"Hold the line, the next float is yours."
Age 22 | Klagenfurt Lindwurm festival parade marshal
"Hold the line, the next float is yours."
Savage
HunterSavage
Guardian
Observer
Mediator
Servus, Mirjam on the route. Board's lined up, whistle's around my neck, and your column is ready to roll. Two sides, sixty-four squares, one parade. Hold the line, the next float is yours, passt?
Mirjam Raunig is a 22-year-old parade marshal from southern Carinthia in Austria, where she runs the route at Klagenfurt's annual Lindwurm dragon festival on the shores of Lake Woerthersee. She picked up chess from her grandfather between marching-band rehearsals and still plays only casually, treating each game like another route to call rather than a discipline she has studied. With an estimated rating of 126 Elo, she sits barely above random play: she knows how the pieces move, but she has never worked through theory, drilled tactics, or built a repertoire, and pieces slip away from her almost every game. Expect a cheerful, chatty opponent who marches her crew forward with confidence, hangs material regularly, and is a comfortable first opponent for anyone just learning the rules.
Mirjam plays sharply aggressive and loves to keep tension on the board, rarely trading pieces down and almost always pushing her column forward. She has no fixed repertoire and no theoretical preparation, so her openings drift between solid and sharp depending on the day. The forward-marching, complication-loving approach looks bold, but with her rating it usually means loose floats wandering off-route and marchers left undefended.
Absolute beginners and players rated under roughly 400 will get the most out of facing Mirjam. Her aggressive, tension-keeping style throws pieces forward without much support, so a new player gets repeated practice spotting hanging pieces, punishing overextensions, and converting a clear material advantage. She is also a friendly sparring partner for anyone teaching a child or relative the basic mechanics of the game.
