KSNB: SISSA 3 – Emmen 2

Les échecs.

Schaken = to play chess = jouer aux échecs.

Schaak geven = to give a check = donner un échec.

Un échec = een mislukking = a failure.

In French, there is no distinction between the game of chess « Les échecs » and failures « Les échecs ». Where Dutch invented a word (🤯) for the action of playing that game, where English came up with a dedicated name for this game, French uses the same word for the game and for failures.

According to some engine search, historically, the game of « échecs » appeared first, and subsequently the language evolved where « un échec », an attack on the king, became the way to refer to something unsuccessful. Interestingly enough, a couple of centuries later, we got rid of all our kings but kept playing the game, and kept « échouer », failing, in the same way. 

« Er is veel schaken in mijn leven” 

« There’s a lot of chess in my life.»

« Il y a beaucoup d’échecs dans ma vie. »

Therefore, my native language makes my life so much more dramatic. But watching SISSA3 play chess is enough drama for me to not continue this report in French. Yet I know close to twice as many words in French than in English (and probably 7 times more in English than in Dutch). So since I’ll be missing some nuances, which I love, rather than focusing on the words, let’s focus on the chess. What’s the saying anyway? “A chess game is worth a thousand words” or something. Let’s dig into these 8000worth of words. 

Our match against Emmen 2 started earlier this week, on Monday. There, Writser convincingly defeated his opponent, with the black pieces, on board 1. From what I heard, not even a couple of hours after they started their game in Bakels, Writser walked in Hooghoudt with a smile on his face and claimed a very humble « it was never difficult ». El famoso chess player ego. We’ll take it, 1-0 for us afterall, and well-deserved.

Flash forward to Saturday morning.

Today is difficult.

I wake up to too many messages in the bestuur app for it to be a good sign, and to Justin’s sweet words « Hey Aurore, I completely forgot to get the pieces, and Htje doesn’t open until 14:00. Oh wow your voice sounds like shit. Anyway, don’t worry I’m figuring this out ». 
Well, I didn’t get enough sleep to be worried anyway. And it wouldn’t be SISSA without a bit of chaos.

While playing home games with 4 teams is always nice, the logistics of it is always a bit chaotic indeed. Every time, we hear from Ria how much extra material we need to bring. You would think that it’s always the same amount, but weirdly enough, it changes every time. So today, I bring 12 clocks with me (or maybe, my favorite SISSA1 player does), Tije brings 10 boards and Justin 10 sets of pieces (well, presumably). Usually, bringing the material is not the part that is difficult. No, the tricky part is to make sure that none of the 64 players of the day will hide any of it within the DSC’s.

As always, we proceed very methodically to make sure no such mess ensues. So, SISSA clocks are given to SISSA1, and a bit to SISSA2. Then they’re taken away from SISSA2, and then given back to SISSA2. I think. And one to SISSA4. Or 2. The SISSA boards go to SISSA4 and a bit to SISSA3. The SISSA pieces mostly to SISSA4. Maybe. For good measure, SISSA4 gets instructed to not mix their boards with the rest and to not bring them downstairs. What could ever go wrong. 

Somehow, more or less everything and everyone is ready at 13:05. You read correctly, that’s at least 5 minutes earlier than usually.

Shortly after the start of the games, Writser show up with his 2 adorable daughters. Since his win on board 1 was not enough psychological intimidation in our favor, he makes sure that the entire team is properly supported, and his daughters distribute candies to all of us. Kids giving candies to strangers, that’s surprisingly lovely. Unfortunately, they leave with their candies shortly after. Apparently, watching chess is boring. I wouldn’t know, I haven’t looked at any game but mine yet. Today is difficult.

My opponent plays so fast, and soon enough I don’t understand what’s happening. I give the bishop pair in the opening, which opens my h file, making me wonder (a bit) whether I’ll still short castle, and making me reconsider (a lot) my life choices. Today is difficult.

30minutes into the games, and while I’m still not understanding mine, Justin informs me that Baran won. That might be one of the fastest KNSB game I’ve ever witnessed. Another victory for SISSA3’s most recent addition. And elegant, too. To quote Kenneth: « A textbook example of what happens when white does nothing ».

Baran immediately goes downstairs to analyze, and take his board with him, pockets filled with pieces. Is it a SISSA board that we need to keep track of? Who knows. 

(Well, Tije knows actually, Tije is awesome. Be like Tije.)

I’m getting more confused with my game, but I can’t even panic since I don’t even know what’s going on. Today is difficult. We trade queens and I spot that he has good chances to win a pawn, if not my rook. I focus so much on the pawn issue, that I give him my rook immediately, in the exact way I anticipated he would. I am so good at anticipating. So, that’s a check. C’est un échec. First point for them.

2-1, 14:30 and time to start looking at my teammates. 

Board 2, 3 and 4 (no, they don’t have names, today is difficult) have too many pieces for me to make sense of it yet. Board 6 (Lieuwe) is up an exchange, and board 8 (Justin) is happy: « Aurore, if my attack works, I’m much better ».

