Last Friday saw the Södermalm AFC 10th annual chess/home brew gala evening!

It was 3rd club social event for the winter season with a strong turn out of 14 participants keen to try their hand at chess or merely along for the beer tasting.

With 2 groups formed with 7 players each off we went…. Group 1 was the group of death with 3 strong favourites Lars, Johnny (7 time winner) and murf (current champion and wearing the yellow jersey) all tussling for top 2 positions and semi final berth.

Murf toppling Jonny Briscoe was what some called an early upset. However murf simply stated ” that was no upset ! no one beats me anymore, i’m the best player Söder has ever seen”.

Bonecrusher, former club downlow champ who has flown from brisbane for the nights festivities forced a miracle  stalemate with Lars, Lars also had stalemate against murf, forcing a play off match against Johnny for the 2nd place spot in the semi final which Johnny ended up winning. Murf finished top with 5.5 wins

In group 2 it was a straight forward affair with jordo who cruised to victory in all 6 contests finishing top of the group with 6 points. JR, Chris price and Joel burnell were evenly placed for 2nd place prior to the last group match Joel v price!.

In a thrilling match Joel narrowly beat Chris price to snatch the 2nd place and qualify for the semi-final.

Then followed the home brew tasting interval.

There were 7 entries to the home brew competition from 4 brewers. Check our the photos!

With a wide range of styles and colours of beers, every beer received votes. Voting was a 3,2,1 vote by all 14 jurors.

The final results were as followed.

Black stiffy IPA 7.5% was a clear favourite winning with 23 votes

Brew by Jordo and Lars it had smooth characteristics with a taste of chocolate and hints of coffee and hazelnut.

2nd was Doolz “AA” Pale Ale.

3rd was Brissles’ “Flatliner” Raspberry Weissbier.

Back to the chess semi finals.

Johnny beat jordo in a close exciting game. Jordo ran out of time against the 7 time champion with 30 seconds on johhnnys clock. Denying Jordo his first finals berth.

In the other semi final. All the big talk and alcohol caught up with murf. Not realising his own alcohol intake he made several rookie mistake saw him go from winning to losing by giving up his queen and castle mid game allowing  a sober Joel to waltz into his 3rd final.

Then controversy struck. Time had past and we had to vacate the hired hall. The final was to be staged at Lars flat.

The crowd flowed over to Lars’ to watch the final with a few of the kegs on offer from the brewers including the winning brew!…. but in a final that had lost momentum Joel somehow cornered Johnny into a position of submission winning his first final and becoming only the fourth winner in 10 years of the club chess championship!

A great night was had by all who attended.

Also a congratulations to Nick law who beat murf in the pool final on the 7th November.

Next event is the club 10 pin bowling end of January.