Marching of to Battle in Calgary

As a married chess player with kids who lives far from any chess clubs, it is hard to justify using up my free time and money to play in weekend tournaments. I thought I found an ingenious solution when I noticed that the Calgary “March of Kings” tournament was scheduled for the 14-15th and I was booked for an industry course in Calgary on the 16-17th. I was quickly able to book myself into another professional development course that I had been considering taking on the 12th and then it only made sense to stick around Calgary for the weekend. I could explain to my wife that by sticking around Calgary for the weekend I would be saving 12 hours of driving time and since I could stay at my brother house and my company was paying for the gas the tournament was costing me practically nothing.

That is how I ended up getting permision to play in the March Of Kings. So I packed my bags and said good-bye and headed out of town with my favourite CD’s for the long drive. (As an aside, Bruce Springsteen’s “The Rising” Cd is even better than I remember after not having listened to it for a couple of years – great song writing.) While in Calgary I was able to see the chess statue that is right outside my companies office. It is called “The Winner” by J. Seward Johnson Jr. and was made in 1988. I tried to figure out the position on the board that the subject is staring at but unfortunately the piece has suffered vandalism over the years and many of the chess pieces are missing.

I will post my games with analysis later this week when I have time to look at them more closely. Eric Hansen won the tournament with 5/5.