The barbecue at Rodolphe Francey's (Tjeulesbetes') place is now a tradition of the gathering's friday evening. This year, as usual it started in small committee and the foreign players arrived little by little.
The first plane to land was the one of Maarten Aronsson (Firefly), who had announced his venue in the last minute. Well, in fact in the forelast minute, but his e-mail got somehow lost and it was only by logging on FICS on thursday night that I luckily met him; otherwise he would not have come, getting no answer from his lost e-mail. For those who don't know him, Firefly is one of the world's best and most spectacular bughouse players, as well as one of the nicest partners, as we were going to find out during the following week-end.
Then arrived Philippe Morath (zola), and that was it for a first load to Tjeulesbetes' place. Fast load, as I was just in time to drop Firefly and zola, to drive to the station and to meet Jochem Snuverink (Ishamael) there. Well, in fact not just in time but rather four minutes late. Surprise, the latter named had come with his bicycle, which luckily fitted perfectly in the (small) car.
Back to Tjeulesbetes' place, after I hadn't been able to answer one single of the three calls I got on my mobile phone. As I never use one of these thingies, I first made the mistake of burying the phone in my bag, then (while driving) wasn't able to indicate to Ishamael which button to press to answer the phone. The idea of having a mobile phone with me was not bad, but some training before would have made it more efficient.
The reason of the phone calls was that Alexander Cherniaev had called Tjeulesbetes from the main station. I was supposed to pick him at the airport in the same time as Firefly and zola, but somehow his luggage got stuck and we could not wait for him any more. He then took the train to the main station and called, after which Hung Fioramonti decided to pick him there. Alexander Cherniaev is a 2500 russian player, but from the mails he sent me it was unclear to me if he had already played bughouse. But yes, as most of the russian players he had played it when he was a junior.
Once the car of Ralf Zoeller (RalfiZoeller), Stefan Wolf (cosinus) and Robert Huber (MiRU) arrived, everybody was there, first enjoying the barbecue and then playing some bughouse. Alexander Cherniaev partnered Firefly and Tjeulesbetes for his first bughouse games since a long time. You can see on the fourth pictures that he is playing "young style" openings. After some games it was decided that Firefly, MiRU and Ishamael would stay at Tjeulesbetes' place (and bug up to late in the night) while RalfiZoeller, cosinus and zola would go to our place (and get some sleep before a long Saturday). Alexander Cherniaev stayed at Hung Fioramonti's place.