Peter Doggers

About EU tour and ChessVibes

Hello Peter! You recently came back from a tour around Europe. The last place that you visited was Hungary where you played the First Saturday tournament. Are you happy with your performance there?

Hi there. Well, actually I did not return yet. My tour will last till the end of August. I’m playing lots of tournaments and at the same time I’m making on-the-spot reports, interviews and videos.

Right now I’m in Berlin and as from Saturday the 23rd of June I will ocupy one of the seats in the press room of the Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund, the next super tournament after Sofia.

Naturally I'm happy about my result in Budapest since I won 24 rating points there.

Did you like Budapest as a city? Did you jump in Szechenyi Baths and Pool?:)

Yes, I very much like Budapest. It's a beautiful city and we had great weather despite some occasional showers. And the people are quite 'into chess', which can be seen at the Szechenyi Bath & Pool. I was able to shoot a photo of the famous image of people playing chess while being in the water. A big report on the First Saturday tournament, including an interview with organizer László Nagy, can be found at www.chessvibes.com.

Before that you were in Sofia. How do you compare Sofia to Budapest?

Well it's difficult to make a good comparison since I haven't seen that much of Sofia. There I've just been working a lot in the Mtel Masters press room and mainly saw the city during the nights. I think that Budapest is a bit more 'western' than Sofia, which you may notice for example by the prices in restaurants. Sofia is also quite nice and I'm looking forward to return there and explore it some more.

Mtel Masters was an exciting tournament. What is the feeling to be part of the team reporting it?

Being a journalist in Sofia is like taking a warm bath. The tournament organizers are doing everything to make you feel comfortable and are sending every information you need with daily emails. Besides, there are many side-activities, for example the soccer match between the chess players and the players from Levsky football club on the rest day, which is just great fun for both players and journalists.

Mtel compared to Corus?

Mtel is of course much smaller, but equally professionally organized, from the journalist point of view. Unfortunately the third edition was a bit weaker than the first two tournaments, but the fighting spirit wasn't!

When is your next tournament? Is the GM title far away?

As a journo Dortmund will be next, but as a player my next tournament will be the Championship of Paris, 7-15 July. The GM title is out of the question for me, since I've been on a 2250 level for about six years now. It's quite impossible I think to improve 300 points when you're not a professional and older than let's say 25. But the main reason for this "tour" I'm doing is actually to improve my chess. Many players told me that to improve in chess, the most important thing is to play often. And I'm inclined to agree with them. First Saturday was my third tournament, after Salou and Porto Mannu in May, and I've clearly been playing better in Budapest compared to the other tournaments. My performance rating was above 2300. If I can continue to play on this level, I will reach my first, modest goal which is to pass the 2300 border. Only after that I feel it's justified to start thinking about a second IM norm (I scored an IM norm in Amsterdam, 2004).

What can we expect from ChessVibes?

More of the same, and more! Which means that we will certainly continue making lots of videos and articles about the chess news. (Do visit the site especially next week because the Dortmund coverage will be very intensive again). And at some point we'll probably come with new types of content, for example material that helps to improve your game of chess, because this is a subject that I'm quite interested in. Hopefully I can visit lots of more tournaments, also after my tour, because what ChessVibes has been doing so far is greatly appreciated by both the team and the audience.

To this I'd like to add that we're always open for new contributors. If readers of this interview think that they could contribute to the site, either by writing about things they like or just by making some photos (or even videos?), they should feel free to contact us . Thanks for the interview and good luck with Chessdom!