Daniel Piechnick, Adelaide
Young brains produce good and novel ideas that cater for all players. If you are old and worn off like me, you might be happy with a less strenuous tournament of only four games. If you can persevere, you might want to take another dose of four more games.
This might have been the reasoning behind the bright idea contemplated by the committee of young players running the show in SA. The novel idea of Saturday's 4+4 struck a chord with all players. On one occasion, that was followed by a more daring eight-game tournament on Sunday, which suited some Saturday's marathon players. All games stuck to the universally agreed time of 25 minutes per player. To this brilliant committee, no flimsy excuses would justify any deviation or aberration, of 22 minutes or less, for their regular tournaments.
For those players who would like the excitement of a race, Adam devised the “speedy” tournament of 12 minutes per player. I wish him luck with this one, which my old brain would reject offhand. Maybe I should request Adam to devise a novel “slow down” tournament of 30 minutes per player! It might suit slowcoaches like myself, who require more time for clear thinking.
This is not a an ad to promote ASPA(SA), but I strongly recommend that you never miss any of their pleasant major tournaments. Take a short holiday and enjoy the peaceful and relaxed city of Adelaide
