Sunday 25 November 2012

Pika, Pika, Pikachu

The 2012 ACT Transfer Championship was won by a team called "Mmm! Pokemon". They were actually the brother and sister team of Allen and Megan Setiabudi, who even went as far as dressing up as Ash Catchem, and Pikachu (with tail and all). This may have intimidated the opposition, as they scored a perfect 11/11 to finish 2 points clear of second placed "Uncle Michael". At the prize giving Allen "Pikachu" Setiabudi's speech consisted of 'Pika, Pika, Pikachu'.
While the games were interesting and hard fought, a number of teams have a way to go before mastering Transfer. On the lower boards, playing too much like 'normal' chess was the big sin, while at the top, and obsession with clock watching crippled some of the teams. I can understand 'stalling' when ahead by 60 seconds on the clock, but telling your partner not to move when the time difference is under 5 seconds is dicing with death.
But as with anything, the more you play, the more you should understand. As I explained at the start of the tournament, if today's chess doesn't go your way, there is still another 50 years of transfer to look forward to.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Any photos?