Immediately after my holidays I boarded a plane to Rome and then to Malaga to go to the Spanish Championships Under 14 in Salobrena. Not the most famous of places, Salobrena is some 90km east of Malaga and is on the coast, even though the hotel where the tournament takes place is not. But the view from the hotel… well, judge for yourself (remember to click on the image to enlarge).

A view from the terrace of the hotel to the left

A view from the terrace to the right

A view directly below

A medieval tower in the middle of the hotel!

All the nice scenery aside, I am here to help my student Angel Luis Cubas Cabrera from the Canary Islands. He’s ranked 18th on the initial ranking list (you can see the full list here) but he’s much better than what his rating shows. I hope this tournament propels him upwards! Here’s a photo of us in front of the tower:

The tournament started today and in the first round he won easily. It’s a difficult schedule to play actually, with two rounds today, followed by a single round tomorrow and then again a double-round day the day after tomorrow. This schedule of 2-1-2-1-2-1 is exhausting especially as the tournament advances and fatigue accumulates. I will keep you updated how things develop.

On the world scene there are quite a few things going on. Dortmund, Danzhou, Chengdu, where the Women’s Grand Prix is staged. The Dortmund tournament started with yet another loss for Caruana with white in the Najdorf. Caruana is the defending champion, but in Round 1 he lost the plot against Vachier. The Frenchman has firmly established himself as one of the best Najdorf practitioners in modern times.

A free day in Dortmund today, with Vachier and Ponomariov leading with 1.5/2. Kramnik drew two blacks and is white against outsider Buhmann in Round 3.