And after his opponent tries to take back a move he just did, Justin’s attack does, in fact, work. Check after check (but this time, pas d’échec), my co-captain starts a chase. 

Schaak. Justin, the purchaser (Justin, le pur chasseur?).

Schaak. All good hikes require snacks, so Justin naturally nibs on some pawns and other pieces along the way. 

Schaak. His opponent’s king got dislodged from g8 and ends up all the way to c3. Give that man a checkmate. 

But Carl has other plans, and while Justin frenetically searches for his ultime move, Carl takes away the black king from the board, and replaces it with the one who used to be on mine. This is not disruptive at all.

Schaak. And that’s a queen for Justin, un échec for his opponent, and a third point for us. 3-1.

Two boards higher up, the bishop pair of Lieuwe’s opponent does not seem like much compensation for the exchange yet. Like Justin, SISSA3’s elder should be winning, but like Justin, it seems to take forever. Or maybe, today is difficult. At least, Lieuwe expertly keeps applying pressure on the board. 

His opponent tries to attack?

It’s pointless, Lieuwe’s castle is rock-solid. 

He tries to avoid the queen trade? 

Lieuwe doubles on the open e file, ready to fire. 

He threatens to win a pawn? Lieuwe counter-threats by attacking a piece.

Sweet, smooth and the fourth point of today.

After what happened during the SISSA-off, I just love how my teammate keeps proving his worth, times and again. Please Lieuwe, keep it coming. 

Remco, Niels and Anne are still playing (respectively, boards 2, 3 and 4, and yes the caffeine I drank is finally kicking in). On paper, they are all stronger than their opponents.

In reality, all 3 games have so much going on. Remco is trying for a while to promote his knight while never developing his other one. Timmer is up an exchange, but his opponent keeps bombarding his castle. Anne… I really don’t know, it’s an Anne’s position, and today is still difficult. 

Pieces get traded on Remco’s board, giving him a terrific pawn on d5. I get a bit optimistic with how good this pawn is, and so does Remco, it costs him an exchange. I hallucinate some checkmate threats that he would still have, and he hallucinates that his opponent wouldn’t have such threats. For Remco too, today is difficult. 4-2 and our win is still not secured.

Freerk shows up. I just love how supportive everyone in the team, playing or not, can be. Well, it only takes 5 minutes before Freerk and I realize once again how fundamentally different we are, this time with one of us being very optimistic about Niels’game, and the other, quite pessimistic.

Timmer kept his calm and his kwal, managed out of the attack, and the position is finally open. He has a passer that I’m sure he can promote, his opponent has 2 connected pawns that Freerk is sure are way too strong. To put it simply, I was right and he was wrong. Maybe it’s because I have more faith in Frysian people than Freerk does. Not sure what it says about him or about me. Doesn’t matter, Niels secured our win. 5-2.

And as SISSA 3 does, we get cocky. See, winning is not enough, the other teams of our division are way too close, we need to score board points too, and Justin makes that clear to Anne, who was entering « a draw-ish position ».

She is low on time, hasn’t reached 40 moves yet, and has an open king. Today is difficult, but our teammate knows how to make things more difficult.

She keeps on playing, and soon enough, it just feels like witnessing a live version of Hippocampe Fou’s music.

Echec. Anne infiltrates the enemy lines with her queen.

Echec. She forces her opponent to damage his structure. Echec. She wins a pawn. Succes.

Now that she’s up a pawn, rather than rescuing her bishop, she offers a queen trade. 

He refuses. They continue their pieces dance. Echec. Anne protects with her queen. He goes away. She moves. He comes back. Echec. Queen. Goes away. 

Eventually, Anne opts for a different strategy. If her opponent won’t trade queens, she’ll walk her own king all the way to b6.

Echec. King up, success. Echec. King up, success. Echec. King up, success.  Echec. King up, success. A king walk much more satisfying than what Justin’s opponent must have felt. 

The black queen takes the pawn on h3, getting away from the action. This is Anne’s signal to push the f pawn. This allows a check from the black knight, but Anne gets her pawn back, pas d’échec. She has 2 passers now, but is his h4 pawn stronger?

He decides that it must be and this time, he is the one offering the queen trade. 

She accepts. After Bf1, black won’t be able to stop white’s progress. 

We had told Anne we needed board points. She delivered.

6-2.

Maybe, today was not difficult. A convincing win for our team, now sitting at the top of our division, since two of our main competitors (HSP/Veendam 2 and GC6) drew. Two more games to go, and the promotion is in our hands, with the determining game against GC6 occurring at the very end of the season. We have to be careful of SISSA4, too, just two board points behind us. Our only fail of the season so far remains our game against them. Let’s keep it that way.

So, to finish this report, let’s all take a moment to appreciate the french language once again:

–More chess = Plus d’échecs

-No more chess = Plus d’échecs

–More failures = Plus d’échecs

-No more failures = Plus d’échecs

So with that in mind, tot volgende maand, when SISSA 3 will definitely show you plus d’échecs & plus d’échecs.

By Aurore.

PS: despite SISSA2’s best efforts, all the SISSA material was retrieved and safely brought back to our favorite café.