Day 6: Goodbye, Rest of World!

Two of our good friends from Edmonton wrote us an encouraging email  message earlier today:  “First Monaco, then the rest of the world!”

After a long and hard-fought match, Team Canada entered the final 16-board segment ahead by 18 IMPs. We could sense that victory was within our grasp and many teams were rooting for us to pull through. And why not? Monaco was the favoured team and Canada had an excellent chance to put them out of the way, not just for our own benefit, but for the benefit of the rest of the qualifiers as well.

Alas, it was not our day. Goodbye ‘Rest of the World”.

It was an exciting run … 224 boards in the round robin over 5 days plus another 96 boards in the round of 16 over 2 days. Doesn’t seem like much (just 48 boards a day), but to maintain the highest level of concentration for that many days takes a great deal of mental, and sometimes physical, energy. In the end, had the match been 48 boards or 80 boards in length, Canada would play another day.

Tomorrow, we are going to play in the Transnational Mixed Teams with Darren, Dan K. and their partners, Hazel Wolpert and Linda Wynston.

P.S.  Finally got them to stand still!

Les – Darren