Our Chess Club Social Event won by Tom Jones … It’s not unusual.
The East Cheshire Chess Club held its season-opening social event on Wednesday 27 September.
As ever, the event was to produce some unexpected surprises. The carefully planned six round rapid play tournament included a rehearsal for the new technology being used to arrange the draws for each round using on the much loved Swiss system (winners play winners, losers play losers).
The new technology system was introduced by Steve Kelly our guardian of finances. When in use, players are able to check their opponent and seat location on the wide screen or on their phones, thus reducing the crush around the officials’ table as the next round is announced.
Then luck, (or Caissa, goddess of chess) intervened. Steve fell a victim of COVID and had to withdraw at the last minute. Club President David Taylor had lost his trusty assistant as tournament administration team.
We were back to the ancient pen and paper system for working out the draws of each round. I stepped nobly into the breach to support David as he shuffled the slips of paper and carried out complex mathematical equations in his head. I found my role mainly involved shouting out the pairings at the start of rounds. Inevitably, the process curtailed the tournament to five rounds ...
