There is no way out...

12:36 pm - www.beards.org

Hi guys,

Just to let you know that if you go to http://www.beards.org/ and click on 'featured beards', you will see my new feature there! It's looking good but I have more stuff to send Steve that will be added over the next few months. Alternatively, click the direct link http://www.beards.org/beard023.php

Have a look and let me know what you think of it!

12:34 pm - Weekend.

 I doubt anyone reads this anymore but hey, i'm bored at work and there's nothing really to do until tomorrow.

Friday... I met Dani after work and I made her a really nice curry, well I think she liked it anyway! We didn't really do much else that night, just had a few drinks and chilled out.

Saturday... Dani went to work and I paid her a visit at 1pm, look what happened!



Yes, I got a new piercing! I love it as well, wanted to get this done for a while now but just never got round to it! Because my girlfriend works there, it cost me nothing too!

Anyway, I then went to chess club at about 3pm, won a load of games and got absolutely wrecked on Scotch. Met Dani again at about 10pm and we decided to go get some booze and have a few drinks at home, hmmm... not a good idea considering I was already wrecked by then!

Sunday... We just went into Leeds, did a bit of shopping etc. Dani bought some gorgeous new goth boots, mmm... they are really tasty! She bought a nice new dress as well! I didn't really see anything that I faniced though I did forget the main reason I was going to town in the first place, to buy a new ring. A replacement for the one that kept falling off and has now been lost somewhere! 

We went to The Ship for a Black Sheep and then to Iguana for a cocktail, Dani keeps dragging me in there and I finally bought a cocktail for myself! I kinda got a bit sick of their lack of beer and having to drink their dodgy San Miguel. Erm... we then went for a Chinese in town which was nice and then it was time to go home for a bit before returning for Black Sheep. Black Sheep was one of the best i've been to in a while, two top class Dj's! 

I'm really looking forward to next month, taking Dani to Alton Towers on the 1st and we're off to Holmfirth on the 3rd to see the Damned. I think we'll probably go to Holmfirth early and have a good nosey around, we haven't been since we were kids so that should be fun! 

Other plans, I'm off to get measured for a suit for my sisters wedding this weekend, I think she's making me wear a pink waistcoat! Arg! Still hoping there's going to be something half decent on at the cinema sometime soon, the last film we went to see, Teeth, was a total flop! We'll probably end up at Saltaire this Sunday as well, i'm missing the tram at Shipley Glenn haha!

02:44 pm - Last weekend!

 This weekend has been really amazing, I booked Friday off work so that I could go to Tropical World with my beautiful girlfriend Dani and her 2 year old brother Jacob. I haven't been there in years but it was a great day out, I love spending time with Dani, she makes me so happy! On the way though, we got a little lost, well kind of... I think we got off the bus a stop too early and ended going the wrong way in the pooring down rain! It was still good fun though, at least Jacob was nice and dry in his pram! We got there in the end and it wasn't much different to how I remembered it, still loads there and suprisingly the butterfly gardens are still there as well! It's just a shame we didn't have a propper camera, I would have liked to have taken some photo's of our first propper day out! If we go again, i'm definately taking a camera!

After we'd finished at Tropical World, me and Dani took Jacob for a Macdonalds and then home. We then went to a pub in Haworth for some propper real ale, yum!

I went to chess club on Saturday and that went pretty well, trying out some new lines in preperation for the new season. I finished the night off by drinking Scotch and playing 1 minute exhibition games for the fun of it, winning nearly every one!

Sunday I took Dani to York, again getting a little lost as we did on Friday. Not sure how we managed that, all the times i've been to York and never got lost, ever! Was gutted to find that the Cert 18 is no longer there and also gutted that again we didn't take a camera. Ah well, we're planning on going there again soon during the week so that we have more time to do stuff and when more places will be open. I bloody love Dani and the more time I spend with her the more I love her!

Went to Black Sheep in the evening but we ended up leaving at 10.30, wasn't exactly the best Black Sheep i've ever been to!

Tonight, when I get out of this crappy workplace, i'm meeting Dani and then cooking something nice for her. Can't wait!

Oooooh! My feature is almost ready to go on www.beards.org as soon as it does I will be letting everyone know! I've sent Steve about 40 beard photos to play with and I have also answered his interview questions. He is a busy man though but as soon as he gets time, he will be using some of his webspace for me on his featured beards section!

