|
|
Post by matejst on May 7, 2022 10:15:40 GMT
A dream come true (for someone). A dream to many others. She looks like my wife... |
|
|
|
Post by Ozymandias on May 7, 2022 13:00:20 GMT
Any picture to back up your claim? PM is OK is she's shy.
|
|
|
|
Post by matejst on May 7, 2022 19:15:32 GMT
Any picture to back up your claim? PM is OK is she's shy. You'll have to take my word for it... |
|
|
|
Post by Ozymandias on May 11, 2022 6:59:57 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Ozymandias on May 11, 2022 12:12:01 GMT
If you read their story, you'll notice an analogy.
|
|
|
|
Post by matejst on May 15, 2022 6:32:31 GMT
Ozy, I won't be able to post until later today.
|
|
|
|
Post by matejst on May 18, 2022 22:39:32 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Ozymandias on May 19, 2022 7:34:36 GMT
Well, I must say it's funnier than most Russian comedy I had to watch ("thanks" to my ex). This is the only funny one I can recall:
|
|
|
|
Post by Ozymandias on Jun 5, 2022 13:08:41 GMT
All human players are patzers, it's a question of how many mistakes you'll make and how gross they'll be, but nobody is safe. Why play, then? - Centaur chess is dead, so there's no real alternative.
- It's fun, as long as mistakes are proportionate (homogeneous play).
- You meet like minded people.
You'll notice I don't include in the list the satisfaction of a well played game (however exceptional it may be) because that feeling only lasts until you check it with the engine. And I always check them. |
|
|
|
Post by matejst on Jun 5, 2022 14:13:10 GMT
All human players are, it's a question of how many mistakes you'll make and how gross they'll be, but nobody is safe. Why play, then? - Centaur chess is dead, so there's no real alternative.
- It's fun, as long as mistakes are proportionate (homogeneous play).
- You meet like minded people.
You'll notice I don't include in the list the satisfaction of a well played game (however exceptional it may be) because that feeling only lasts until you check it with the engine. And I always check them. Why play? For me, chess was always a mystery I wanted to solve, to understand. I was immune to the ego-trips when winning OTB, nor was I too frustrated when I lost a good game. But indeed, the oversights are/always were frustrating.
This way of playing suits me well. I fight against myself, and, although it is a slow process, I feel I get slowly get better. Yes, there is the frustration when you discover that you missed completely an idea, a threat, a possibility in a position, but it helps understanding. It reinforces an insight -- probably not quite true -- that it is more important to understand what no to play in a given type of positions than what to play.
When I worked in Kragujevac, going to the chess club was fun, but here, I have really nobody to play against. I can't even kibitz.
|
|
|
|
Post by Ozymandias on Jun 5, 2022 16:23:54 GMT
My club days were cut short because of a big fire next door: At the beginning of the video you can see one of two streets (the theater was on a corner), and the chess club was right next to it. The building looked OK, but the wooden beams had began to internally combust (like a cigar) and was ultimately condemned. The very next day the club's president came to my house to ask for the keys. I had them because I lived right on the other side (you can see the building at "43, behind the white smoke) and he had his doubts I might've started the fire. He joked about it, but I could see he was actually worried. After that, the club never opened again, even though it's still physically there:
Access to the living quarters was walled off, but the club could've opened, the final decision from the municipality took quite some time.
The club I'm at now has no social life to speak of, despite having lots of space, like 4 times what you can see here:
|
|
|
|
Post by matejst on Jun 5, 2022 17:42:07 GMT
Beautiful space, Ozy. I don't like the masks (nobody wears them here), but it looks so nice. Here, it is way much informal. In Kragujevac, at the club Radnicki, they have a room for smokers, and we usually have a drink or two (coffee, but not only coffee).
I no longer live in Kragujevac, but in a very small town thirty kilometers away. I was one of the founders of our chess club here in Raca, a flourishing club in the 90s. With the little money we had, we organized tournaments, regional team competitions and many small tournaments for our players. We even hired an FM to work a little with our members. And then, unfortunately, we qualified for the third division. That year, an excellent master candidate worked as a physics teacher in our high school, we also had a female master, and we finished first in the regional league. As vice-president of the club, I was against participating in the third division -- it was too expensive for us, but nobody wanted to listen to me. Conclusion: the competition was simply too expensive for us, the town had no money to finance us, and we forced too much on our sponsors. Then -- we didn't have enough players -- we won 19 points on the first three boards (I scored 6 out of 10 on the third), but only 1 point on the 4th, fifth and sixth. Our first category players just got slaughtered, and two stopped playing chess. As vice president, I got tired -- not of the game, but I couldn't deal with finances any more. Then the secretary of the club -- the only one really helping me -- died, I had a lot of work in college and took a break. However, it was from that year that the town began to subsidize us, but the new management found many creative ways to spend this money. I played again in the third division a few years later for another club, but I was rusty and I only made 50%. Also, I had made the stupid mistake of agreeing to play on the third (and second) board so that other players, stronger than me, would do better on the lower tables. It didn't help, of course. |
|
|
|
Post by Ozymandias on Jun 5, 2022 18:51:14 GMT
Those club tactics have always been funny, as if you knew what order was best for your players, a priori. As if you knew who you'd play against. The first board of the first team is a semi-sure bet for the opponent, but as you move down the ladder, it becomes unpredictable. I stopped preparing openings for team matches a long time ago.
PS: the masks were for last July's international tournament. They won't be mandatory next month.
|
|
|
|
Post by matejst on Jun 5, 2022 21:46:55 GMT
Those club tactics have always been funny, as if you knew what order was best for your players, a priori. As if you knew who you'd play against. The first board of the first team is a semi-sure bet for the opponent, but as you move down the ladder, it becomes unpredictable. I stopped preparing openings for team matches a long time ago. Club "politics" were always disastrous. Back in the days, I had a dispute with the management of my own club about playing in a higher division and hiring ranked players. Chess was a hobby I enjoyed, I had no ambitions, and I wanted our amateurs, members of the club to play. But in Serbia it is always about some kind of "success". For me, success was to organize club tournaments, to have a school of chess for children, and we had a rapid memorial team tournament where good teams took part and which did not cost much -- a humble dinner for all, a few cups, and the local politicians liked it because Matanovic, Novoselski, Damljanovic used to come. But for the other club officials, playing the Third division was, even if it meant that our own players won't play.
It was the same in the other club I played for -- the club of a village near Jagodina. A few of us played like amateurs, but the club paid several players from Kragujevac. As a newcomer I had no idea what was happening. So, while I played for the team -- trying to win at all costs when the team was losing -- other players agreed to draws just to achieve "their" results. The choice of boards was also a dupe I did not understand. Everybody cared only for their own results and wanted to play on a lower board.
About preparation: I never prepared for my opponents back then. I often did not even know who they were, hopefully, otherwise I would have panicked most of the time, especially when we were playing the Serbian cup -- a regional competition, with teams of different strength. It was my favourite competition because one could face GMs and IMs. Today, I know more about openings than I ever did. The only time I knew my opening was somewhere at the end, when I got a draw against GM Nenad Ristic (perhaps IM then). He tried to confuse me in the French and I achieved a clearly better position. I guess that he thought that I was better than I really am.
Now, back to my evening game against Maia.
|
|
|
|
Post by Ozymandias on Jun 6, 2022 6:33:08 GMT
Yes, one of the funniest fruit preparation can bear. I've also obtained the occasional draw against a much higher rated player, because of a good out of book position. Usually, stronger players believe in their own strength and see the game trough, but you always find someone who, for whatever reason, doesn't feel all that confident that particular day.
|
|
