Driving Miss Elli

If you haven't been on a space expedition to one of the Jupiter moons you will know that Germany has been hit by the worst floods in living memory. Especially the city of Dresden, where the entire city is under water and the authorities have abandoned efforts to secure the historical buildings, theatres and galleries. They are evacuating the population to keep the danger to human life to a minimum.

Go to the German magazine Der Spiegel to see pictures of Dresden today.

Now guess who was in Dresden, one day before her scheduled arrival in Mainz for a match against the women's vice champion of the world? Stuck in the 14th floor of her high school dormitory building, with the floods filling the cellar and covering half of the ground floor? None other than Germany's 17-year-old talent and media darling Elisabeth Pähtz, who hails from Erfurt and goes to school at the Sport Gymnasium in Dresden.

How to get out of her flooded dormitory to the west German city of Mainz? The phones were not working, not even the mobile variety, so she had to take all the main decisions on her own. In complete darkness (the power lines were naturally down as well) she packed a bag with her clothing, held it above her head and waded into the chest-high waters. It took her three hours to get to the river, find a bridge that could still be used and then make her way to the only station the police had told her was still operational.

At the station Elli discovered that only would be only one train leaving the city, presumably for the next few days. The good news was that she could just make it. The bad news: it was going in the wrong direction – towards Poland! Elli got onto the train and arrived in the moderately dry Poland the around midnight. The next morning she took the first train to Berlin, and then selecting routes that avoided the floods, arrived in Mainz just in time for the press conference at 3 p.m.

Driving Miss Sasha

And how about Elli's opponent, Alexandra Kosteniuk? If you think she had a cushy time getting to Mainz you need to think again. Sasha spent the day before the press conference mercilessly demolishing British chess prodigy David Howell at London's Broadgate ("It's a sport, he must learn," Sasha told us in Mainz). Immediately after the match she got into a car and was driven to Paris. After a very short night in the French capital it was back in the car for the trip to Mainz. Each of the two rides took five hours, and each time Sasha spent a battery load of two hours preparing on her notebook computer. The rest of the time she slept.

Sasha too arrived just in time for the press conference. Both girls resisted the attempts of some of the press corps to initiate a catfight. They have known each other since they were nine and ten, and are great fun together. Especially when nobody is trying to set them up for a "battle of the beauties" or things like that. Just kids with a great sense of humour and a lot of common interests.

The Simuls

After the press conference Elli could pass out in bed in her hotel room. For Sasha the work day had just begun. She was scheduled to play a 25-board simul, with a lot of strong players on the other side of the quadrangle. And this girl is not someone to take a break. Instead of agreeing to quick draws and resigning lost positions she worked each board with full concentration, taking five and a half hours to complete the simul with a "disappointing" +16 =3 –6 score.

Sasha Kosteniuk against chief mayor of Mainz (dark suit), who is a 2250 player, and Dr Klaus Spahn (white shirt), the producer of biggest chess shows on German TV.

Sasha was not the only one who had to work hard on this day. There was the "other guy", Fide world champion Ruslan Ponomariov, who also gave a simul. His was on 40 boards, and the young Ukrain finished it in four hours and 20 minutes with a +30 =8 –2.

Ruslan Ponomariov taking on fourty opponents.

Aren't we forgetting somebody? Yes, of course, Vishy Anand, Ponomariov's predecessor for the Fide title, who is taking on the Russian in a eight-game rapid chess match. Anand had no problems getting to Mainz, was charming and funny in the press conference, and is generally the laid-back friendly Indian fellow we have learnt to know and love.

The two rapid chess warriors, Ruslan Ponomariov and Vishy Anand.

Anand I discovered to my horror that he was the grand old man at this event. "Until recently I was always with player who are approximately my generation," he said. "Now I come to events filled with kids." We hear that one Garry Kasparov has been having similar feelings for some time now, and advocate that both go to the great Anatoly Karpov for advice.

Shopping on the banks of the Rhein: Aruna and Vishy Anand.

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