Latest on ECCC – two nights ago there was a 6 hour power cut in half the hotel and last night there was a series of small earthquakes, including one that woke most of us up at 5AM. These events are never dull. On a more positive note, we beat a strong German team, that averaged 100 pts higher than us, 3.5-2.5. Captain Steve lead from the front, sort of. The first 20 or so moves we developed our pieces then swapped most of them off and I was thinking we’d be shaking hands as soon as you’re allowed to at move 30. I’d missed how annoying 22….b5 is and ended up with a Hail Mary piece ‘sac’ trying to get a perpetual. However, such was my opponents desperation to avoid said perpetual that I managed to mate him instead. Very satisfying 😄
Steve Ledger, 22nd October 2025
[Ed – the game below is transcribed from Steve’s opponent’s timesheet so hopefully I’ve transcribed the German notation correctly!]