Harald Borchgrevink at Blackpool 2007

A month and a half after arriving in Edinburgh to join the Royal Norwegian Consulate General, I had been introduced and embraced by some great people, some great pubs, and some great love for the wonderful game of chess. In mid-March, it was time to be introduced to an annual tradition; the Blackpool Chess Congress and the sweet embrace of the Buckfast tonic wine. The "Buckfast Blokes", or "Gang of Gin" (after the Babyshambles tune, however, Mr. Simon Woodcock corrected me, as a gang of gin could not be of Scottish origin), set off from Edinburgh at 2 pm on Friday afternoon, heading south. Only interrupted by the stop at Asif's to purchase the weekend's stock of Buckfast, and Chris Arnold's visits to several facilities due to his early and large enjoyment of cans of lager, we managed to arrive on time for round 1.

I enjoyed three cans of Tennent's on the way down, mostly to ease the pain of being inches away from Graeme Kafka's one working speaker, however a rather loud one, but at the board I would soon discover that I had the "flow" this weekend, so my slight fuzzy feeling should not worry me too much. With the black pieces I soon equalised, but my opponent played the middle game well, and as our pawn chains locked the centre efficiently, the a-file was my only hope. Luckily, Nigel Chapman offered me a pint as we passed the first time control, and that did the trick. With my opponent spending much time, and me with no risk of losing, I managed to "grind her down", winning a pawn and then another before 0-1 was a fact. Not an impressive start, but nonetheless a point and a pint.

The bars of Blackpool must have made a small fortune that night, as the impressive routine of the Buckfast Blokes had BYE written on Saturday morning's game weeks before. Some of us did play the morning round, with quite good results, but my "I am so **** glad I have a bye tomorrow" at 4.30 am pretty much sums up my interest in playing chess at the time. Kafka had a scary night, but did not get any chips.

2.05 in the afternoon was more to my liking, however, when I saw the pairings, it did make me rather nervous. The Duke, who single-handed made Craig Hanley withdraw after round 1, was going for another kill.

I did however soon build up a position that was to my liking. For a couple of moves, while I was waiting for Black's counterplay, nothing happened. Then, for a couple more moves, nothing continued to happen. As a result of this, it became the challenge of winning a won position. I did.

With 2.5/3 (2/2), I was up there, and happy to down some Buckfast in that honour. Impressively, Donny Muter came back to the hotel claiming to have beaten GM Chernaev. He was right, and naturally, that called for further celebrations. When the clubs close, the blitz starts. Aye man, honestly, I was not feeling very sober when sitting down at the board on Sunday morning.

Luckily, I had been drawn with white on Sunday morning, a very welcome drawing as that actually meant I could get my pieces out and castle without getting mated first. I wish I could account for the proceedings of this game, however, I can not. I managed to win though.

With one game to go, and a steak pie for breakfast/lunch, I suddenly realised that I could win this thing. FM Horner was in a clear lead with 4/4, and the pairings gave me the black pieces against him on board 1 to decide Blackpool 2007.

The Sicilian, not main line, and a draw offer from White after 5 moves. Declined, winning a pawn, mutual time trouble, nerves, hangover, coffee, 0-1. Hebden drew, Muter unfortunately lost, Borchgrevink wins Blackpool with 4.5/5 (4/4). An excellent tournament, great venue and superb location. The trophy is now on display at the Sandy Bells pub, Edinburgh.

Report written by Harald Bonaventura Borchgrevink.