Last Friday night a small group of chess players celebrated the 59th birthday of Serge Rubanraut at the Spanish Club. Serge, as our well-educated readers should know, was the '76 Australian Chess Champion. It was a good night out with plenty of drinks, many rounds of blitz games and a $5 cake that was quickly organised from the nearby Woolies. Seeing a bunch of half drunk chess players, with varying accents, singing Happy Birthday to some half-remembered lyrics, was about one of the funniest scenes I've ever seen. My friend Carey Cowling, himself a chess player, also organised a card. We passed that around for everyone to sign and I'm pretty sure that a couple of complete strangers also signed.
Conversations were the usual really, this and that. A bit of reminiscing but not really too much about chess - just life in general. The man even gave us all a quick lesson: mate, he said, so long as you enjoy what you're doing - that's the main thing.
Happy Birthday Serge!
Happy bithday to Serge!
ReplyDeleteIm surprised he is only 59,thought he was at least in his early sixties...he seems to have been around forever. hehe.