Chess

I just had one of the best chess games of my life. I'd been eyeing up a local park where I've seen guys play, mostly old men. I'd approached the tables a few times, but without my own board it didn't look like I was going to get a game.

So a few days ago I bought an inexpensive one that's easy to carry. After lunch with a new friend (isn't the internet great?), a neighbor who used to live in DC, Foggy Bottom in fact. Very nice lunch, good chat, my Spanish felt strong, etc. After lunch, I grabbed my Spanish books, my computer and my chess set and starting walking, figuring one of the three would grab me first, and eventually the other two would follow.

This time in the park, I watched an okay game for a bit, then asked the other spectator if he wanted to play.

Okay, this is where it's gonna get a bit geeky. I'll have to send the blog link to Zach, as he may be the only person that appreciates this (though hopefully, dear reader, you'll pick up my enthusiasm). He opened with the Sicilian, I played the Smith-Morra Gambit (1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd 3. c3 dxc 4. Nxc3) He then moved his knight to f6, I pushed the e pawn and he decided to retreat the night back to g8. Pretty much from this point on, I was on the attack. We exchanged one more pawn, and then probably played 13 or 14 moves with no other pieces taken than his 2 pawns and my 3. The Smith-Morra sacrifices a pawn for a more open position for white, but he played a great game. Every attack I made he had a solid defensive move. I began to think that it was going to be a game where I was aggressive until the point that suddenly everything fell. A very complicated game, lots of pieces on the board with many different lines that could be played. No clock, some of the moves took several minutes of heavy concentration, both sides.

His queenside was very well developed, but I was attacking on the king side. I made some aggressive moves, moving the rook to the 7th rank and keeping it there for a while, with enormous tension building. Really. At this point, I figured he was better than me and it was just a matter of time before everything collapsed, and I just didn't want to look bad when it happened.

My kingside attacks continued, but I started to run out of options, and every trade put me at more of a disadvantage. Finally, after staring at the board for a while, I said, well, this probably isn't the right move, but it's the most interesting, and I sacrificed a bishop near the king. After about 10 minutes, he said "No tengo nada" and resigned. Truthfully, I think he should have kept playing, I have a habit of making mistakes when I'm ahead, but at that point I really was in a good position, though there was no clear mate.

Basically, winning on a sack is particularly satisfying. For 20 years, I've had the rule, or maybe philosophy is a better word, that to feel like I'm connected to a place I'm visiting, I have to do 3 things: talk with people outside of the tourism industry, play a game of chess with a local, and do magic. Thus, I have pictures of me doing the same trick in many places, and memories of many interesting games. This game reminded me of a game I played over 20 years ago, I was on a boat going from Cabo San Lucas to Puerto Vallarta (before either of them was the huge tourist destination it is now, and the boat cost $2 and was pretty much a barge. It was an overnight trip, I had no room, out on the deck, seasick, no food because I didn't realize that they wouldn't be selling food on the boat, yada yada. A 17-hour trip. Did I say $2? You can imagine correctly that amenities were few and far between. But I digress).

One of the ways I engage other chess players is to set up the board and then open a book and start reading. Eventually another chess player comes up and indicates interest, and that's exactly what happened. He spoke French, and we had to communicate pretty much through gestures. Still, we had a great game, very intense, although I believe he won that game. Had another great game in India, again, very intense, and again, I managed to pull out a defeat from the jaws of victory, and blundered after being ahead.

So this game was particularly satisfying, though if he had known my track record, he wouldn't have resigned.

Ok, chess, blogging, now time to study...