Penarth for your thoughts

It's nine months and more since I last looked at a chessboard. A real one, that is, tangible, three-dimensional, with pieces on it, in play or ready for a game.

I've not much missed it, to be honest. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, I've had time for other, more rewarding things, not least trying to catch up on some of the reading I seem to have laid aside twenty or so years ago and never properly picked up again. I am sure more than a quarter of the books I own are chess books. I am equally sure they shouldn't be.

But it doesn't succeed in getting me away from chess. After reading The Mill On The Floss, and coming across the passage involving chess which I linked to above, I read JP Donleavy's The Ginger Man - it must have knocked people backwards in its time, and it's still funny if at least a little dubious today - and came across another couple of references to chess, including the recollection of one character that while under arrest at a police station he beat various people "in chess".

Immediately after that I read the book that will be the subject of Saturday's A Literary Reference and which, you can therefore assume, also contained at least one reference to chess. Coincidence, presumably. Doesn't help you feel, though, that you have escaped the grasp of chess, that it is no longer dominating your life.

For the record, this is the last game I played, in the final round of the Ciudad de Huesca tournament played last summer. (Don't be fooled by the board number, I was upfloated.) You can see why I've packed in playing seriously. Each side takes turns to throw the game to the other. I've played far too many games identical in trajectory to this.

[Event "Ciudad de Huesca"] [Date "19 September 2011"] [Round "sixth and final"] [Site "board 1"] [White "Simon Roche, Manuel"] [Black "Horton, Justin"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "2156"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Bc5 5. Nb3 Bb6 6. Nc3 Nf6 7. Qe2 d6 8. Be3 Qe7 9. Bxb6 axb6 10. O-O-O O-O 11. f3 Be6 12. g4 Bxb3 13. cxb3 Ra5 14. Kb1 Rfa8 15. a3 Qe5 16. Qd2 b5 17. b4 Rxa3 18. bxa3 Rxa3 19. Kb2 Ra4 20. Bxb5 Rxb4 21. Kc1 Nd4 22. Qa2 Nxb5 23. Nd5 Nc3 24. Qa8 Ne8 25. Nxb4 Ne2 26. Kd2 Qb2 27. Ke3 1-0

Horrid. Yet what is this? It is a list of entrants to the South Wales International Open, taking place early next month, in Penarth, South Glamorgan, and that definitely seems to be my name on it.

It's just a holiday. Is my claim. Not serious chess. No really. No preparation will be involved. Well hardly any. I hope.

Just my little bit of chess for the year, just as I make sure I go to at least one football match every season. A nice game of chess. First and quite likely only games of the year. First games, on reflection, I've played in Wales since the last round of the tournament in Monmouth in July 1993.

And how did that one go?

[Event "Monmouth"] [Date "July 1993"] [Round "fifth and final"] [White "Bacon"] [Black "Horton"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "160"] 1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd4 3. c3 Nf6 4. e5 Nd5 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. Nxd4 Nxd4 7. Qxd4 e6 8. Nd2 b6 9. Ne4 f5 10. Bg5 Qc7 11. Nd6 Bxd6 12. exd6 Qxd6 13.c4 1-0

Here we go again.