Traveling and Chess: Try New Things

During the fall semester of my senior year in college, I went on my first trip out of the country. I was gone for three weeks to South Korea. At that point in my life, I had never been on a plane, never been to any other country than the United States and Canada, and had never eaten anything but American food. (Fairly sheltered for a 22 year-old, huh?)

I had a great experience. I came to love the Korean people. They are hard workers. They treated me royally. I walked the soles off of one pair of shoes. I ate Chinese for the first time in my life. I enjoyed Korean food, even kimchi--which was surprising as picky as I am! I learned many new customs:  belching means compliments to the chef; cleaning your plate means you are still hungry; removing your shoes when you enter a home shoes respect; etc.

Chess is a little like travelling. You need to be flexible. Especially in the beginning, you need to try new things. You need to try new openings. You need to try new offensive and defensive strategies. You need to try new end games.

In many ways, every game is like being in a new country. Yes, the beginning may have many similarities to your homeland, but it can quickly look quite foreign. In those times, keep your eyes open. Try to learn from every experience. Make the game memorable for yourself and your opponent. Be willing to try new things!

Good message. Well written.

You've certainly highlighted one of my weaknesses -- an unwillingness to go to strange places. 

For thirty years I always opened 1.e4 or, with black, 1.e5 or 1.d5.  In the past year I've been experimenting with openings like the KIA, KID and Pirc.  (At present I'm also having a (hopefully) brief encounter with the Latvian Gambit via one of the chess.com tournaments.

Surprisingly I didn't find the same two openings boring during all those years, probably because it gave my opponents the opportunity to play their favourite openings.  But now, having been pointed toward the fianchetto openings by my daughter, I find they're so flexible that they suit my style of play much better than my previous openings.

It's a whole new chess vista. 

Nepal:

In a crowded street I saw a group of local people surrounding a chessboard. The

players were sitting on cardboards just besides the gutter. A game was going on,

two young local men, playing for money. I could see, that they were no beginners

at all, later I was told, that one of them was a former player in the national team.

(Nepal has until now no IM or GM!). Soon I was challenged by one of the young

men. I got Black, the opening was a Skandinavian Gambit accepted. Early I got

the initiative for my pawn, but the more the game progressed in my favour,

the more I heard the word "police" out of the crowd among us. Suddenly I

thought, that I amy be caught up in a scam: if I loose, my money is gone,if

I win, a policeman will suddenly arrive on the scene, confiscating the money,

maybe even colecting a fine for gambling. Of course the policeman, corrupt

and underpaid as they are, would be in connection with the locals. My money

would be lost either way, so I could not win and not loose. What to do?

Just in that moment I saw a beautiful sacrifice of my queen leading to a

threefold repetition of moves through eternal check. Saved...!!!! 

Nepal isn't bad - although the police are mostly corrupt there.  In 1990, I undertook to teach myself the Grob.  While many find it inadequate, it worked fairly well for me.   Finding myself in Jakarta, Indonesia, for about 40 days, walking to and from the hotel daily, I undertook to play one of the many street vendors there.  After some days of repeatedly waxing him with the Grob, one day, he said: "I have a friend I would like you to play.  I'll bring him tomorrow.".   I asked;  "Oh, you are getting Adianto (at that time, the only Indonesian GM) to come beat me up for you??"    He looked surprised, but tried to cover up and denied that was his intent or his friend.  

  The next day, when I arrived, there was a dignified looking fellow sitting playing with the vendor - wearing a tie and suit.  Quickly finishing their game, the vendor stood and gave me his chair.  As I sat to play his friend, and stretched out my hand, I casually said:  "Mr. Adianto, I presume?"   the quick looks flashed between them confirmed my suspicions, although I had no idea what Mr. Utut Adianto looked like.    The games, six of them, also confirmed my suspicions, as he quickly and confidently made his moves, many of which, I could not understand at that time (and probably still would not understand).    Getting waxed by a GM who has malice aforethought to mess up your mind is troubling.

   Excusing myself, I beat a retreat after six quick losses.

        I returned the next day and others, and had more fun with the vendor,  beating him about 3 of 4 games, and enjoying knowing that he thought enough of me to bring a GM in to humble me.

   Regards to all, hope you enjoyed the short story.....    I met a GM in Amman (that was more fun too, as he failed to figure out the Grob), and a few IMs and some GMs in Russia, and other northeastern European countries in my travels.

Good message

 Thank you