Open air draughts?

Saturday was the opening of the draughts season in Amstelveen. It was set up as a huge event in combination with chess, bridge and go. For world champion Ton Sijbrands was there, as was Hans Bohm, a famous chess player. Everything, except for bridge, was set up in Amstelveen city centre on the main square. For draughts it was counted in about 100 players, which was ambitious, but not very realistic. In the end only 34 players turned up, of which 20 played a simultaneous games against Sijbrands (even if they had signed up for the regular rapid tournament, it just wouldn’t look right if Sijbrands ha turned up for nearly nothing). The weather was kind of windy, but it didn’t rain and playing these quick games warms you up anyway. I played in the number one group and the games were 10 minutes per person per game. It was a group of 4 and we would play twice against each, meaning 6 games in total. The first game against Jesse was not very good, positionally speaking, but I did make sure that, at all times, I had a bit more time left than my opponent. He had the better position, but then he made an awful mistake and I managed to finish him off. During the game a supervisor from work saw me play, but didn’t want to break my concentration and moved on (she told me later). The second game started with a normal opening I play often, but then the wind game into play. The square we played on is the windiest place you can find in the city. We played on market stalls covered with sails against possible rain. And you know what happens when you combine wind with sails? Yes, the market stalls went on the move. Within a couple of seconds the entire square was covered with chess and draughts pieces, and also with wood and iron bars from the stalls. Luckily no one was injured. It almost looked like a tornado. Of course, the event was cancelled immediately. Next time better?