hardcore pawnography

this post will have nothing to do with chess.  if you wanna read about chess, check out any of the blogs i link to, they are far better chessblogs than i’ll ever be….

chivalry and crap.  men open doors for women, let the women go first.  this is now accepted as gentlemanly,  but i question it’s true intent.

this came up back in the days of yore, right?  we didn’t just come up with this.  back then, you didn’t know what would be on the other side of that door.  it could have been a rabid bear, it could have been a room full of angry bees, or a trap, or someone who would kill you.  back then, when it was a more male dominated society, women were expendable.   so maybe they let women go first so they would clear the way of any bad things.

see, that is why i go first through a door.  i want to meet whatever is on the other side first, clear the room and make it safe for my lady.   now to me, THAT is chivalry.

another thing on my mind is how i as a nobody can go up to a grandmaster and talk freely with him, albeit in a limited fashion.  thing is, in other sports or whatever, you can’t just go up to a pro and start talking.  i doubt some kid can go up to a pro nfl guy or whatever and say “hey, can i do an interview with you?” and the guy would be “yeah, sure, go ahead.”   that is so cool, the accessibility of  grandmasters.  i know they are just guys and gals who play chess, but still, to me they are rock stars, and the fact i can talk to them freely amazes me.   which leads me to my other idea.

i go up to a GM and say “excuse me, you are GM such and such, can i get a picture”?  he will say yes, and i will give him my camera and ask him to take a picture of me.  i will use one of those old kodak insta cameras where the picture comes right out.  then i will have him sign it and i’ll keep it.  eventually, i will have all these cool pictures of me taken by all these chess Grand Masters.   how cool would that be?

finally, my wife had an interesting experience at the tournament and wanted to write about it, so i will close this weeks posts with an interesting anecdote that my wife wrote.

anyone reading this, have a great kick ass weekend, and chess it up….

The first game of the tournament started at noon on Friday.  I amused myself poking around the casino for about 45 minutes or so.  It isn’t really that big.  Then, I popped up to the mezzanine to see how chessloser’s game was going.  He seemed to have a lot of material, which I took to be a good sign.  All of the chess-moms were reading their books and a few players were up grabbing some coffee.  I was on the landing trying to make sense of the posted information when I was approached by an elderly gentleman with a distinct  accent.  It was 12:55  He wanted to know if the pairings had been posted yet.  I said that they had and that the first round had been going on for almost an hour already.  He seemed somewhat confused.  I assumed he was there to support someone.  But, no, he panicked because his cell phone had the wrong time.  He said he was an expert and asked if I could show him where he had to play.  We rushed into the tournament hall and found the pairings.  They were all of the way at the front of the hall by the masters.  We had to pass everyone and he was making a lot of noise.  I shushed him.  His opponent appeared to be sleeping while waiting to be credited with a win because the elderly gentleman had not shown.  The minute the gentleman saw where he needed to be, his entire demeanor changed.  He sneaked up to the table, assumed his position, made his opening move (he was white), and oh-so-quietly hit the clock.  He sat looking innocently at his snoozing opponent.  It was 12:59.  He had one minute to spare.