Chess Train 2019

Memories of previous tournaments and faithful deceased

[12.10.2019 00:00:00] - The Chess Train is dropping us off at the railway station in Karlovy Vary, the sun is appearing, and we are expecting to have a wonderful weather all the way. As in previous years. They love us above, moreover, there are already three of the faithful participants of the Chess Train of previous years - Marianne Hartlaub, Johann Slacik and Jon Loman.

From the Imperial Hotel, where the famous Carlsbad chess tournament was played in 1923, we come down to the center by a funicular. Karlovy Vary is a live city with a lot of visitors even now in the middle of October, when we would expect the season is over. We walk around the colonnade and we continue to the Imperial Spa, where we organized a simultaneous game of Carlsbad champion Jiří Štoček 12 years ago.

In the evening, before returning to the presence and the expected football qualification of the Czech Republic vs. England, we are sitting in the Grandhotel Pupp. Rudolf Götzl, „food manager“ of the Chess Train, recalls how he was at hotel Pupp on a three-month practice when he studied at the Secondary Hotel School in Karlovy Vary. Yeah, those were the times ... And we remember those famous Carlsbad chess tournaments 1907, 1911, 1923, 1929 and 2007. Yeah, those were the times ...



Michael vs. Michal. Chairman of the Prague Chess Society Pavel Matocha watches the fight on the first chessboard between the German Grandmaster Michael Prusikin and his chess club colleague Michal Spacek.

The first stage thus led the Chess Train to the West of Bohemia to the spa town of Karlovy Vary. The next day it is directed to the South Bohemia, to the wonderful small town of Český Krumlov. The weather is cloudless, just like our journey.

In the tournament, the players have finished the first four rounds, and in the first place with the full number of points is the German Grandmaster Michael Prusikin, the biggest favorite. Six players with 3.5-points are on the second place for now, Ladislav Langner, Bram Van Der Berg, Lumir Mrazek, N. R. Anilkumar and Matias Jolowicz.

You can follow the actual ranking here.

More photos and insides you can check at FB profile of the Chess Train.

| Pavel Matocha | visits(3484x)