An Englishman Abroad

FLEW to Prague yesterday to play in a CzechTour congress at Hradec Králové, a city about 60 miles east of the capital.

There are 71 entries from 13 countries, the full list being at http://chess-results.com/tnr584333.aspx?lan=1&art=0&turdet=YES&flag=30

The venue is the Hotel Černigov, opposite the main train station, which was also the venue when I played eight years ago.

It was dark when I arrived, but I was interested to see how much had changed since my previous visit and so walked to the old town, which is a good 20 minutes away.

I do not remember this giant Tesco

I very much recall this red miniature Eiffel Tower

Some things have stayed essentially the same for hundreds of years (apart from the nature of the traffic in the foreground)

The main tournament is nine rounds over eight days, starting today at 4pm, with a time control of 90 minutes plus a 30-second increment.

The hotel had been recently refurbished in 2013 at a time when quite a few of the CzechTour venues were unreconstructed from the communist era.

It remains good value: 38 euros a night for a single room, including breakfast.