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In medias res...
May. 15th, 2014 11:19 pmWhile going through some papers, an old photo managed to surface, of me playing in the 1986 United States Amateur Team Championships (South), which sounds a whole lot more high-falutin' than it actually was. The photo is from the sixth and final round of the tournament, which was held in Jacksonville, Florida, between the "International Set" team, where I played the second board, and "McCarty's Heroes."
In the photo, I am the bearded gent in the foreground, seated facing sort of away from the camera. I'm playing the White pieces against a fellow in a light-colored baseball cap. This is the game, by the way, that was the basis of an LJ Idol post from Season 5, titled Cracking up. The one major "excursion" from the facts I embarked upon in that piece consisted of changing the name of my team to that of a team I was part of the previous year, so that I could insert a gratuitous reference to having drawn against Boris Spassky in a simultaneous exhibition.
In any event, some weeks ago, I had run across the actual score of that game, and after setting up the pieces and playing through the score with an eye on the photograph, I can definitively state that the photo shows the board after my 18th move (Rd3), at which point I had consumed 1 hour and 15 minutes of "thinking time" (compared to the 1 hour and 12 minutes plus whatever time since my move that my opponent had spent thinking). I did not record and do not recall what the time limit was for the games played during that tournament, but my opponent hit his two hour mark on move 51, so it had to be faster than 50 moves in 2 hours. For sure, whatever the time limit was, it certainly did not fall into the category of "blitz" play.
It's been ages since I've spent any real time at the board, but in playing over the moves, I was repeatedly made aware of the availability of better choices I was not aware of (and therefore, did not take). Does that mean I'm a better player today than I was then? I doubt it. It's easy to be a critic and point out the other person's weaknesses and missed opportunities—even (and perhaps especially) if that person is yourself nearly three decades ago.
Anyway, in the end, I won the game and wrote a nice piece about it, and nothing can change that. :^) Whatever milk there may have been to spill with respect to second-guessing myself has long returned to the great biosphere through various and sundry avenues. There are bigger fish to fry, these days.
Cheers...
In the photo, I am the bearded gent in the foreground, seated facing sort of away from the camera. I'm playing the White pieces against a fellow in a light-colored baseball cap. This is the game, by the way, that was the basis of an LJ Idol post from Season 5, titled Cracking up. The one major "excursion" from the facts I embarked upon in that piece consisted of changing the name of my team to that of a team I was part of the previous year, so that I could insert a gratuitous reference to having drawn against Boris Spassky in a simultaneous exhibition.
In any event, some weeks ago, I had run across the actual score of that game, and after setting up the pieces and playing through the score with an eye on the photograph, I can definitively state that the photo shows the board after my 18th move (Rd3), at which point I had consumed 1 hour and 15 minutes of "thinking time" (compared to the 1 hour and 12 minutes plus whatever time since my move that my opponent had spent thinking). I did not record and do not recall what the time limit was for the games played during that tournament, but my opponent hit his two hour mark on move 51, so it had to be faster than 50 moves in 2 hours. For sure, whatever the time limit was, it certainly did not fall into the category of "blitz" play.
It's been ages since I've spent any real time at the board, but in playing over the moves, I was repeatedly made aware of the availability of better choices I was not aware of (and therefore, did not take). Does that mean I'm a better player today than I was then? I doubt it. It's easy to be a critic and point out the other person's weaknesses and missed opportunities—even (and perhaps especially) if that person is yourself nearly three decades ago.
Anyway, in the end, I won the game and wrote a nice piece about it, and nothing can change that. :^) Whatever milk there may have been to spill with respect to second-guessing myself has long returned to the great biosphere through various and sundry avenues. There are bigger fish to fry, these days.
Cheers...
