Chessing

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Went to flushing meadows today and played chess in the park with Adrian, my biggest rival across the chessboard. He won all of the games.
Afterwards, we swung by Starbuck's and stepped into Barnes & Noble's chess section. I bought a few books, and we discussed theory and authors' reliability and reputations.
Then we went back to the park and played a quick timed game while waiting for my mom's arrival to pick me up; it was particularly suspenseful and dynamic, and in my opinion the best of the five or six we played. We each had a checkmate in one -- if only i had seen his, i might have been able to avoid it! -- and he reached his first; vigorous handshakes and shouted compliments followed ("you're pissing me off, but that was goddamned genius! it's killing me!"), as well as goodbyes and arrangement of prospective follow-ups.

Chess with Adrian is no walk in the park, but it sure is fun.