Accent on youth or The local veteran chess championships in Włocławek

When in the morning of Sunday 12 April I appeared in the Assembly Hall of the Old Firehouse in Włocławek, I found many of my older colleagues jokingly asking me whether I actually came to play. This not being the case, since I still have to wait 10 years to obtain the veteran status according to the Polish Chess Federation rules, I took up taking pictures, some of which I would like to share here.

For IM Andrzej Maciejewski, who won the championships a year ago, it was not the best tournament. He finished eleventh with 5 points

Black (actually Marek Olszewski from Bydgoszcz, who won the tournament with 7 out of nine; announcing the winner, the arbiter, Paweł Grochowalski, joked that the youth won, since Olszewski debuted in this tournament as a veteran)...

...and white

Mariusz Mazalon, also from Bydgoszcz, took second place

Tomasz Rak (from Bydgoszcz, where else) finished third

Jerzy Garbowski, my club mate, the best of the locals, took fourth place

Krzysztof Kuliński, strong local contender, finished eighth

Paweł Pawłowski from Toruń

Janusz Augustowski, one of the founding fathers of the WKSz 1938 chess club, this time brought to the playing hall two lucky charms,...

...one of them being a rabbit

Krzysztof Woźniak from Toruń, who triumphed two years ago

Trophies waiting for the winners (in two separate categories: over 55 and over 65 years)...

...and the players waiting eagerly for the pairings

The sunlit playing hall from above

Time for a break: my friend Maciej, who came kibitzing, posing alongside the club trophies

During the local veteran chess championships 35 participants from nine cities played 9 rounds of rapid chess (12 minutes per game plus 5 seconds increment). Top seed was IM Andrzej Maciejewski (R2210). The tournament was refereed by Paweł Grochowalski. Full results can be found here.