Vorsprung Durch Technik
Cohrs in the SU
The turnout of players featured a healthy mix of QUB veterans such as Robert Lavery and PJ Mallon; those fresh to the club this year like Maria Murray and Brian Rooney; and even those new to the club that evening such as Patrick McLaughlin. There were a few hardened chess competitors on hand to keep the German on his toes too, as Eamonn Walls and Damien Cunningham from the host club were joined by Lagan's Gerald Harvey.
It certainly didn't take many laps around the players for Cohrs to realise his evening's work was certainly cut out for him. Derren Brown may waltz into a simul display aiming for anything above a 50% record but Cohrs - not just a psychologist like Brown but also a chess perfectionist - aimed to finish the night off with an unblemished 100% winning run.
By 9.30pm the first few players began to fall as Chris banked wins in quick succession to get off the mark. With the length of the German's circuit now reduced, the rate of play stepped up a gear. The same increase was then seen in the German's winning tally as he notched up wins over the thorny resistance of QUB Womens' Champ Ciara Pugh and also Nina Harker.
By 10.15pm Cohrs was down to the final three - Walls, Cunningham and Harvey - and the German was still enjoying a perfect winning sequence. Harvey was the next to fall, as his game slipped into a lost queen and pawn endgame. However, the many were then to enjoy their sole success of the night against the one. Theology student Walls forced Chris's resignation with the threat of an advanced passed d pawn. That defeat was to be the single blip for the German as, now able to focus his attention fully, he finally managed to succumb Cunningham's best efforts.
In summary, the German Doctor provided a superb evening's enterntainment for all the punters keen enough to brave the freezing February snow to experience the unique atmosphere of a chess simul. Kudos to Cohrs for such a mercurial display. Next year he promises to repeat the feat, but this time blindfolded...
For more pics from the evening, visit:
