Who is champion?

Yesterday was the final and deciding game for the championship. I played an interesting opening against Paul. He put in a forward on 23 and I tried (again) to encircle my opponent. At some point I could exchange his forward ant try to put him in a chaining position. He saw the threat and exchanged six! pieces. Now the opening was finished, and we got immediately got into a 9 against 9 late middle game. I was 4 tempos ahead, so I declined his offer for a draw game. Of course our positions were well matched, and also pretty boring, but I tried to make something out of it.

And I succeeded! In an, at first glance, easy 8 against 8 he made a mistake. I attacked a piece and he had to defend, I attacked another piece and he had to defend, I attacked that same piece again and his defence couldn’t defend anymore.

In the mean time Cock was playing against Thyme. Unfortunately Thyme entered into a loosing combination in a winning position. This all means that according to the uncorrected list I’m champion. But Cock’s game against Piet is possibly going to be deleted. (because Cock won, and still lost points, which doesn’t feel right) If this game is deleted Cock is champion on less than 1/1000st of a point.

To avoid all kinds of awkward discussion we (Cock and I) propose to enter into a play-off stretching 3 games. Next week is our annual meeting. This meeting will decide.

Then it will also be decided what to do with all are sick team members. Auke is terminally ill with a brain tumor. Jan cannot even climb the stairs because of lung problems. I may put myself forward to take some of Auke’s duties as team-captain on my own shoulders.