walking around the streets of Puebla, Mexico, we found a bar with two guys playing chess. actual chess, with a clock, no fucking around. we went in, ordered beers, and played some chess. we were blitzing, 5 minute games, it was fucking awesome. i lost every game, the last game i was winning, but lost on time. but i think the guy was taking it easy on me and being nice, he left a bishop en prise.
so, if you are ever in puebla, mexico, go to La Fuge de Don Poinrio, address is Palafox y Mendozza, 414, down the street from the Zocalo (town center with the big huge cathedral)
Angel is the main bar guy and chess master. seroiusly, he kicks ass, both 1e4 and 1 d4.
beer and chess and cool music to boot, you can´t beat that. sadly i am leaving for oaxaca tommorrow, or i would be at that bar. if i lived here, i would be there every damn night, i might just learn something.
it´s worth a trip to mexico. best night so far.
Permalink
5 Comments
so i´m in Puebla, Mexico, a beautiful city. Huge colonial buildings, all with big courtyards and a fountain in the middle, are now hotels, hostels, restaurants, stores. i´m walking around, moving through the city like a wraith, invisible, the wind, and i spy a billiards/dominos/ajedrez hall on a second floor. I don´t know much, but i know ajedrez is chess in spanish, so i go on up. i roll down my sleeves to cover my chess tattoo, lest people think i´m good, which i´m not.
upstairs there are people playing pool, and a few tables with some hardcore dominoes going down. dammit, no chess. back to walking the streets, sitting on benches, watching the world go by.
i get back to the hostel, i meet one of my dormitory mates, an israeli guy. he sees the tattoo on my arm, says “chess?” and i say yes, i play. he says he plays as well, i ask if he wants to play, tell him i have a small set, he says he has one too and would love to play, he hasn´t met anyone who plays since he´s been here, for a month or two. we play a quick game, he misses a discoverd check, i get his queen, i win. YEAH!
we go out to dinner, see a free concert in a cathedral, go out for coffee, then back at the room we play two more games. i win one, i lose the other in an endgame. he asked if i wanted to play some more, but it was late and i was tired, but today we will be hanging out, going to a pyramid, and we shall play many more games of chess.
i leave tomorrow, so i am gonna play as much as possible with him. he was pissed that its his last few days in mexico and only now he met someone who plays chess. so i lucked out.
and i can apparently still play a decent game of chess. i was imagining what capablanca would do, and i think it worked.
Permalink
6 Comments
mexico kicks ass, it really does. food is great, people are super freindly and cool, there are some amaing towns with amazing architecture. im heading for oaxaca, always wanted to go, i should be there for the day of the dead festival. then on to guatemala.
been looking at capablanca games, its starting to make sense. im getting a feel for when to move what piece. only thing is i have no one to play against, cant play online, so i cant test out some of my thoughts. oh well, ill keep at it, i hope i can re-emerge on the chess scene better than when i left.
Permalink
8 Comments
so i´m sitting at a table in zacatecas, mexico, a town that would be perfect for espionage, with all its nooks and crannies. plenty of places for clandestne dealings.
It doesn´t look like mexico, it looks like southern spain. sadly there is even a starbucks. it´s a beautiful town really, but it´s like one big huge mall. still, kinda neat.
so I´m enjoying a cigarette, overlooking the street, when a group of young mexicans enter the joint. they look tough, probably some narco terrorists or something, i´m sure at least two of them have done time in prison, they are obvoiusly a gang. i tense up a bit, but i try to show no fear, they can sense that, and they look like they would pounce. they are a bit rowdy, i am expecting some trouble. i avoid eye contact, i just want to finish my cigarette and get the hell out of there.
one of them leans over and asks where i´m from. dammit, something is going to happen, i can feel it. i tell them i´m american, from colorado, smile weakly and go back to looking at the street, smoking as fast as i can. i think to myself “ok, i only have a few bucks in my wallet, i won´t lose much, they can have my watch and my wallet, as long as i can keep my passport, i´ll just give them what they want and go.
i´m trying to be calm, play it off like no big deal, but they are some scary mean looking young mexican thugs.
The leader of the group, a slightly chunky young tough guy with elvis sideburns introduces himself as Hugo, and introduces the rest of his gang. turns out they are pyhsics students in town for some kind of national physics conference. a rowdy bunch of pysicists. one of them, Juan, is having a birthday the next day. They are way super cool, they offer me beer, we talk, drink, laugh, party, smoke, they teach me some spanish, they are super freaking intelligent (duh! physics majors) and we have a great time.
so i narrowly escaped death, and i feel lucky. those mexican physicists are a wild bunch, and could kick any MIT student´s ass, easy.
Permalink
13 Comments
It´s 1048 hours am in the morning in Durango Mexico, a bit gray and overcast, but cool and comfortable. My tummy is full of caldo pollo, chicken soup, mexican pho, which i ate anthony bordain style, sitting at a counter in the central market. fuckin awesome. apparently, mexicans don´t drink coffee, and when they do, it´s nescafe instant. I didn´t realize I cared about coffee so much, i don´t always have to have it, but now that it´s not readily accessible, I crave it. one nice thing is, no starbucks here, which is cool. mexico will be the last place standing without a starbucks, so when starbucks takes over the world, I´m coming here to hide out.
