Six dollars

Today, I went for a walk to Union Square.

My Saturday walk has been a fixture in my weekend. Walk down the Embarcardero by the water, walk down Market Street, head towards Union Square, walk aimlessly around the shops, sit in the square and do "stuff" (read, suntan, daydream etc) and then walk home eventually. It is a good 3-4 mile walk at a leisurely pace.

Today was somewhat different. Today, I saw people playing chess in Union Square. Naturally, I gravitated there. I watched them play a few games. The guy who brought the chess board also had a little light jazz playing on a boom box. The chess and jazz created a very loungey atmosphere in Union Square, and I ended up spending most of my afternoon watching them play. I didn't play, I didn't speak to people. I just watched. And I was content to just watch because it was fairly obvious that even the strongest player (call him E) in that group wasn't really at my level.

And I kept watching until E looked over at me and said "You play?".
I nodded.
"You play for money?"
"Used to a long time ago"
"We're doing $3 a game here" and then he gestured towards an open seat.

Weeeeeeeell, I really didn't want to do this plus I only had $5 in my wallet which I intended to use to buy a milkshake later. Oh well, let's see if I'm really as good as I think I am. At stake - my milkshake!

I got white in the first game. It was an Alekhine defence. He played some weird moves in the opening, which soon resulted in him having a weak E pawn, which eventually led to him losing 2 pawns. The endgame was a simple affair.

I played the black side of a sicilian defence in game 2. Again, he played a weird variation in which he ended up losing the initiative almost right at the start. I won one pawn, then another, then sacked a knight to go into a Q+R+7p vs Q+R+K+3p endgame. Let's just say that having 4 connected passed center pawns is absolutely killer at almost any stage of the game.

So... after two games, I was $6 up. Yay for me. GO DEREK!!!!!