Tuesday, December 25, 2012

A Surprise Game Nine of the Great Greek Chess Tournament at Kastro Bar

The day has been quite pleasant and I really wasn't expecting to see anyone but Mary called me up and told me she was going up to Kastro Bar with her cousin and would I like to join them.  Turning down an invitation from two ladies on Christmas is simply not going to happen so I suited up (yes, I even took a shower) and went up there.  This didn't violate the stay inside to shake the cold principle as Kastro Bar is so close that you can't get cold between here and there.  Besides, they have lovely fireplaces all over in there and it's toasty warm.

(Ed:  Ahem, the results?)

Bro, I've got to pad it out and you'll see why in a moment.  It was a great pleasure and a privilege to meet Mary's cousin, also named Mary, as I had met her daughter before but never anyone in her family who didn't live with her.  I apologized repeatedly for being so anti-social as to get into a chess death match in which neither Mary nor I talk very much so hopefully I didn't leave a bad impression!

(Ed:  Cough, cough!)

OK, then!  The reason for the padding even though I consider it much more than padding is that the game didn't feature dynamic shifts in power.  I took the tactical advantage early and somehow managed not to screw it up so it played through to the mate.  As always, the game was deadly and over-confidence will kill you faster than anything else as both of us are deadly to the last piece.  So this one went to the home team and the score for the Great Greek Chess Tournament is now tied at 4.5 all!

Mary and Mary went off to the rest of their Christmas evening and I'm back here at the house as the mission still remains the same:  stay warm and don't let the cough get out of control.  It's all good, if highly annoying, and there is no physical evidence of reason to see a doctor.  I did put a bowl of water on the heater upstairs and that did seem to make a difference.  Hopefully that will help toward shaking it soon and I do want to emphasize there is no evidence of infection, it's just a really annoying cold.

Mary, cousin of chess-playing Mary, said she brought me luck for the game and indeed she did!  It was quite charming to meet her and to talk at least a little bit.

No comments: