joking though. 

Budapest is odd - It seems safe enough, but theirs an air of uncertainty that keeps you on your toes. Like just now I'm pretty sure someone outside is firing a mortar / Howitzer. The zurich chess today was awesome - Nakamura (My hero) lost to Carlsen, although at one point he had a totally winning position. The commentary was interesting because they were talking about the computer aspect and the psychology of the game. The computer found the win - And once it showed you the idea it was obvious, but to find the idea is ridiculously hard in the first place for a human. Going to watch some League of Legends now and goto sleep - The game starts tomorrow at four, so got ages for breakfast / to prepare.