hardcore pawnography

hey, what happened to
edwin, the artist formerly known as dutch defense?

i have a cool idea for a sandwich shop. i will serve the best, gourmet french dip sandwiches with the most kick ass crack laden addictive jus for dipping, (the term au jus means “with juice. jus is just the broth that you dip the stuff in) which i shall make using pork and duck, not just beef, and other special secret ingredients. and i shall call my awesome sandwich shoppe:

KING OF THE JUS

and my logo will have two baguettes in a cross type formation. of course there will be chess played there, and everyone will come by and eat my tasty sandwiches and play bad ass chess and it will be such a scene, all the gm’s will come by, and i can name sandwiches after them so people can come up and order a Morozevich, or a Shabalov.

so i was thinking…..if i play unprotected chess using chessboards of strangers i just met, what are the chances i could get training aids?

anyway, its not a new idea, i’m sure most people have already figured this out, but i finally realized how i could use the time i have standing around at work to study.

flash cards.

thanks 3rd grade for giving me the secret to learning. it worked on my times tables, it should work in chess. i’m gonna photocopy pages from the tactics book, cut out each puzzle, write the answer on the back, then laminate and BAM, i got a deck of flashcards that i can shuffle and go through whenever i have a moment. training, constant hardcore training.

this shit is gonna get embedded in my head like a cnn reporter on a special forces a-team in iraq. i’m gonna see tactics wherever i go. on the highway, i will see that if i take out this car, then the diagonal to that other car will be open and i will have a double attack on two different cars. perhaps i will look up at the sky at night, and while others see beautiful stars and feel insignificant compared to the whole universe (unless you are zaphod beeblebrox, but that’s another story) i will look at the constellation “orion” and think if his foot takes out the star on the left side of the belt, and the middle star retakes, then his other foot, Rigel, can take out the shoulder, Betelgeuse.

there is probably already some “tactics deck” out there with tactics flashcards, but its easier to just make my own (in my bizarro world the cutting and pasting and writing and laminating all is easier than just making a purchase).

it’s a beautiful day out, i think i shall get a mountain bike ride in before i return to the chessitorium and study some more.

went to the gym this morning, came home and wanted a healthy breakfast, so i decided to make oatmeal. i don’t use the quaker oats, i use the steel cut oats that take 30 minutes to cook, so they take longer, but are healthier and tastier.

the way i make them is i melt butter in a pot, add 1/4 cup of oats and “fry” the oats in the butter, just until it smells nutty. then i add 1 cup of boiling water, put a lid on the pot, and simmer for about 30 minutes. i wanted to jazz them up with some flavor and healthy goodness, so for the last 10 minutes of cooking, i added a handful of blueberries, some cinnamon, and some crushed almonds. when i opened the pot, it looked like i cooked the brain of grimace,

like i’m some kind of mcdonaldland jeffery dahmer.  it was all purple, like that chewing gum girl from willy wonka (the original with gene wilder) actually exploded in my food.

but it was tasty, and i liked it a lot.  i thought about how some food looks and smells so tasty, but isn’t and some food looks nasty or weird but is so wonderful.  then i thought about how, for dinner, i like to mix up ingredients that don’t normally go together and sometimes i get some really nice flavors, and sometimes i end up having to order out for pizza.

hmmm, now that i think about it, maybe chess is nothing like cooking.

anyway, on page 39 of the february issue of chess life is the picture i took going to reno, and i used it here on my blog. that was kinda cool, maybe if this whole chess thing doesn’t pan out, i can be a freelance photographer…

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….