To me, there is no great mystery about this decline of 2- or 3-day weekend chess in Sydney. It's simple! There's just far too many things to do which are often way more fun and worthwhile than chess.
A reminder once again folks that tomorrow is the Filipino Fiesta 2007 chess tournament in Rosehill Racecourse. Get out and about, mingle with the Pinoy crowd and chow down on some Pinoy food.
Also on this long weekend is the Manly Jazz Festival. Not really one to be missed! If you like your Latin music, not to mention those gorgeous Latina chicas, then head on over to Sydney's Darling Harbour.
But if you really insist on 3 days of sitting down, killing yourself with worry over your next move, then there's always the 2007 Ryde-Eastwood Open. You'll see the same faces, possibly play the same moves, and even come to the same results. How terribly exciting!
Finally, here's some really good spotting by the mob over in Chess Chat. Good comentary by well-informed and seasoned observers. Guert Gijssen really is a tosser sometimes. I hope one day he'll change his mind over the "no king capture in bliz" rule. It's one that truly pisses me off.
On that note: whatever you choose to do, hope you all have a good weekend.
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3 comments:
I have to say that I found this and other posts of similar tone terribly disappointing.
Of course there are a lot of other things one can do in life, most people, chess players included, get to do them! it just takes a bit of scheduling :).
But the way I see chess, it matters little whether you play the same people all over again for chess is, above all, an inner battle against ourselves, against our inner capacity to blunder, a battle to control our nerves and our decissions, a creative process which does not depend on the opponent, a search for beauty, a sport to achieve the best result, a way to improve ourselves.
Sometimes I wonder why you play chess in the first place...
I've got this theory that if we were to graphically plot the chess activity of a perfectly normal person, then the curve will resemble that of the Breasts of Sheba.
There will be a high from early years to mid-20's followed by a decline - when the player gets a job, wife, finds other interests, whatever - then followed by a another steady upward trajectory from the beginning of retirement or at least a slow down in pro career.
Right now, I'm sort of right down there enjoying myself bang in the middle of that cleavage. Don't you just love cleavages?
Look here Mr Gil. I reckon all is not terribly lost. It's just about market segmentation. I happen to fall within a demographic that prefers 1-dayers. I see no point in giving up my whole 3 long days this weekend, forecast to be fine and sunny by the way, just to play chess. Therefore, the more blitzes or rapids, the better. As we say in my line of work, I'll be an "engaged" customer.
- TCG
- TCG
Capturing the king was a common technique used by eastern european types who were bad losers...thankfully its been done away with.
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