hardcore pawnography

been busy getting the kid settled in college here in st louis. i’ve developed my final piece, all i have to do now is castle and i’ll be ready for the endgame….

so, i went on down to the chess scene for the last time….standing around, watching some games, the old russian asked if i wanted to play. we didn’t use a clock, we played, i actually hung in the game for a short while. he smiled and said i am playing better, i thanked him and told him he was playing easy, he laughed and simply said “yes.” the old guy was taking it easy on me, showing me, helping me along, teaching me in his own way, i guess. what a cool guy.

i played some more games. lost em all, except, the first game i lost i asked the guy how i did, he said i was pretty even, had a good position, there was nothing he could see that made me lose, i just lost. he lost his next game, so i played winner, and i was actually winning. i was up on material, i had a winning position, i was giddy and chess drunk, and i was back rank mated. the dude i lost to first time was shocked, wondering what the hell happened. he said i had a winning position and i just didn’t want to win. i explained i have unsurpassed talent at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

the thing is, i almost won a real no shit game against a really strong no fucking around street chess player. i almost had a modicum of street cred and respect. i blew it, but, i almost had it. even though i lost, i felt great. i still feel great as i type this.

afterwards, we went out to eat at a bosnian/serbian pectopah (restaurant. it’s a bit of an inside joke, i call restaurants “pectopahs” cause that is actually syrillic, but people don’t often know that. its aural humor). anway, had some tasty ass cevapi and baklava and as much as i’m semi-vegetarian i enjoyed the hell out of the grilled meat. mmmmm. if you have a chance to eat bosnian/serbian food, do it. especially if you can get it in serbia, where it’s not just awesome, but cheap.
so tomorrow morning i check out of the hotel and drive on back to arizona. i will take any chance i can to come back to st louis. the chess scene here is awesome, the guys here are pretty damn cool, freindly, and know some chess.

i will continue to study and practice and maybe, some day, i’ll come back and play and actually win against one of the stronger guys…

until then, i have the memories….so close….