Castell Nedd Chess Club was buzzing with excitement as it hosted a simultaneous display by its second-best player—Hywel Griffiths, with a grade of 1902. He was not afraid to take on any and all opponents, unfortunately resulting in us somehow running out of boards! (Or perhaps he was afraid, and hid some of them!). A couple of players BYOBed, and some other players doubled up.

It was a daunting task, thanks to a tricky mix of experienced players and fearless, energetic juniors. A painful moment occured quite early in the night in the game vs Advik and Cae, when Hywel blundered his queen. Perhaps he was optimistic of conjuring something with tricky play, but no such luck as he was soon checkmated with a lovely attack. Accidents will happen!

As the night went on, it started to dawn on Hywel that there weren’t going to be any free points, and even the newcomers were putting up serious resistance, with many of the games going the distance. It was a real endurance test for Hywel, but he did well, and ultimately emerged probably both exhausted and dizzy, with a very respectable score of W8D1L7.

Well played!

01/08/2024