Christian Laverton

Once again I’ve been too lazy when it comes to updating my blog, despite my promises. Rather than write 10-20 posts now, I’ll try to sum up the highlights since last time.

When starting in my new job, I had a very good excuse to buy a car. I ended up spending 190k on a 2006-model Toyota Corolla 1.6 station wagon. I really like the car, and it’s been really nice to drive to work rather than sit on the bus 40 minutes each way.

Knut Brokstad memorial was held quite early this year, 19-20th of September. I played fairly well, finishing 17th with 2.5/5 and a 2030 performance (see results). But I was very disappointed with my last game, against Viktor Hansen. In the position below I would have had a very good position after 13. bxc3 Bxc3+ 14. Ke2, but couldn’t remember the theory (or calculate anything…) and played the silly 13. Ke2??

In this autumn’s club tournament, Pokalturneringen 2009, I played very well. In the end I won 8 games and lost only one, giving me 1st. place half a point ahead of second (see results). Bent Hestad has written a summary of the tournament here, with some very generous comments about my chess “carrieer”.

I have to mention the Premier League season, with Spurs performing really well so far. Of course there have been some painful moments (0-1 against Stoke and Wolves), but loads of good ones (2-1 against Liverpool, 9-1 against Wigan, etc..). Let’s hope they can continue what they’ve started and finally finish in the top 4!
Also I’m hoping Canal Plus wont lose their rights to broadcast Premier League.

This autumn has been very busy when it comes to organising chess activites in Trondheim chess club. First off, I had my share of work with Knut Brokstad Memorial. Second, I spent quite a bit of time arranging the Trondheim qualifier for BNBank blitz at City Lade (shopping center in Trondheim). Finally I spent loads of time on the Norwegian junior championship 2009, held at Adolf Øien school in Trondheim. Of course all these tournaments were in addition to doing all the regular stuff in the chess club, like arranging the autumn tournament. The good thing is that all tournaments were successful, without too many complaints

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Today we tested my brother’s Supervee speedboat. We had quite a few problems getting the engine running properly, but we managed to get a few good runs.

Watch video of Supervee speedboat

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Since I’m in a bragging mood (see previous post), I want to tell about the computer I bought a few months ago. For many years I’ve been sceptical to buying computers from Dell, HP, Compaq, etc…, and have chosen to assemble all my computers from scratch. But in this case I was talked into buying a Dell Studio XPS, and so far have not regretted it even a little bit!

First of all, the computer is very quiet, which is a big plus when you spend a lot of time on it. Second, with the new Intel i7-core processor and 6 Gb RAM it really has all the power I need for my work. It’s not the best gaming-computer, as the graphics card is very cheap, but I don’t really do a lot of gaming anymore. For heavy multi-tasking it’s great!

Also, the 23″ widescreen LCD is great!

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Thursday we went to see the FA youth cup quarterfinal. Tottenham played Arsenal at home, and it only cost £3 for the ticket, so why not. Youth here means U18, but you would be surprised to see how good the football is. I’d compare it to the lower teams in the Norwegian Tippeliga. That’s why an impressive 19,084 attended the game. Unfortunately Tottenham lost the game 1-3 after being up 1-0.

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Wednesday was matchday, and we were both nervous and very excited! Unfortunately, Tottenham tend to lose fairly often, so coming all the way to London to see a game is risky business. But, read on…

We left for London around 2PM, taking the underground from Debden to Holborn. At Holborn we changed to the Piccadilly line, which we took to Wood Green. There we took a bus to White Hart Lane. We later found out that it’s simpler and faster to change at Liverpool Street and take the railroad to White Hart Lane.

At White Hart Lane we first visited the Spurs Shop. I bought the home shirt and got the away shirt for free! Edward bought some training equipment. The funny thing was that Edward asked the shop staff for “knickers”. This would sound alright in Norway, but it turns out that this means ladies underwear in England…

After shopping, we went to Bricklayers, one of the best supporter pubs. Here we met quite a few Norwegians also travelling to see the game. After a beer (or five), it was finally game time.

Our seats were in row 3 at East lower. We sat almost at the corner flag, at Tottenham’s attacking end in the first half. The game started with chances for both teams, and as my brother said, all chances seem a lot bigger when you see them live compared to on the telly. To our surprise and great joy, Tottenham scored the first goal!!! From a corner by Luka Modric, Robbie Keane put the ball in the net, making his first goal after his return. What a great start, but more was coming!! Just a few minutes later, Pavlyuchenko made it 2-0! Me and my brother could hardly believe what we were seeing. Our friend Petter later told us “you picked the right matchday”, and we sure did… Before the first half was over, Aaron Lennon made it 3-0 after a great pass from Robbie Keane.

The second half had less action, but Tottenham defended well and even got a 4th goal scored by Aaron Lennon. After the game we had a Spurs beefburger and then went back to Bricklayers to have a few more beer before heading home.

You might wonder why I called this post “Yid army”. It turns out that some time ago the Arsenal fans started calling the Spurs fans “yiddos” or “yids”, because quite a few Spurs fans are jewish (yid is a slang jewish ethnonym). This was of course meant as an insult, but the spurs fans started calling themselves “Yid army”, defusing some of the insult’s power. So before, during and after the game, Spurs fans (including us) shouted Yid army!!

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I’m sorry I haven’t blogged for a long time, I’ll try to improve

Me and my brother Edward are now in England! We arrived at Stanstead tuesday morning, and took a taxi to Pyrles Lane, Loughton, where our grandparents live. The main purpose of this trip is of course to visit them, as I haven’t been over here for over 10 years! But also, we wanted to see a Tottenham game, which I’ll write about in the next post.

Not much has changed in Pyrles Lane. My grandparents are of course getting old, but they’re still doing alright. Yesterday me, Edward and grandpa went to PCWorld in Harlow to buy a new computer. The old laptop spends 10 minutes opening Internet Explorer, so….We bought a £400 Compaq workstation with a 19″ widescreen. It’s a good computer, not too expensive, and more than powerful enough for my grandparents’ needs.

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Despite the warm weather, I decided to go to the cinema today with a friend. We saw Batman - The Dark Knight, and what a movie it was!

Earlier today I had noticed the incredible 9.4/10 score it has on imdb. I thought maybe this rating was a little biased, because most of the people who have rated it so far are probably Batman-fans. Thus, it might even out after a few weeks. But, the movie really lived up to the expectations. Especially Heath Ledger impressed me in the role of The Joker.

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My brother Edward and his girlfriend Trine are moving into my apartment. Today I helped Trine move her stuff, using a car from Rent-a-Wreck. The car turned out to be bigger than expected (a Mercedes diesel), so we managed to move everything in one go.

Although the car qualified to be called a wreck, it was fun driving. You get a “king of the road” feeling when driving such a big car.

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This weekend I went to Asker, near Oslo, to attend my cousin Johanne’s confirmation. The church ceremony was exactly as boring as I thought it would be, but dinner and cakes at Johanne’s place “healed the wounds”.

Back in Trondheim, I’m now ready for a week of mathematics. My brother is in desperate need of help for preparing for his secondary high school exam in maths (3mx).

After a few lazy months, I now have more to fill my workdays with. Some might think it’s best to work a lot during the winter, but I prefer it the other way around since I have a lot more energy during the warmer and brighter period of the year. In other words, my motivation is top notch at the moment!

My next chess event is Trondheimsmesterskapet, starting next monday. It’s a 5 round monrad, classic chess tournament. My goal is 1st of 2nd place.

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