On Friday 9 January we started our winter cycle of standard chess (90 minutes per person) in the Open group. We had an ovewhelming amount of 6 BYEs in the first round. Nonetheless, the two games that were played were very worthwhile.

Conrad, who hadn’t played for a decade other than online, played against Koji in a game that took almost the full 180 minutes allowed before Conrad could claim the win.

The only other game, David against Melvin, was an even longer game, decided by time with Melvin having the better position on the board but losing on time with David just 1 second more on the clock.