03:19 pm - Drinkeys Tonight!

Anyone know anything about this Tuesday night at the Subculture? I'm reet fancying a drink out town tonight but now really sure where to go unless it's outside of Leeds! 

HEEEELLLLLLP!

12:15 pm - Check me out!

Hey guys, check me out on the homepage of www.beards.org the guy who runs this site said I have an awesome beard and he wants to do a feature on me based on my progress! Haha!

02:33 pm - Chess!

Well my old friend Karl from the uni (who left my club 2 years ago to join the uni chess team) came online about 30mins ago demanding a game of chess, he was at home and had his chess set at the ready. I was, of course at work and a little busy but... I said I could try and give him a game whilst clearing some new applicants for employment. 

So anyway, he said he has been practicing most nights and that he has found a refutation against my French Defence/Hecht Reefschlager System. I thought this was funny because I know this line like the back of my hand and there's been no recent grandmaster discoveries that should trouble me and certainly no refutation exists!

Basically we just made our moves on our own sets (I started off by playing blindfold until it started becoming difficult multi tasking and playing chess blind) and then entered the move onto msn messenger. W e got a few moves into the game and Karl said, "hmmm... I have a huge centre and i'm pretty sure I have the better position, I don't see how you can equalise from this position Tony!" when suddently... BANG! 6. fxe4?? - Qh4+ and Karl's "huge centre" is completely demolished! His responce was, "Ouch!" 

It serves him right for thinking he was a better player than me, I forced him to resign after just 14 moves! Most games of chess go on for about 50!

If anyone's interested in playing through, here's the game notation:

Karl Hopkinson-Turrell Vs Tony Ibbitson
Friendly Grudge Match
30/06/2008
French Defence - Hecht Reefschlager System

1)    e4-e6
2)    d4-d5
3)    Nc3-Nc6
(This move characterises the System of my choice, the thematic break of the main line French is to attack the base of the pawn chain with the c-pawn, blocking in the c-pawn with this move breaks all the rules of chess. I like this idea though, puts more emphasis on the ...f6 break instead with tons of pressure on e5)
4)    e5-f6          
(The thematic break)
5)    f4-fxe4       
(This was my little trap)
6)    fxe4
(Blunder, here Karl missed my Queen fork when his centre is demolished!)
                -Qh4 check 
(BANG!)
7)    g3-Qxd4
8)    Qxd4
(Hmmm... material down and exchanging Queen's? Not a good idea, exchanging off into a won endgame for me)
                 -Nxd4
9)    Bd3-Bb4
10)  Bd2-Ne7
11)  Nge2
(Yet another mistake but then again, my Knight is always going to be deadly)
                 -Nf3 check
12)  Kd1-Nxd2
13)  Kxd2-c5
(With complete initiative, Karl has to react to all of my threats. This position is completely lost)
14)  Nf4

And here he resigned, not bad to say I was working at the same time. Karl was sat at home with a ches set right next to him!

Any more offers of a hammering are welcome! Game anyone?

09:49 am - Beard

My girlfriend grew a beard because she was jealous of mine, it's actually better than mine as well! Grrrrr!



What a beard!!!! I love a girl with facial hair ;)

Can you tell i'm fucking fed up with my job?! Off for about 10 pints in Bradford tonight! Then off to see Severed Heaven on Tuesday, another 10 pints, Chess Club on Wednesday, oh another 10 pints, Bad Moon Rising on Thursday and another 10 pints! Might have a day off on Friday then heavy weekend drinking! You can tell i've just been paid haha!

03:58 pm - More ramblings!

So, we had our consultaion meetings at work and it's now definate that we're all being made redundant by WHSmith's. My director said that I was the most confident looking one at the individual meetings, I obviously knew that anyway. Especially considering when WHSmith were explaining how they are going to proceed, everyone barring me and my colleague (the only one's in the Payroll/HR department) were either in tears or blatantly upset, while me and Jackie were rubbing our hands thinking, TRIBUNAL! Yes, the WHSmith HR department is erm... useless in comparison to us at UNS and well, they're obviously not up to scratch with the current legislation and rulings, all I can say at the moment is that we DO have a case! 

Although at the very least, I will be talking away at least £5k after the redundancy but why not have a little fun as well?! After all... I do hate them all at WHSmith!

