Just trying out a funky thing that should associate my Google + profile with my blog here.
this site has a good tutorial on the ins and outs of this.
Sad to say this is the first post of 2013 by me..I will have to get blogging again!
Luke
Google+Google Plus linking up with WordPress
January 22nd, 2013Glasgow Chess Club – “Phones”
September 9th, 2012I play for a chess club called “Phones” in Glasgow, the West End of Glasgow to be precise.
New Glasgow Chess League season starting soon!
The new season kicks off since it is now September 2012 and people should be attending from hereon, so come along if you would like to play some chess in Glasgow.
Club address
Sikorski Polish club, 5 Parkgrove Terrace, Glasgow G3 7SD(It’s near Kelvingrove Park – so coming via public transport in Glasgow – Take a subway to Kelvinhall or take a train to SECC Finnieston Google Map ).
We meet every Monday evening, Sept-June. Starts from 7.15pm.
Useful Links
- I have put an ad for the club on this page with the details – Glasgow Chess club – Phones All welcome!
- Our official Phones Chess Club page located here: However it is doing badly in Google for some reason, so hence why I made this page.
- There are 2 other teams based in the West End of Glasgow like us – Glasgow Montrose who play at the Novotel hotel and Glasgow Polytechnic who confusingly play at Glasgow University in an old church hall. Both are friendly clubs like ours, so check them out too if you want to play some chess in Glasgow!
If you are not in or around the West End , all our clubs should still be easy to get to as we are all near a train station (for us Finnieston is best, for Montrose club Charing Cross and for Polytechnic the Partick Station or use Subway to Kelvingrove. ).
Chess Scotland website
If you want to find out ALL the Glasgow chess teams check out Chess Scotland website. They have info on chess tournaments in Glasgow and Scotland and also a list of all chess clubs in the country.
Glasgow chess clubs all play in the Glasgow Chess League, which has several divisions. We currently have a team in the First Division and would welcome players who wanted competitive matches in that team, but also players for any of our other teams too.
Get in touch & Facebook
Email me luke DOT barker AT gmail DOT com if you need any help or check out the chess in Glasgow Facebook page I run.
I am interested in starting up a Chess café in Glasgow as there are currently none, so get in touch if you are interested in that or even just in helping out!
Although I guess a lot of people play on the internet these days as it is so addictive and easy, it is of great value to play for a club or in a café as I think you learn new styles and also have the chance to play various time controls with usually people of similar strength. It can lead to playing for teams as well which is a different thing to playing as an individual and we as a club pride ourselves on the value of team chess.
Also you can have a lot of fun socialising and we have a nice bar courtesy of the kind folk of the Polish club who are alawyas welcoming to us . We thank them for that and their wonderful food too!
Good luck with your chess!
Luke, fianchetto admin.
Google+Glasgow Botanic Gardens Fascination of Plants Day May 2012
May 11th, 2012This Botanics Fascination of Plants Day at the Glasgow Botanic Gardens sounds pretty cool .
Now it’s Spring / Summer I seem to go through the Botanics by the River Kelvin nearly every day and is for me the best thing about living in Kelvindale.
here is a pic I took of Kelvinbridge.
Glasgow Botanic Gardens
May 2nd, 2012Took some pics at the Botanic Gardens at the weekend, which is mega this time of year :-) 
There is now a public group on Flickr which anyone can add pictures to - and then they will show up here at the new Glasgow Botanic Gardens website , with a credit and link to original image.
Google+Test
