Saturday, January 5, 2013

Results of Game Eleven of the Great Greek Chess Tournament

The message came into me reading 'Leaving now. Meet u at that cafe' and my first thought was what the hell is this!  I quickly concluded it was Mary talking about chess but I still had no idea which cafe but this was resolved after I found a place outside where the mobile would work and I could call her.

So the game took place at the Koursaros Cafe in Katakolo and you can see a picture of it in a subsequent article.  It's a quite nice place and even in the middle of Winter there is usually a good number of people there.  Τακης (tah-kis), the owner, has just returned from a month-long vacation with his wife in Australia.  It's Summer down there so ...

(Ed:  Ahem, may I remind this is a game report?)

Right.

The game commenced with me playing White and going forthwith into my favorite King's Pawn opening.  The opening didn't stay conventional for long as I thought I'd bring out my Queen to create some early pressure and this turned out to be a good endeavour as it built to a substantial lead in manpower.

About that point, Mary got a phone call and she was talking quite quickly in Greek but it was obvious she was not talking about a shopping list with her daughter.  At the end of it I asked if we needed a rule about talking to boyfriends or girlfriends during the course of the game and she smiled happily thinking of her date later in the evening.  The boyfriend / girlfriend mobile call rule might be important as we'll see as the game progresses.

Given a strong lead in manpower and a formidable tactical position, it seemed quite inevitable that I would win it.  This, as you have probably guessed, led to some over-confidence on my part which quickly cost me two primary pieces.  The game which had previously looked owned now looked as though it could easily go either way.  I tell you this lady is deadly!

However, presumably because of the distracting thought of her date, Mary did finally lose the game and this is why the Boyfriend / Girlfriend Mobile Call Rule may be a significant consideration for future games.

Regardless of her distraction, I claim the victory and the honor of Clan Fraser is again restored ... sort of.  I went into the game with a one-game deficit as I had lost the last one so the score is now 5.5 all.  To fully restore the honor of the Clan I must take the lead and keep it.  Since we're tied after eleven games, this does not appear to be something that can be anticipated soon.


This game was not annotated as I'm still not sure that the last one is correct and will wait for validation on that before annotating another one.  There's no point in repeating a process that doesn't work unless you're in the GOP leadership in Washington and trying for the thirty-fourth farking time to repeal the Affordable Care Act.  They remind for all the world of the first time a dog sees a mirror and it just can't understand after running into it over and over that there isn't really a dog on the other side of it.

Naturally, this egregiously ineffective class of congressfolk re-elected the most ineffective Speaker of the House of all time and Boehner again has the job for another four years.  I have no political commentary on any of this, it just amuses me to see the most powerful country on the planet hamstrung by people who aren't intellectually qualified to pump petrol or park cars.

No comments: