Showers

In Ventspils/Riga and all over Latvia it was raining cats and dogs. Time to leave for Berlin and so Dana did. In Weimar tremendous valuable old bibles were burning. Time to leave for Berlin and so Riker did. In Cologne the backlogs were rising into incredible heights. Time to leave for Berlin and so Mikly and some lifted guys did. In Zörbig and Leipzig the Spanish dreams have been decreasing for delay as well as the university was sleeping. Time to leave for Berlin and so Bekka, the president and Brain did. In Hamburg the work on the Großhansdorf chess rooms were finishing. Time to leave for Berlin and so Ammar, Andreas, Dirk, Earnie, Enno and Joachim did. In Bohemia the high-pressure area caused by "Klaus" had relaxed at the peak of Snezku to leave for the Baltic and make a stop in Berlin and so "Klaus" did. In Berlin the chess café "en passant" still was closed that day. Time to stay and open and so Sven Horn did.

When people of so many different places meet in Berlin then usually it should be something like a G8-meeting and red carpets are rolled out. But not for this occasion at the first weekend of September - just "Klaus" paid his respect to this group of chess players who met to spent some time and have a match in friendship.
After they had gathered, all accommodations were checked and "Hallos" exchanged and soon their stomachs offered their ability for intake. For this the nearby "Culture Brewery" was destined because of their expected multiple choice for every taste. But unfortunately at this evening there the only choice was to pay admission and to stand unbearable loud kind of music. So a Cuban restaurant had to pick us up on outside benches. And they even had some kind of dark beer .. But just having jumped out of the frying pan it became obvious that we had entered into the fire of a serious criminal case. Judge Dana had to hold a trial with following concerned persons, as there was Bekka, btw. completely dressed, shouting at Riker as the accused charged for robbery of a valuable upper part clothing, Mikly as a completely useless witness and Earnie, the famous lawyer who brought valuable thoughts into this complicate case. After some heatedly arguing the facts and questions had clearly been pointed out:
1st - The witness Mikly hadn't seen anything while he had been taking some showers. As an open question remained whether he did this alone and if not with whom?
Finally the answer to this question is without any importance.
2nd - The toast was toasted.
As an open question remained who was toasting the toast and if it has been the toaster did this toasting finish so far?
Finally the answer to this question also is without any importance.
So wise Dana passed sentence by giving a taste of Latvian vodka to her fans in the "Freiraum". Tired of so many difficult decisions she got lost for the rest of the night while blitz became the main medium to communicate in the "En passant" until proprietor Horn swept us out.

A few short hours in bed and already the next meeting in the chess-café was fixed - breakfast! The arriving retinue of Uwe with Anne, Chevalier, Heinz and Kevin strengthened the Löberitz tribe and when also Großhansdorf was complete and all ceremonies done the match could start. Just an hour was played when first worries arised whether we could stand the slight superiority of our opponents - Knight Rolandus had let his queen encircled and had to resign. 0-1. But all other matches turned out to become interesting fights. After the draws Mikly had the best chance to shoot the equalizing point but half a second of lost attention was enough for Earnie to escape into endless checks. So it became Chevalier to do it - he found the weak fields of Andreas Möck for victory. Then Simon succeeded with best moves to ride out his terrible time trouble (11 moves in 12 seconds) and saved one more point. Dana remained unfazed pushing her pawn advantage to a win versus FM Andreas Mitscherling and finally Bekka kept a draw versus fancy Storbi to a surprising 6-4 result! Well done!

However after the analyses it got somehow chaotic while the interests split up to three groups and the first already was heading to their revue while others still were thinking about to join. So Anne, Bekka, Brain(i), Dana and Mikly left for the joint venture between a well-known german bank and Solomon P. Guggenheim while the third group went for diner and light beer ..
Strolling under the limes we found the museum which exhibited interesting pictures of famous Mapplethorpe in style of manierism. After open air dining and returning to the "En passant" and first sayings goodbye soon some blitz entered the tables. Sven joined with the result that he never in his lifetime may repeat the sentence "I've never lost a match against a woman!". Mikly, looking for an additional chair, surprisingly within a cartographical group saw again grandmaster Matthias Wahls whom he knew from one of the seminars he's offering and the times in Hamburg. It didn't take a long time and also Matthias joined our efforts in finding good moves in short times. First he played Brain. Brain was not charmed but he gave him one more chance .. - to play Dana. This pairing attracted the crowds who gathered around the table. And Dana succeeded to keep the result equal even having slight advantage in better positions! After these heroic deeds the brave fighters left, being substituted just two minutes later by the returning cabaretists. So, beside Zugzwang, Matthias became pleased by Hamburg sounds and some conjuring tricks on playing cards by Joachim. He immediately took revenge with memory by giving some position aspects of a match they had played nearly twenty years ago!
So it became obvious that one of the next seminars should be held in Großhansdorf .. The humorous circle also gave birth to some more future aspects. Earnie suggested to have a weekend like this every year at an attractive place somewhere in between! Will a tradition have been founded? :-)

But the night grew shorter and shorter - Sunday had arrived and Mikly once more got swept out, doesn't matter that is was the "Freiraum" in this case. It still was Sunday early morning when his hopes had to end abrupt. The alarm clock plus decisively Dana knocked him out the of the just entered bed!
So they took the route along Avus taking an improvised breakfast in the car and arrived in Dessau where Konrad, Brain(i) and Bekka were waiting at the access road. Dana had discovered "U-Turn" and so the brave people of Dessau at an early Sunday morning got bothered in their devotion by "La Mujer Que Amas"!
The car under suspicion had a Cologne licence plate ..
Being some prematurely at the tournament we could admire some Norwegians celebrating soccer against some Greece at around one meter eye level.
The following team blitz tournament passed Mikly in a hurry - it was finished quickly with a success of the first team of Löberitz where beside Dana also an amused Brain(i), Normi and Harald did their best. So it got time to have breakfast at last - in Berlin. There we found the "Keno" where we suited well while it was international (mainly Russian) frequented. Somehow Mikly hadn't found the places of Berlin he remembered from many years ago. Maybe the city has changed? But "Klaus" kept his eye through the sun and after the byebye visit to Tegel the highway near Eilsleben drawed an incredible picture - driving directly into the marvellous dusk land machines weaved a carpet of wheat dust - how bizarre!
Dana and Mikly turned exactly at the same time the keys in their front doors - some thousand kilometers apart ..

Mikly