World Seniors Championship, Croatia - starts today

[Alan Borwell]

Craig had a long battle yesterday but had to settle for a draw and is on 4.5/7 with Philip on 4/7. Both Douglas and Ian have 3/7, with Ian winning with Black yesterday against a higher graded Russian! Today Craig is again on the Live Boards (number 15) with Black against Ukranian FM. Three more rounds to go after today.

[Alan Borwell]

Fine win with Black by Craig today to move him into the leading group, Philip and Douglas drew and Ian had another good win against higher rated German. Tomorrow, Craig has White against a Norwegian FM on live board 13. The top board game between the highest rated player and last year's winner should be fascinating!

[Jonathan Livingstone]

Thought that was Craig's best game today. Was a cracker.

[Alastair White]

Yes that was a good game by Craig to get back into the mix. In the previous round his opponent played so many good moves I would have been examining his shoes...

Some juicy ties tomorrow with the pick being Vaisser vs Kristiansen on top table- a repeeat of the decisive game from last year. Can Jens do it again? All of the other top games look to be worth watching too so if you can cattch the live games do so... (who needs Anand-Carlsen any more).

Some familiar faces up against the other Scots tomorrow - Phil vs Swiss FM Peter Hohler, who we see often and who sometimes joined us for dinner last year. And after some good results Ian is up against our old Austrian friend Klaus Nickl, who holidays in Scotland every year and plays in the Scottish.

Douglas looks to have a tough opponent in a highly rated Russian but that usually brings out the best in him so I'm looking forward to that too.

[Alan Borwell]

It is a bit disappointing that only the top 22 boards of the Open are being shown live but as Alastair says, the top board and Craig's game should be good to watch today! Our seniors are again flying the flag well. Nice to be able to watch World Championship games live in the morning and World Seniors in afternoons!

[Jonathan Livingstone]

Alan/Alastair, I couldn't agree more how dissapointing the lack of live boards is. I'd even go as far as saying the website isn't the best either. The Euro Seniors website/live games were so much better.

However they have at least been getting the PGN's online to be fair.

Nice to have that little bit of insight from Alastair. I have enjoyed following the tournament, the entertainment level has been high, and is good to see our guys doing fairly well. I have been looking at this tournament before even thinking about looking at the Carlsen/Anand match.

You may be interested to know, there was a story with Craig about this tournament in local press.
http://www.eastlothiancourier.com/news/d...st-a-pawn/

I should point out that Craig is too modest in nature to do these things, however it happened as a result of myself contacting the press to get club stories and results printed. Any promotion of Chess in Scotland has to be good for the game, I suppose promotion of 'seniors' is good also.

[Alan Borwell]

Another fine win from Craig today - fascinating to watch! Tomorrow he meets his old foe GM Vasiukov from Russia. In 2011, Craig won on top board in European Seniors Team Championship with a memorable Sicilian and in 2013, their game was drawn in the European Seniors Individual. They play tomorrow on Live Board 3. Ian Marks had another good result today with a draw with Black against Austrian friend Klaus Nickl to reach 4.5/9 with prospects of a good increase in his FIDE rating - he next will face Russian FM Stanislav Zhelesny. Philip had an early draw whilst Douglas eventually lost in what must have been a long game against Russian Yakimenko.

[Jonathan Livingstone]

I fancy Ian for a result today with white.

[Jonathan Livingstone]

4 Draws today, keeps everyone ticking over.

[IMarks]

I fancy Ian for a result today with white.

Ian fancied Ian for a result with White, but Mr Zhelesny proved thoroughly adept at hoovering up anything that got developed.