Anyway, not getting paid until Monday and i'm a little skint. This obviously means no partying this weekend, if you can call it partying?! It doesn't seem quite as fun going out in Leeds as it used to. Dani, my new lady will be coming round tonight and will most probably be here most of the weekend. Apart from when she's working on Saturday. Not sure what we'll be doing yet but whatever we decide, it will keep me happy hehe!

Anyone know of any decent gigs next month? I wouldn't mind going to a few, Fields of the Nephilim is a little out of my range at the moment but anything closer to home will do nicely! I quite fancy the Total Chaos all dayer at the Well in August but that's more of a punky thing, anything a little more erm... GOTH?! The Rhomus gig in Bradistan is a definate yes for me but I can never seem to find anything else.

04:01 pm - Tea...

Hmmm... what shall I cook for my gorgeous lady tonight? I might do a propper pasta bake, I just need  to get more herbs and stuff in after work. Pffft! lol!  

01:02 pm - Irregular update folks!

Yesterday was fun, well... the part after I finished work was anyway! I went straight from work to meet Dani and within 5 mins of seeing her we ended up in a rock/metal pub :D Yeah man! Had a few bottles of ale and a load of randomly weird yet frequently asked questions such as, "Do you pull Tony's beard during sex?!", "How long's it take you to grow that?!" and "Do those piercings hurt?!", ya know... the usual bollocks haha! 

Anyway, after a few drinks we went to the cinema to see, erm... ARG! Hmmm... OK, i'm ready but don't laugh... we went to see Teeth, the film about the man eating vagina, to be honest though, it was so fucking bad that it was quite funny. A bit like Black Sheep although slightly funnier. I'm not going to say anything about it though, it really was shite! 

Back to the pub for more beer and then took Dani to the station, ARG! If only I could have squeezed her into my bag and took her home hehe! Shame I didn't have a bag with me :(

Today... well, work whilst fitting in my chess grading calculations, trying to do the chess stuff in advance of being published by the YCA so that I can sort the board order out for next season, I prefer to get stuff like this out of the way. Not worried about the meeting on Thursday, I mean, we are all thinking that redundancy is looming so there's no point worrying when nothing can be done about it. Tonight i'm meeting Dani in town, yes i'm a sad bastard but we are happy together. Been with her a while now and I am in love, makes a nice change, don't think i've ever truly fallen for someone, well I have now and it's amazing!

What the fuck am I doing on here?! I have loads of work to do and yet i'm skiving again! Someone give me a good fucking kick up the arse! Thanks!

Tomorrow is chess club, looking forward to that, I have a few new ideas I need to try out. Mainly in the Sicilian Defence and the Ruy Lopez, I need to polish up on the new repertoire before the season kicks off in October. I've built up a strong team now and we're now one of the top teams in our division, we're playing for the title this time round!

Thursday I shall be attending the Manville again for Howard's Bad Moon Rising thingy, great night out, and that ale is soooooo fucking gorgeous!!!!

REET! Berra gerron wi some wukkk nah! Si thi later!

Current Mood: bouncy

01:16 pm - Beard!!!

Have been growing my beard back after stupidly cutting half a foot off it! Decided to dye the bottom of it blue... 

How cool does it look?!

01:11 pm - Update...

Well, i'm going to try and keep updating on here now that i'm out and about again, don't know how long it will last though to be honest. It all depends on time and whether I have anything to post without boring you all too much with what's going on.

Me and my girlfriend Dani (below) Went to Howards new night at the Manville yesterday, we really enjoyed it! Great tunes, fantastic beer and it was just a really nice venue. I reccomend it to anyone who reads this post, get thisen dahn! I'm definately going again at some point soon. Ok, a few nutters (chavs) popped in but once they saw us in there they soon buggered off, the venue is pretty much out of the way so you don't get drunks coming in and causing shit and the locals are all really nice. Thanks Howard man for sticking my tunes on, not that I really needed to request as your stuff was top notch anyway!

ARGH!!! Look at that ugly mug! haha! 

Well, work's been a bit shit to be honest. I mean, not knowing whether we'll be in a job next week is kinda shitty, nobody wanting to do any work etc. Certainly not wanting to pass any information onto WHSmiths, the cheeky fuckers! I'm not sure what i'm going to do yet but first on my list will be to find somewhere else to live that's maybe a little more pleasant than Armley. Obviously looking for a new job will also be on the list, not that I will need to but the possibility is still lurking.

