Hamish Olson and I were playing in the Oban chess congress this weekend with pretty decent results. Oban is a well established tournament – this was the 20th edition – and is one of the most sociable congresses because everyone stays in the town and no-one commutes. Each year there is a pub quiz held in the Royal hotel on Saturday evening, which we didn’t win.

Collectively we were a bit more successful in the chess.

Hamish got 3.5/5 in the open. In round 2 he beat International Master Steve Mannion (a game with which he was very pleased), and his only loss was with black to International Master Andrew Greet.

In spite of playing four of the five highest rated players I scored 4/5 in the challengers – including a game where I checkmated my opponent in ten moves. This was enough to finish in a share of 1st place.