Players in the Hastings Masters 2009-10

It is highly desirable for there to be at least 10 foreign players of the status of grandmasters, international masters, woman grandmaster, women masters and a total of at least 20 foreign rated players in the Masters. This is in order to ensure there is the possibility of a player gaining a title result. Since our resources are strictly limited, this can require a fine balancing act between inviting leading English players and foreigners.

Yuri Drodzovkij GM 2627 and Natalia Zdebsaja WGM 2410 both Ukraine are obviously a husband and wife pair! As are Nikolaj Shalnev GM 2450 and Olgar Shalneya WIM 2153 of Germany. These two pairs are receiving hospitality at the White Rock Hotel, a valuable sponsorship. Zbynek Hracek GM 2624 Czech Republic is another very strong player from the Czech Republic. Andrei Stratescu GM 2624 Roumania is the second of 19 year old Roman Edouard GM 2620 France. 

Other foreign leading players include: Dietmar Kolbus IM 2320 Germany, he lives in the Isle of Man which is why sometimes he can be found playing in the British Championship; Diana Arutyona WGM Ukraine and Joanna Worek WIM 2226 Poland are welcome newcomers as are Christophe Phillippe IM 2430 France, Dennis Breder Germany IM 2427, Gudmundur Kjartsson Iceland IM 2391. Petr Marusenko IM 2264 is another player from the Ukraine, but he seems to have been playing here forever. That is not true of course, the congress only dates back to 1919 and he has only been coming here since the USSR broke up. Vladimir Prosviriakov USA IM 2311 is back again; and I don’t remember whether this is the first visit by Nicolas Giffard France IM 2351. 

The English challenger is led by 19 year old David Howell GM 2620. Simon Williams GM 2530 will be here with his partner WFM Aly Wilson Switzerland. Mark Hebden GM 2500 has celebrated the New Year here many, many times. Keith Arkell GM 2478 had a rather devastating autumn due to ill-health, but he says his health and therefore his results are now much better. He did give up chess for a few years, but could not resist the lure of Goddess Caissa. Keith and Mark really should do a book of their 100 best games against each other. 

Foreign names can be tongue twisters. Drodzovkij, being originally in Cyrillic script, means the best transliteration may be something like Drodzyovky and Zdebsaja Zdebsaya. You can tell Shalnevya is simply the female version of her husband’s Russian name. Worldwide, any name ending in ‘a’ is likely to be that of a woman. Hracek is probably Hrachek. Romain Edouard is straightforward – but I thought Edouard was his first name until he corrected me. When issuing formal invitations for visa purposes, it is all-important to get the same spelling as appears on the passport. While having dinner at my home Bojan Kurajica spent 10 minutes teaching my parents and me how to pronounce his name. It is approximately Boyan Kuraiyitsa.

But strangely enough my name causes the greatest problems. My cousins don’t even spell Reuben the same way, many use Rubin. Then there could be Roubin, Rueben, Rubens and so on. My father was told by the registrar that Stuart is the correct spelling. My father demanded, ‘Write down Stewart.’ Steuart is a rare variation. People often think my name is Reuben Stewart. In Cyrillic the last name becomes RBN.
My spellchecker had a nervous breakdown as I was writing this.