GoodKnights in Oslo

While visiting friends in Oslo, Sam took some time to check out the local chess scene - he didn't manage to find Magnus, but there were fortunately more than enough Norwegian chess players to say hello to!

Oslo has become something of 'new chess capital' since you-know-who ascended to chess stardom - and it was such a pleasure to discover the GoodKnight bar on my travels.

It's a tremendous place to play and meet chess enthusiasts - huge thank you to Adrian, Runa and everyone who I had a lot of fun playing dice chess* with. I couldn't have been made more welcome - Respect the dice!

Adrian smiling in a tough dice chess position.

Erland modelling a perfect London System position!

It also made me feel very excited for our upcoming Checkmate Lates in Hammerton Brewery on 5 August - hope to see many of you there where I'll be running a special lesson on how to play dice chess, with special prizes for those of you brace enough to play the tournament. You can sign up here: checkmatelates.eventbrite.co.uk

*Dice chess is a variant of chess which injects a whole lot of luck into the traditional game. It's a great leveller, as you can also adjust the game to 'even up' the odds between players of differing strengths - though be prepared for the dice to brutally do so too!