New adventures. Real BIG Ones.

The new chess season hasn't even started yet, but there is already big news for the team that E was part of last season. The team received an invitation to the EUROPEAN OPEN CLUB CUP 2024! IN SERBIA, 1900 kilometers away!

Five clubs from the highest National division are invited from each country. They're not the highest, but a team that is can't get enough players together to go, which is why E’s team has now been invited.

And now there is suddenly a lot to arrange. The rest of the team can travel by plane, but this is impossible for E. And that means that we will go there with our wheelchair bus. Luckily my husband was able to get time off, because I definitely wouldn't have even considered this trip on my own. The plan is to drive to Vrnjacka Banja in four days, spend a week there for the tournament and drive 4 days back. It's that this opportunity will only come once for E (stronger younger players are coming), otherwise we wouldn't have even considered it.

Today we arranged all the overnight stays along the way. While the other players have flown in a few hours and are picked up at the airport by the organization, this is of course different for E. Two extra people for care (we as parents this time, too many uncertain factors to let a less experienced person come along) and for driving, looking for suitable overnight accommodations along the route, toll vignettes and more of that kind... It's a huge puzzle. But WHAT AN ADVENTURE!

Detail: it is the first time (as far as we know) that someone from the Netherlands with such a severe handicap will play internationally at this level, in a setting like this, in a regular team.