From: Peter Banaschak T-ONLINE DE> Date: 13 sep 2000 Subject: CHU 2000 -- first impressions Ahoi, everyone interested! On Saturday and Sunday (September 9th and 10th) the CHU 2000 tournament took place in Alfter, Germany. Among other things (on which see Colin Adams' posting on Alfter Shogi), we played some Chu. Unfortunately, of the players who had announced their coming to Alfter, only four finally appeared (which was a pity in a way). However, three of them played quite good games, though it showed that there aren't simply enough players and not enough game scores around. It up to you all to change that! In case you wonder, it was yours truly who blundered in almost every game, but still at least I enjoyed playing. We forced you to notice that we had gathered by telling you about the first Chu lightning, with 20 mins of time for everyone, which was fun and set the tone for the weekend (at least we all remembered all of the pieces' moves afterwards). The tournament took place in the Alfter Red Cross locale which was well received by the players. In the tournament itself, which started at 10.00 on Saturday, we played three rounds with 2 hrs of time plus 60 secs. overtime. The longest game lasted for roughly 5 hours. The time limit was thus more satisfying than in Münster, but still a wee bit too short. We should aim at 2,5 hrs plus 60 secs. next time. I do not recall the exact order of pairings, but the final result was something like the following: 1. Colin Adams 3-0 2. Eduard Werner 2-1 3. Thomas Majewski 1-2 4. Peter Banaschak 0-4 Do not be fooled by the final results: the last game was Colin against Thomas, and the (self-appointed) Invincible Colin barely escaped (see the game score [to appear on Colin's web site]). So we nearly had a shared 1st place (with three persons squeezed onto it). When the tournament ended, Colin, Edi, and Thimas each were eager to play soon again, which promises some future tournaments... Stay in touch with one of the most interesting board games known to mankind! (Colin, Edi, Thomas: if I wrote rubbish here, please correct me...) Best wishes, Peter