Friday 21 July 2017

Scottish Chess Championship Day 6 - The Next Day!!

There was me sitting last night wondering where on earth the "wall" was.  Normally on the Wednesday I am walking around like a zombie.  Well dear readers, it hit today and it hit hard!!!  So that's what getting older means, it just takes a bit longer!

There was hilarity abound today.  When we were putting up the name cards for the Open, we noticed we had hit a "magic" pairing.  This one had a really strong Sherlock Holmes theme to it.  Who were the two players?  Well it was no mystery...

Lennart showing Alex what he thought of the joke
Everyone likes reading Koehn-Doyle....

For years we wanted to get Tate - Lyle but never managed it.  Did get Marks - Spencer quite a few times!

I had a first today in my arbiting career!  Not often I can say this.  I had my first ever 5 fold repetition.  Not even the great Alex has had that!  I am honoured :)

 One of the strangest complaints this year passed the desk.  During the U1850, a hand shot up.  When the Arbiting team walked over, the player complained that their opponent was not recording the moves.  On checking the clock, the opponent had 3 minutes and 50 seconds remaining.  We pointed this out but were non-plussed with the reply we got.  "He is 8 moves behind.  There is no way he could have made 8 moves in 10 seconds....".  Must be something in the water when someone mixes up 10 seconds and 1 minute 10 seconds!

Not to be out-done, an unnamed player in the Open went to the toilet (I promise I will keep this clean!).  When he returned, he sat down at the wrong table, looked puzzled at the position, then even more puzzled at his opponent.  Realised his mistake and moved 1 table to the left which was still the wrong table...   We guided him to the right table, exactly where the placecard with his name was...

The fun with the scoresheets continued today with this rather bizarre move


According to player 1, the sequence was c4, Be7 Nc3 c5.  Player 2 had c4 Nc3 c5 Be3.  

Which one was right????

The answer is neither!  Ah the joys of putting games in.

Tomorrow sees David returning down south for the Glorney.  Who do we have to fill in his shoes?  The one and only IA, IO Lara Barnes.  You have to feel sorry for Alex, I have been winding him up incessantly all week and now Lara is here as well :p

The U1850 finishes tomorrow and it is in reality a straight fight.  Who will be successful?  Here are your 4 contenders...



 Good luck to you all!


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