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If a weekend or an open tournament isn't near your place, so you travel, then, it adds extra excitement to traveling.
There are several variations regarding your company.
1. old couple
Last time I saw it was when GM Yair Kraidman took part in Malta open. He and his wife were perfect example of almost extinguished feature from old robin tournaments. He is playing deadly serious, and his wife is trying to be invisible. From time to time she just take a peek, holding his old fashioned purse on her chest, dressed in also old fashioned tufted dress in old fashioned shoes, and she reminded me on Petrossian's and Smyslov's and Geller's wives from photos from SSSR vs Rest Of The World match in Belgrade in 1970. Her face is worried, she probably don't have a clue about chess, but she is rooting!
Probably the same is case of Grenpawn34.
2. odd couple
Middle-aged men with predilection for ripe cherry coloured trousers and pink scarfs and vanilla cigarillos. The uncompeting member of the pair never attends the tournament venue but takes sunbath and goes for long walks.
3. young couple
Very, very rear feature on such tournaments. Girls find chess most boring "sport" and when they show themselves in the venue, they look like half-naked Beatles groupie in the mosque.
4. lonesome weirdos
Suspicious chaps. Carries extensive equipment on every round: spare pencils, termos-holders with coffee, ear plugs, candy bars, bottled water. They go too frequently to the men's room...
5. retired (avid player amateurs)
Always happy no matter of result. They usually consume huge amount of pepermints and always are humming some song.
6. kids
Accompanied by ambitious parents who guard kids' table like watch dogs.
7. Tournament's favourites
GMs with professional look - that is with boredom in their eyes. They usually have a tetrapaque of orange juice on the floor next to their table. and they never change their cloths. They smell. Always absent-minded.
Originally posted by @vanderveldeI'm sure this happens in Europe. In America most chess players travel to tournaments alone because there are so few of them, that finding another chess player in your area is a rare thing. Only major tournaments such as the US Open will draw spectators, normally family members, a few photographers or corporate sponsors, most of whom leave after the opening ceremony. Regional or local tournaments normally consist of one over worked tournament director and an odd assortment of players in disheveled clothing (98% male) most of whom have no social life. An occasional spectator may wander by, spend 5 min. looking at the room full of introverts staring intently at chessboards, roll their eyes skyward and leave, happily driving off to watch a bunch of players with glandular disorders in air cushioned shoes ram a ball through a hoop, then hang on the rim like monkees.
If a weekend or an open tournament isn't near your place, so you travel, then, it adds extra excitement to traveling.
There are several variations regarding your company.
1. old couple
Last time I saw it was when GM Yair Kraidman took part in Malta open. He and his wife were perfect example of almost extinguished feature from old robin tourname ...[text shortened]... floor next to their table. and they never change their cloths. They smell. Always absent-minded.
The power of the mind is not a priority in America. 😞
Originally posted by @mchillDid you just liken black men to monkeys?
I'm sure this happens in Europe. In America most chess players travel to tournaments alone because there are so few of them, that finding another chess player in your area is a rare thing. Only major tournaments such as the US Open will draw spectators, normally family members, a few photographers or corporate sponsors, most of whom leave after the opening c ...[text shortened]... , then hang on the rim like monkees.
The power of the mind is not a priority in America. 😞
Dude, Howard Cosell got fired for that in the 70's.
Originally posted by @mchillThis description of chess in America is very much at odds with my personal experience.
I'm sure this happens in Europe. In America most chess players travel to tournaments alone because there are so few of them, that finding another chess player in your area is a rare thing. Only major tournaments such as the US Open will draw spectators, normally family members, a few photographers or corporate sponsors, most of whom leave after the opening c ...[text shortened]... , then hang on the rim like monkees.
The power of the mind is not a priority in America. 😞
I play at a club weekly, my friends at the club go to the tournaments with me -we don't always drive together because last round games don't end at the same time. We definitely hang out together and kibbitz between rounds. Practically every town has a club of some sort, and in the greater Orlando Florida area (in the US) there are several. I could play in a different spot almost every day if I had the time.
I routinely get 40-50 rated games a year, playing in tournament with 4 or 5 rounds. In Florida there are times when I could play almost every weekend, but I don't have the time.
And while I have been called many things in my life, "Introvert" has never been one of them! The players I know who play come from all walks of life, so they are hard to generalize about, except that they like to play.
Originally posted by @eladarDude, Howard Cosell got fired for that in the 70's
Did you just liken black men to monkeys?
Dude, Howard Cosell got fired for that in the 70's.
Dude: I'm not Howard Cosell, this isn't the 70's, and my job isn't on the line.
I calls them as I sees them. 🙂
Hi vandervelde,
Regarding the Russian wives.
Rona Petrosian slapped Suetin's face blaming him becuase
her husband lost to Fischer in 1971.
Rona was actually dating both Petrosian and Geller at the same time
and said who ever did better at the 1952 Sweden Olympiad she would marry.
Petrosian scored ½ a point more so she married Petrosian.
https://www.chess.com/article/view/tigran-petrosian---the-iron-man
Smyslov's wife had every right to wear a worried face.
In the 1959 candidates he was having an affair with a chess journalist.
"Before they met in the first round, Smyslov declared he would punish
Tal's unsound style, but it was the younger man who triumphed. Soviet
officials, who preferred a Russian to the Latvian Tal as candidate, were then
scandalised when the normally staid Smyslov whose wife, Nadezhda
Andreevna, had stayed at home in Moscow, started a public relationship
with a Yugoslav woman grandmaster that affected his play."
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2010/mar/28/vasily-smyslov-obituary.
My wife has been with me once to a chess event. That was to
Alnwick in the late 70's. I was playing in a one day 5 round allegro
and she wanted to see Alnwick castle (it's where today they film parts
of the Harry Potter films.)
I lost my first game v ex British Champ Brian Eley.
(who is still wanted by the police for questioning.)
She said 'Good! now you can spend all day with me."
(so much for moral support)
I explained it was not a knock-out tournament and when she
discovered I'd be playing all day she went off in huff and we did
not meet again till in the car park at the end of the tournament.
In the 2nd round I lost on the White side of Frankenstein Dracula variation.
In the 3rd round I lost on the Black side of Frankenstein Dracula variation.
In the 4th round I swindled a draw that later appeared in a book.
I won the last game and both of us agreed on the journey
home she would never go to another chess tournament.
I crack a load of jokes about her in chess magazines.
A few years back there was a tournament very near the shop
she worked. The players found out about it.
She came home and said her shop was full of chess geeks who
came into the shop not to buy anything, just stare at her. (that is true!)
Deacon - Chandler Alnwick 1979.
Frankenstein - Dracula Variation
Originally posted by @paul-leggettOh Well, maybe it's geography that makes the difference. The Seattle area is full of tech geeks, book readers, and coffee drinkers. These folks spend most of their time indoors glued to their kindle's or computer screens and because of this, perhaps have less developed social skills.
This description of chess in America is very much at odds with my personal experience.
I play at a club weekly, my friends at the club go to the tournaments with me -we don't always drive together because last round games don't end at the same time. We definitely hang out together and kibbitz between rounds. Practically every town has a club of s ...[text shortened]... ome from all walks of life, so they are hard to generalize about, except that they like to play.
Your area is much sought after up here from November thru April since we have so few sunny days during that time. 6 months of mixed rain and snow tends each year to produce a higher percentage of introverts. OH...and by the way, I wasn't suggesting all chess players are introverts, but that is often how we are perceived. 🙂