I've decided to grow my beard out, not because i'm lazy, just decided to have a change from the usual goatee thing and grow a full beard instead, you guys wont recognise me haha! Well I can say that I don't look goth anymore although I am still goth at heart, all that rubbish about goths not having beards etc, that really is a load of bollocks!

Well Dani's coming over to mine tonight so i'm obviously really excited about that, will probably have to force her to watch The Crow since she's never seen it! I think I watch that movie far too much but... well... it is fucking brilliant. Either that or just try and scare her with some propper old horror with dodgy sound effects that may I add, do actually make them quite scary in comparison to the remakes.

Anyway who's off to the Fields of the Nephilim gigs next month in London?

Not really got much else to say at the moment but i'm sure i'll find something interesting to talk about at some point soon! 

Reet! Ahm off ta mek a coffeee! Work sucks and I really need 5mins outside of my office! Si thi later!

Current Mood: excited

02:14 pm - Fucking hate WHSmith!!!

Hmmm... well the directors at work have decided to retire and sell the company to WHSmith, we all had a meeting with WHSmith a few months ago and they promised us that nothing would change, the office would still be based in Leeds and that we would all keep our jobs. We now have another meeting on the 26th but this time they cannot promise us anything until that date, it looks like we may be getting made redundant, either that or they will be moving the office to Swindon where the WHSmith office is based. Fucking lying bastards I recon!

To be honest, I have a far too busy shedule at the moment to be worrying about it so I am kinda looking at a few Payroll and HR jobs online at work but I may as well wait and see what happens. I've been here nearly 10 years and so the redundancy package will be enough to keep me going whilst looking for another job. WHSmith haven't actually decided what's going to happen yet so it may not even be bad news. 

I will keep you posted on this but to be honest, it could be a good opportunity for me to go into chess full time! I know i'm good enough to make a living from this game and the time off work will be used extremely wisely on my studies!

01:42 pm - Well hello...

Crickey, 68 weeks since I logged in here! Ok well, I had a quick scroll through my friend list and it seems that i'm not the only one. I will keep my eye on it though as I found a few gems of information today. Beyond The Veil with The Cruxshadows, Ikon playing York and I also found some information on the new weekly goth night in Bradford, Bad Moon Rising. The latter was quite lucky actually, I have been out in Bradford a couple of times recently but never really found anywhere to go. I'm not sure where this Manville Arms is but I will certainly be having a look.

Last weekend I went to Transmission to see the new band, obviously I was dissapointed that Chris was unable to play but I wish him a quick recovery. This was my first visit to Transmission and I was expecting a Goth night, forgetting that it's just an alternative night so me and my new lady Dani went to Devastator after a couple of hours. This is a pure death metal night but some of the music in there was top notch, well, it kept Dani happy anyway!

The chess season is now over for another year so i'm trying to make the most of the spare time by seeing Dani and also studying chess heavily, i'm now working on a new King's pawn repertoire based on the Scotch, Sicilian and Ruy Lopez but I still have a load of work to do. Got a few congresses coming up, Whitby, Scarborough and Manchester being the main ones but I will try not to spend as much time in the pub as I did at Hartlepool last month! 

Sad news regarding Black Veil! I used to love going there but it looks like it might be dying out, it's the only propper goth night in Leeds so I shall miss it very, very much!

Anyway, if any of you read this and are still alive, drop me a comment and I will have a look through your recent posts!

Current Mood: about seeing Dani tonight!

08:52 am - Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Date A Chess Player

Reason 10: He will always withdraw if there's too much pressure
Reason 9: He can always pin you down
Reason 8: He really knows his pieces well
Reason 7: He knows when to mate fast and when to mates slow
Reason 6: He can mate in more positions than anoyone
Reason 5: Chessplayers know where their pieces are best placed
Reason 4: Chessplayers never mind playing in front of others
Reason 3: He can penetrate in ANY position
Reason 2: He always puts his piece in the biggest hole in the position
Reason 1: He never comes too fast into the position.

Current Mood: bouncy

12:15 pm - CHESS PLAYERS NEEDED!!!