Left Chihuahua yesterday. I liked Chihuahau, it is the cowboy boot capitol of the universe. Seriously, I swear, every cobboy boot on this planet came from Chihuahau. It´s cowboy central, with spurs, saddles, chaps, suits, the whole thing. Tons of it. I met at least three guys who came up to me, asked me where I was from, and welcomed me to thier city, talked a bit, and wished me well. They didn´t want anything, they were just cool freindly folks.
The bus ride from Chihuauhua was nice, gorgeous mountains, and I finally got on public transportation that didn´t have a screaming child on it. Got in late, took a taxi to a hotel, a bit more pricy than i wanted. i´ve so far stayed in rooms that cost 120 pesos, US$12. in mazatlan it was a pastel orange room with blue trim, traditional room you´d see in any stereotypical movie about mexico that isn´t always correct. other room for that price was in chihuaua, with the mystery stains on the wall, hole in the wooden floor, no seat on the toilet, and a shower that really looked scary, yet the overall room was actually kind of nice.
The room I got here is 250 pesos, US$25. but damn, the toilet had a seat, it was quiet (until 6 am when the chica next door wanted to listen to the radio while in the shower with her windows open, which is fine because she is the only person staying at the hotel and no one else is sleeping at 6 am goddamnit) and comfy. more than i wanted, but it feels like a huge luxury room, so i´m splurging. Fucking the budget up, but I´ll make up for it someshwere along the line, perhaps sleeping on a park bench or something. I was gonna head to zacatecas today, but durango is so damn huge and hip and cool, and i´m kinda tired, and i really like the room, i am staying one more night here, to walk around, see shit, hang out.
Lots of cool buildings, Pancho Villa history, he was from around here, it´s pretty touristy, yet, no tourists that I can see, unless there are Mexican tourists, then i wouldn´t know.
I just wish I could somehow pick up a chick. I don´t think ¨hey chica, how about I put my spicy chorizo in your cheesy gordita¨will work, but I´m thinking I might try it just for slap in the face. At least I´ll get a chick to touch me.
Ok, time to go sit on a bench.
Permalink
12 Comments
i´m posting this from chihuahua mexico. so far i´ve ridden a busy through a hurricane, slept behind a gas station, went to the beach in mazatlan, played chess in a bus station with a guy who wanted me to buy a jacket and give him money, and i´ve eaten many burritos. so far, it´s going well.
Mexico is pretty damn nice, people are super freindly, and it´s rather easy to get around. I got a hotel for 12 bucks, it was nice, pastel orange with blue trim, tile floor, small but comfortable. i got another hotel room for 12 bucks, it is….not bad. the toilet doesn´t have a seat though and the shower looks like it was used in a torture movie. and there is a hole in the wooden floor. but it´s still somehow nice. go figure.
i sent back two books, kept the 500 games book. i´m realzing the awesome might of the d5 pawn. and there was a game with a cool double bishop sacrifice, it was awesome.
still alive. still studying chess. i´ll update when i can.
Permalink
11 Comments
i’m writing this on a freind’s computer in southern arizona, about 30 miles from the mexican border. it’s wednesday night, i should leave for mexico saturday, i’m just making some final arrangements, taking care of last minute needs.
went shopping today, getting those few things i might need. a pack of pepto bismol tablets, a small notebook, some purell hand sanitizer, and of course….
i play against pieces by svetozar gligoric.
cause, you know, you can’t backpack across south america with only zurich 1953 and 500 master games of chess. damn, even when my whole damn life is about to change significantly, i stlil end up buying another damn chess book.
but this one looked so good. it has interesting comments that explain certain moves, like “this is the right moment to open the position” or “this is bad becuase it creates a hole on c3.” im thinking i could learn how certain moves do certain things and affect certain squares. i never thought much of gligoric, but i dig his explanations and notes, and, well, he plays better chess than i ever will, so i can learn from him.
so there is that. i’m hoping to play some chess while travelling, or at least studying. not like i’ll be in a rush to get anywhere. this might be just what i need. alone time with my chess set.
i’ll endeavor to write updates as i travel, i might even maybe get to post some pics.
a few days to go.
Permalink
12 Comments
first off, thanks for all the emails and comments and calls and best wishes, greatly appreciated, thank you.
here is the plan. it’s thursday as i write this. monday morning i drive down to arizona, make final preparations, and head into mexico. once in mexico i start walking/riding a bus/riding a train/riding a donkey/riding on the back of a pickup truck with chickens/whatever south. I’ll probably check out the yucatan and see the pyramids first, then i head on to peru. not sure if i’ll make it, but i’ll get as far as i can.
there is the chance that i get stabbed and mugged on the side of the road by banditos on horses with huge black sombreros, the crossed ammunition belts, and yosemite sam mustaches, but then again, i might also meet speedy fucking gonzales.
the CURRENT plan is to be back by end december, so i can resume chess in ernest january. I’m taking my travel chess set and a book or two of game collections. i only have a backpack, so space is limited.
If anyone is interested in following along on my trip, i’ll post updates here when i can. i won’t have a computer with me, so i’ll be relying on internet cafes.
for the next three months, this will be a travel blog. perhaps, if lucky, i’ll get to play some chess and i’ll write about it. i won’t have my digital camera with me, so sorry, no pics.
rock on
Permalink
16 Comments
