Showing posts with label The Battle of Chess. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Battle of Chess. Show all posts

Wednesday, 3 December 2008

Binary ego tripping

A lot of ego's in one room. Big expectations, but only half of them will be fulfilled. Killer mood taking over brains. The enemy sitting down opposite me, friendly guy... no! enemy! Shake hands, be polite and be quiet.
Concentration, players around are still chatting, shhhh ... ut up, trying to focus here.

One hour gone, the battle is still going on, slight advantage for me, nice position. Opponent is scratching his head. Braincells are activated and warmed up.
Did I close the front door ? That doesn't matter now, try to keep your thoughts on the board.

Have to get up from the table. Suspense is killing me, adrenaline pumping in my veins. Going to wash my hands. Sneaking outside the room, the air is getting bad inside. Too many men in one room. Did I put on too much perfume ? Hard to fit in the gang if you are the only woman among 45 men. Escaped the room now, footsteps behind me. 'Are you winning?', Kind voice whispering. Making my opponent sigh, at least that's something...

Into the damp room again, shall I open a window ? It's getting cold outside and windy. Carefully walking over to the notice board. Hey, little prince being born ! Another baby boomer, shall I make a present ? Sit down and start thinking again, woman!

Board on the other table is ready. A lot of gestures, heavy Antwerp dialect explaining, polite reply in soft words. An ego is hurt, but I cannot figure out which.

Starting to get tired now, wanting to sleep, it's getting so late. Only six people struggling with black and white. Zzzz ...

Chess is like computers, you can have a nice interface, performance and speed, but in the end, all that matters are the 1's and the 0's
... damn, lost again. (picture that I drew when I was a teenager and following the 'Zondagsschaak' lessons. I call it: 'Dame neemt Paard' ... I think only teenage chess players understand the joke ... )

Friday, 25 May 2007

Tournamenting Kalix

I promised more stories about my trip to Kalix, so here we go. My chess buddy is coming over to Belgium next month, so this might be the right time to talk about the chess tournament in Kalix.
Lakke, who works in a bookshop, organised a special chess competition for me, in his shop, between the books. It is here that I found out that Swedish people are very friendly, they even let me win the competition !
In the pictures you can see my buddy Maaarten who is losing against me, Lakke with his good luck green beret and poor Niklas, who lost all games.
Oh yeah ! Here are the results :

The international strong coffee chess competition located in Kalix (Sweden), 19Th April 2007, special guest from Belgium

Heidi - Sven 1 - 0
Niklas - Lakke 0 - 1
Sven - Niklas 1 - 0
Lakke - Heidi 0 - 1
Heidi - Niklas 1 - 0
Sven - Lakke 0 - 1

Saturday, 3 March 2007

A Deadly Culinary Conversation

Not all chess players are macho boys. I also have made a few genuine friends while playing chess. One of them is Idlebones, a peaceful Irish writer of children's stories. (read those on the link at the left) The following conversation we had while playing a game of chess last week. Guess who won ? !



Bones :You're soo dead, Belgian Waffle !
Me : Just you beware, or you'll drown in your pint of Guinness !
Bones : Yeah, yeah, yeah ! And you'll choke on your chocolate !
Me : Poowie, I'll make a minced pie out of you in no time !
Bones : Grumble @#£$ Phnr !! Grumbl Humph !! $$
Me : What's the matter ? Don't speak with your mouth full of boxty or are you out of words already ?
Bones : Don't abuse me with your mouth full, luv
Me : I'm sorry, babe, can't help abusing you, it's soo tempting !
Bones : Horrible Belgian. Your a** is in for a whoopin' !
Me: Oh, go cry to your mummy. I like a good whoopin' now and then. Aint gonna scare me with that, you Irish Coffee !
Bones : You 'orrible woman !
Me : Love you too babe !
Bones : This Is Not Going According To Plan !
Me : Oooh, I'm sorry. Well that's life, not a chance that is ever going according to plan
Bones : You're nearly done for, Faluche!
Me : Errr, uh oh, aren't you in for some bribery ? Can't I seduce you with something ? Cash, Fame, Free hotel space in Belgium, Dancing the Hula naked ? Puhleese ?
Bones : Naw way ! Gonna beat ya !
Me : I can hear your brain squeaking up to her, moehahahaha !
Bones : Well ***** the ******* of all ****** **** ****. !!!! ********* !!!!!!!! ********* AND! **** **** the*****it *****of ********wingspan*******. Without touching the sides. ***********what I mean???
Dammit. Saw that coming for ages but could do nothing about it. What a get out for you! Should have wiped you out but didn't catch your pawn in time!