Can anybody help me, I need to find at least one more reliable member for my team Leeds Chess Club. It doesn't matter how good or bad but someone with experience would be preferred as I am willing to coach them. Let me know if you know anyone I could get in touch with. Or even any suggestions on how I should advertise. Tony

11:47 pm

Today's been a good day for me, working overtime at work yet it seems to be going pretty quick. I think playing pranks on the junior seem to be helping me have more fun than usual, today I nearly lost my job over it though :( I taped the ball underneath his mouse and the dopey sod ended up checking the wires leading to the tower... what an arse!!! He went and blabbed to my boss and I was in a lot of shit, I keep joking with him but he's far too easily offended.

Been talking about allsorts with Sandy today and things are going well, we're getting on very well and i'm happy with her. We're in the middle of sorting out a trip to a haunted house, something we've both wanted to do for a long time! I will have to drag her to Black Sheep when it starts up again yey! I can't wait! 

I'm like a fucking zombie today, too much work and too much chess! Being schitzo doesn't help either, just can't get any sleep at all. Somehow i'm still managing to get stuff done at a good pace, not sure how long it will last though before I drop dead lol!

Next match is on Wednesday, I think I can afford to have a wee rest before then though as i'm really confident about getting a good result no matter what. Chess is my life and will always be a part of me, one day I will be the best in Yorkshire but I just have a few more things to polish up on first. Lot's of hard work still to come! Ooooh... there's also the Doncaster chess congress next month as well :)

Finished my antibiotics for my lip after nearly knocking my lip ring reet through my lip, the split hole has healed and the swelling has gone down so with a bit of luck I shall be able to wear my spikes soon. Darn piercings! It's my fault for wearing rings and not studs, oh well...

Time for me to dissapear for now...

Current Mood: Knackered

09:24 pm

Hey all!

I'm back after taking a break from this heap of shite that is 'Livejournal'. I'm much happier than I was before, everything's going great for me which is cool! I'm much happier about life, my chess is going well, work is also getting better, I have a new girl called Sandy who 'ROCKS MY WORLD!' I have started going out clubbing again and been seeing lot's of my mates as well! Very happy at the moment!

I got rid of both Helen and Lolly as they both treated me like shit and no way do I deserve that kinda shit, I admit that it took me a while to realise but in the end I made the right decision. Loads of my mates told me to stay clear of Lolly but did I listen?... No! To all who warned me about going back to her, i'm sorry that I never listened to you.

Anyway, I was dragged to Rock of Ages one Saturday night. I didn't want to go but I went because there was fuck all else on that night, I bumped into Dave while I was there which was cool! While I was there I met the most amazing girl. her name is Sandy and she's my new girl, we had an awesome night. She lives in Glastonbury which is a shame but we've decided to give it a go and see how it goes, I hope it works out. You're probably wondering why she was in Leeds in the first place, well... one of Sandy's mates is Dave's girlfriends daughter hehe! We will make sure that we see a lot of each other despite the distance.

My sister's bloke proposed to her the other day which is cool! I wish them all the best! Think me and Sandy will be going to their engagement party and no doubt I shall be dancing to the cheesy 80's music. Arg!

Can't be arsed writing much more so I shall keep it as short as possible...

The chess is going great, getting really good now. I've been analysing positions from world class players at their most complex positions, the other day I did one and played the side of a world top 10 player. Analysed every candidate move based on all the imbalances, worked out every possible variation until the very end and branched off at every chance possible to widen the analytical tree. I found the best move quickly and then worked out the correct continuation for about ten moves deep, the final result matched exactly to the moves actually played! I will be a grandmaster in no time!

Hopefully I shall be back on here soon!

Current Mood: content

05:35 pm

Just been playing 5 minute chess online but it's far too easy lol! I just keep setting cheap (5 move ahead) traps and because it's only 5 mins they never see them hahaha! I should be a master! Oh well, at leat I have a toughie in December, playing for Leeds against Bradford. Gradingwise we are fairly evenly matched teams so should be a good one. I must admit though, including myself, we have two sharks in our team so I recon we will pull it off. Time for lots more beer and then I shall crucify a couple more chess players before I go out. I don't know why but my chess gets more aggressive and risky yet I play more sound traps when I get drunk :) Bring it on!

04:51 pm

Can anyone tell me where the Pack Horse is in Leeds please? I'm going there for Black Veil but due to certain circumstances it couldn't be at the usual venue tonight.

Cheers

Tony