Hay-On-Wye

Chess champ takes on 20 opponents at Hay
May 25 2008 Media Wales

Former chess grandmaster Boris Spassky will today take on 20 opponents simultaneously – including one in Antarctica.

Spassky will take up the challenge at the Hay Festival, in mid Wales.

And, with Antarctica 8,000 miles away, it will be the longest distance live chess match ever attempted.

Spassky’s on-line opponent on the continent will be Ian McNab, a field technician with the British Antarctic Survey based on the Rothera Research Station.

His other 19 opponents, who include comedian Dom Joly, Liberal Democrat Welsh Assembly Member Peter Black, and a number of the area’s leading child chess prodigies, will play him in person.

Mr MacNab, 52, from Manchester, said: “I am not very optimistic. I would describe myself as an amateur, but I was quite good as a teenager. I don’t think that Boris has much to be afraid of.”

The former outdoor pursuits instructor is part of a British team of 21 scientists and experts who are undertaking a long-term monitoring of environmental and maritime changes in the region.

Their next physical contact with the outside world will not take place until the arrival of a supply ship in October 2008.

Spassky, a 71-year-old Russian, became grandmaster at the age of 18 and proceeded to win the Soviet Chess Championship twice.

He was in the world’s top ten players for most of the years between the mid 50s and the mid 80s.

The simultaneous chess match will take place at 6pm at Richard Booth’s Bookshop, in Lion Street, Hay-On-Wye.

The challenge pre-emts the former world number one’s talk at the annual literary festival tomorrow about his famous loss to Bobby Fischer, in Reykjavik, at the height of the Cold War in 1972.
Source of article : HERE …
 We visited Wales a few years ago and I wanted to travel back through this “town of books”…Hay-on-Wye…and on THIS LINK

you can read what I said about the town…I’ve added two pictures here from that link…and on THIS LINK you can see my pics about Aberystwyth, in Wales where we visited friends.

    

You can clearly see the slot to leave your money at the “Honesty Bookshop” in Hay-on-Wye.

 Hay Castle  is where the “Honesty Bookshop” is…where you pay 50p per book and you can see the slot on my first pic for the money!

…and this is the bookshop! image:travel.nytimes.com
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 Please click HERE to visit the website of “Hay-On-Wey”…the “town of books”…

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Leone’s Art

Leone and Pieter live in Aberystwyth and we met them here in London. Leone is a fantastic artist and some of her work can be seen in Embassies in some countries. I took two pictures – bear in mind that I’m not a professional photographer- but I think it is still good enough to admire and to share. The first two pictures are the two which I photographed and I found the others by a search on Yahoo….Links in this post will open in a new window.
We visited them in Wales and you can follow this link (and go down with the slider) to look at the pictures in Aber and read more about our visit there.

autumn-at-betws-y-coed-i

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Leone’s art of cows – in Wales

 

More of Leone’s beautiful art

 

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Aberystwyth

In 2004 we visited friends of us in Aber. Aber is short for Aberystwyth. Pieter and Leone came to the UK in 2002 and we met them in Sutton, where we used to live when we came the first time to the UK. Leone is an ex-teacher, retired, but an artist and she is just amazing. Some of her art works are to be seen in Embassies! They are two lovely friends and spent a lot of time showing us around in Aber and nearby places.

These pics are from a castle in Aber. Follow the weblink to read more. The dog was funny…we stopped to buy something on the A438 route and he was sitting, very patiently, in the van waiting for his master!

Aberystwyth is in West Wales.

http://www.aberystwyth-online.co.uk/

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