Ice Station Canberra

Canberra does not have much of a Spring. Normally we have Winter until early October, Spring happens on a Thursday, and then Summer starts. The only thing that differentiates August from September weather wise, is that it is a lot windier in September. This is particularly cruel on those that play Street Chess at this time of the year. As part of the generous sponsorship agreement with have with Chicken Gourmet and King O'Malleys ($5000 a year), come the 1st of September we move outdoors ("If they can play outdoors in Moscow, you can play outdoors here" is the advice from the sponsor). And today happened to be one of the coldest Saturdays I can ever remember. It was probably warmest at 10:30 am (half an hour before the start of the tournament), and got progressively colder as the day progressed. To a man we attributed our poor play to the cold, with a number of queen hangings and mate in 1's testament to this claim. By the end I could barely remember my openings and reeled of this novelty. 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bc4 Nxe5 5.Qh5 Nd6 6.Bb3 g6? Similarly afflicted, my opponent failed to notice the hanging e pawn and retreated the queen to f3. I had at least the sense to now play 7. ... f5 and eventually won the game.