The Space Coast Area Go Association meets regularly on Saturday around 2pm. The place is the coffee
shop at Books-A-Million in Viera, a rapidly growing area just north of Melbourne, Florida. However, Saturday January 27 was an exception.
The club met at the Brevard County Central Library in Cocoa, FL. Invitations went out by email to participants in our previous local tournaments and AGA clubs in Orlando and Stuart Florida. Club attendance in Viera usually comes to two or three boards, but this time we had 16 players. Some drove an hour or more to arrive from West Palm Beach or Orlando. Most remarkable was Rene Schneider, from Germany, who was on vacation and drove to Florida from Dallas. He found us via the club listing on the AGA web and contacted George Lebovitz, a club founder, who told Rene of the exception in meeting place and time. That was great because Rene rounded out the number of Dan players to an even six. Many of the games were even, including those among the ten kyu players.
The games were all self-paired except for the first games of the day which started around 9:30 am. Pairings for the first game had been sent out the day before to players who had signed up by email. Coffee, tea, and cookies were provided. Lunch was available by a short walk into Cocoa Village. A few games were played as rated games for the AGA database. The library closed at 5:00 pm.
Brevard County is home to the Kennedy Space Center, so residents get to see lots of rocket launches and occasionally boosters returning to land at KSC. Cocoa beach is known for lots of surfing.
- Bart Lipofsky, AGA 1396, event organizer
photo: Four of the Dan players in attendance, left to right: Dakota Krafick, Go Orlando, Rene Schneider, Germany, Alex Panaccione and John Stewart, Space Coast.