Thanks for the kind comment.
So We Were In Iceland . . .
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This is awesome! Many chess enthusiasts would be honored to visit Fischers final resting place. It sounds like you had a great time, did you get a chance to talk to any of the players at the open?
Wow that's cool!
May 5, 2017
0
#6
badenwurtca wrote:
jjhjesq wrote:
Thanks for the kind comment.
--- My pleasure. As you said the site of his grave is rather ordinary however as his biggest triumph was in Iceland it does somehow seem fitting that he is buried in that country.
...that, and the fact that Iceland was basically the only country that would grant him citizenship during his later, crazy-hateful years.
May 5, 2017
0
#7
Thanks to all. To Bonsai, I did not speak to any player at the tournament, but it was clear that I pretty easily could have. They were all sitting or standing around very accessibly. Giri, for example, was standing alone away from his table during his game. He looked right at me, but I would never want to interfere. (my wife was whispering to me "who is that?" "should I take a picture?", etc.).
Hopefully, the whole experience will improve my chess somehow.
Hopefully, the whole experience will improve my chess somehow.
jjhjesq wrote:
At the least, it certainly improved your appreciation.
Thanks to all. To Bonsai, I did not speak to any player at the tournament, but it was clear that I pretty easily could have. They were all sitting or standing around very accessibly. Giri, for example, was standing alone away from his table during his game. He looked right at me, but I would never want to interfere. (my wife was whispering to me "who is that?" "should I take a picture?", etc.).
Hopefully, the whole experience will improve my chess somehow.
My wife, my daughter (just turned 11) went to Iceland 2 weeks ago to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. They are not much into the chess, (my daughter, a bit), but they are really good sports about it. We went to Bobby Fischer's grave (see pic). Kind of small and sad for all of his fame. There is also a Fischer Chess Center nearby, but it is only open during Iceland's very short Summer season.
We had plans to go to a family-friendly Icelandic comedy show on Friday night at the Harpa, which is Reykjavik's big downtown venue. It turns out that 20 feet away from the show, the Reykjavik Open was ongoing in the same building. So we walk in, and I'm 5 feet away from Anish Giri, 2 feet away from Gawain Jones in the middle of his game, etc. It was really fun to see. We went to our show down the hall, and then walked back over. The tournament was wrapping up for the day, but there were still a few games going on. My wife in
sisted that I buy a tournament T-shirt so that I can proudly wear my chess geekdom. Fun stuff.