Lothians Congress 2011 II - Where are all the photos gone?

2011 will go down in chess history.  We had not 1 but 2 Lothian Congresses in the space of 10 months!  Was it a good idea to switch between the Allegro and Congress?  Personally I liked travelling to the congress without Mike skidding all over the road scaring the Bejezus out of me!

This was a congress with a difference.  This was the first weekend congress that I was finally going to get to fulfil both one of my ambitions and one of the targets I had set myself as Executive Director. 

We were going to broadcast the congress live on the internet (well 8 boards).

I am so grateful for Alex and Lara (and not forgetting Dave Clayton and Donald) for realising I was going to melt down and helped out.  It is my first time doing the dual role and I'll not lie, I was tired.  It was hard going and hard to keep my concentration, it is going to be a steep learning curve.

Unlike the old days where I would have had to be there at least 4 hours before hand to set up a wired network and fret over who would trip over the cables, this time it is all wireless and took about an hour to set up the 8 boards.  Unfortunately one of the board modules had a fault, Murphy had to strike somewhere...   Peter Woods swiftly removed the offending item and it is currently en-route back to DGT with a brand new one steaming its way over there.

 

So what is so difficult?  Well the software like to let the hardware go missing and occasionally likes to ignore moves which means you have to be on your toes ready to put them in (or dash off to the board if you miss them!)

 Round 3 was a real pain.  There was 30 minutes between Round 2 and Round 3 and I just did not have enough time to do it.  In the end the broadcast started 15 minutes late but we still managed it.

It was worth it and I really look forward to doing this again at other congresses this season.   Just need a couple of volunteers to come along and learn how to use kit!