Once every hundred years, the Coventry League comes together
for a celebratory rapidplay, as regular as clockwork. So it was that we gathered
yesterday at the Massey Ferguson club, for this momentous occasion. Mark, Mike and
Bernard C joined me in donning Kenilworth’s colours in the Open section. A fun
day was had by all, but there was one particularly notable achievement that I
feel compelled to write about. None other than Mark’s incredible victory
against a GM!
The trouble with being The Club Organiser is that you spend
most of your time lavishing praise on other people. [Bar those rare moments
when you suggest such things as members having a dodgy interpretation of a
dodgy opening – even when they won the game!!] Still, the point is The Club Organiser has no one else
to blow their trumpet when they well and truly bring home the bacon.
So it falls on me to flag that yesterday Mark Page beat Mark
Hebden! I saw nothing of the game. Mark may or may not tell us the full story
in a subsequent post. What an awesome result though. Not many of us can claim
to have done such a thing. I see myself as being more likely to make the 2119
Cov Rapidplay than to beat a GM in a real game! So well done Mark, hats off to
you! Surely some form of honorary title should follow?
Mark was clearly the story of the day. Away from his
exploits, we all did pretty well. I’ve not see the final table but we were all
on for 50% + going into the last round, which is pretty good. Much less
momentously Mike and I played out a “blue on blue” round one battle which
resulted in honours being even. I had an incredibly random win over Neil Clarke
with my queen just about managing to fend off his minor piece attack on my king
(which despite him being queen and rook down came very close to doing for me.)
Dave Ireland also provided a valuable lesson to all aspiring rapid players out
there – namely the benefits of turning up on time. For whatever reason he was ten
minutes late for our round four game and lost on time in a won position. I did
feel suitably sheepish…
Still, all flotsam and jetsam in the scheme of things. The main point of this post is to say well
done Mark! You’ve inspired me to start planning for the 2119 event after all!
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