April 22nd, 2012[Event "Glasgow league"] [Site "?"] [Date "16 Jan 2012"] [Round "?"] [White "Luke b"] [Black "R montgomery"] [Result "1-0"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4 g6 3. e3 Bg7 4. c3 d6 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Be2 b6 7. O-O Bb7 8. Nbd2 Nbd7 9. Nc4 c5 10. h3 Ne4 11. a4 Ndf6 12. a5 b5 13. a6 Bc6 14. Na5 Qb6 15. Nxc6 Qxc6 16. Nd2 Nxd2 17. Qxd2 c4 18. Bf3 d5 19. Qc2 e6 20. Bg5 Rab8 21. Bxf6 Bxf6 22. e4 Rfe8 23. exd5 exd5 24. b3 Rec8 25. Rab1 cxb3 26. Qxb3 Qxc3 27. Qxd5 Qxd4 28. Rxb5 Qxd5 29. Rxd5 Rb6 30. Rd7 Rc2 31. Rxa7 Ra2 32. Bd5 Raxa6 33. Rxf7 Kh8 34. Rc1 Rb8 35. Kh2 Ra1 36. Rc6 Be5+ 37. f4 Ra5 38. Bc4 Ra4 39. fxe5 g5 40. Rcc7 1-0
Google+nice blitzy game on fics
April 6th, 2012[Event "FICS rated blitz game"] [Site "FICS freechess.org"] [FICSGamesDBGameNo "305444652"] [White "LB"] [Black "JoeMcDoug"] [WhiteElo "1494"] [BlackElo "1929"] [TimeControl "180+0"] [Date "2012-04-04"] [Time "16:38:00"] [Duration "0:06:49"] [WhiteClock "0:03:00.000"] [BlackClock "0:03:00.000"] [Result "1-0"] [LongResult "Black checkmated"]
1. d4 d5 2. Bf4 Bf5 3. c3 c6 4. Qb3 Qb6 5. Nd2 Qxb3 6. axb3 e6 7. b4 h6 8. Bc7 a6 9. e3 Kd7 10. Ba5 Bd6 11. c4 Bc7 12. cxd5 exd5 13. h3 Bxa5 14. bxa5 Kd6 15. g4 Bh7 16. Bg2 f5 17. Ne2 Nf6 18. gxf5 Bxf5 19. Ng3 Bh7 20. O-O g5 21. f3 Re8 22. Rfe1 Nbd7 23. e4 dxe4 24. fxe4 Kc7 25. b4 Rf8 26. Rac1 Rae8 27. e5 Ng8 28. e6 Ndf6 29. d5 Kd6 30. Nc4+ Kc7 31. d6+ Kb8 32. d7 Rd8 33. e7 Nxe7 34. Rxe7 Rxd7 35. Rxd7 Nxd7 36. Rd1 Kc7 37. Ne4 Rf4 38. Ncd6 Ne5 39. Nc5 Kb8 40. Ndxb7 Rxb4 41. Rd8+ Kc7 42. Nxa6+ Kxb7 43. Nxb4 Kc7 44. Rh8 Bf5 45. Rxh6 g4 46. Nxc6 gxh3 47. Bh1 Nxc6 48. Rxc6+ Kd7 49. a6 Bd3 50. a7 Bb5 51. a8=Q Bxc6 52. Qxc6+ Ke7 53. Kh2 Kf7 54. Kxh3 Ke7 55. Kg4 Kf7 56. Kg5 Ke7 57. Kg6 Kd8 58. Qb7 Ke8 59. Qf7+ Kd8 60. Bc6 Kc8 61. Qd7+ Kb8 62. Qb7# {Black checkmated} 1-0
Google+A lucky escape…
April 2nd, 2012[Event "Glasgow league, Phones v Shettleston"] [Site "Glasgow"] [Date "2 Apr 2012"] [Round "?"] [White "Luke barker"] [Black "Paul Anderson"] [Result "1/2-1/2"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4 d5 3. e3 g6 4. Be2 Bg7 5. Nf3 c5 6. c3 cxd4 7. exd4 Nc6 8. O-O O-O 9. Qb3 Nh5 10. Bg5 h6 11. Be3 Qd6 12. Qa3 Qc7 13. Nfd2 Nf4 14. Bxf4 Qxf4 15. Nf3 Rd8 16. b4 Bg4 17. b5 Bxf3 18. g3 Qf5 19. Bxf3 Nxd4 20. cxd4 Bxd4 21. Nd2 Bxa1 22. Rxa1 e5 23. Nf1 Rac8 24. Ne3 Qxf3 25. Qxa7 d4 26. Ng2 Rc2 27. Rf1 Rdc8 28. Ne1 Qd5 29. Nxc2 Rxc2 30. Qb8+ Kg7 31. Re1 e4 32. Qf4 d3 33. Qe3 d2 34. Rd1 g5 35. a4 Qd3 36. Kg2 Rc1 37. Qxd3 exd3 38. Rxd2 Rc3 39. Kf3 Ra3 40. Ke3 Rxa4 41. Rxd3 Rb4 42. Rd5 Rb2 1/2-1/2
Google+Chess game
March 19th, 2012Event “17 Mar 2012 18:57″] [White "A Paulin"] [Black "Lb"] [Result "1/2-1/2"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. f4 e6 4. Nf3 d6 {a bit slow but solid enough perhaps..d5! Is better probably } 5. g3 Nge7 6. Bg2 g6 7. O-O Bg7 8. d3 Rb8 9. a4 O-O 10. Bd2 Nd4 11. Nxd4 cxd4 12. Ne2 b5 13. axb5 Rxb5 14. b3 Qc7 15. Ra4 Nc6 16. Qa1 Bd7 17. Qa2 a5 18. Ra1 Rc8 19. Rc4 { possibly a mistake} Qb6 20. Qb2 h6 21. Be1 Rc5 22. Bf2 Rxc4 23. dxc4 e5 24. c3 Rb8 25. Rb1 Bg4 26. cxd4 exd4 27. Nc1 a4 28. h3 Be6 29. Bf1 Na5 30. Qa3 axb3 31. g4 Nxc4 {a blunder in time trouble – b2! And white is lost. The text move means the pawn can be taken} 32. Qxb3 Qxb3 33. Rxb3 Rxb3 34. Nxb3 Ne3 35. Nc1 Nxf1 36. Kxf1 1/2-1/2
Google+Game
March 13th, 2012[Event "League"] [Site "Cathcart"] [Date "12 Mar 2012"] [Round "1"] [White "Barker"] [Black "Tsang"] [Result "1-0"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4 d5 3. e3 e6 4. Nf3 Nbd7 5. Nbd2 b6 6. Bd3 Bb7 7. Ne5 c5 8. c3 Nxe5 9. dxe5 Nd7 10. O-O Be7 11. Nf3 O-O 12. Qb1 h6 13. Rd1 Qc7 14. a4 a6 15. Qc2 Rac8 16. Qe2 c4 17. Bc2 Nc5 18. Rd4 Rfd8 19. Nd2 b5 20. Qh5 Nd3 21. Bxd3 cxd3 22. Bxh6 g6 23. Rg4 Bf8 24. Bf4 Bg7 25. Qg5 b4 26. h4 bxc3 27. bxc3 Qxc3 28. Rb1 29. e4 dxe4 30. h5 e3 31. Bxe3 Qxe5 32. hxg6 f5 33. Rgb4 Qd5 34. Nf3 Bf8 35. Rd4 Qa2 36. Rxd7 Qxb1+ 37. Kh2 Bc6 38. Qh5 Qb8+ 39. Kh3 1-0
Google+