This morning was the awards ceremony for the chess tournament. We got some good pictures with Vassily Ivanchuk and Lázaro Bruzón. They took first and second respectively.
I have put together a photo album of the event.
Enjoy!
Ivanchuk defeats Bruzón
In our big chess tournament this week we had a very exciting final set of games. Jaan Ehlvest (ranked 138 in the world) was unable to defeat Lázaro Bruzón (ranked 58th) in the semi-finals. Interestingly, Bruzón is 20 years younger than Ehlvest, I was pulling for Mr. Ehlvest for a couple of reasons. He plays as an American, though he is from Estonia originally. And, I bought his book from him this week. So he instantly became my favorite player.
It was pretty obvious though, that even if Jaan Ehlvest had arrived at the final games that Ivanchuk (ranked 7th) would likely have won. Ivanchuk seems to be on top of his game. He arrived here fresh off of a win at the Cuban Capablanca tournament. I don’t know how big of a deal that tournament is in the rest of the world, but here in Yucatán it seems to be well respected.
I won’t go into all the gory details as to how the games went down. You can go to the official website for that and watch the games played on the site. What I would like to share is the atmosphere.
My son played in this tournament last year, but it was our first big tournament. We still were unsure how accessible these players are and what happens in the final moments. We chose not to stick around for the next to the last round early this afternoon. Hunger got the best of us and we returned home for food. The final round was to start at 5:00. I expected it to take several hours, so did not arrive until a bit after 7:00 to see the match. It ended up that the first round today was a draw and the afternoon round drew as well, but before I arrived.
When I got to the auditorium, there were people hanging around and there was a buzz. I knew that they ended up going into playoff games. The first would start at 8:00. They each get 15 minutes on the clock. Ivanchuk played Black in the first round of the playoff. When they each had just a few seconds left on the clock they agreed upon a draw.
The second playoff game had Ivanchuk in command of the position and the clock, but Bruzón had definitive control of the material (value of pieces left on the board). I saw a line of play that would have evened up the game material wise, but Ivanchuk took a different route. He had several minutes left and Bruzón had just a couple. The ending was so dramatic and quick, I really don’t know how much final time was left.
Ivanchuk made a move with his Queen that caused Bruzón to think long and hard. Finally Bruzón extended his hand and surrendered to Ivanchuk. Ivanchuk shook hands and jumped up and pumped his fists in the air. It was the first time I saw him smile all week. The auditorium of about 250 people gave a standing ovation.
Ivanchuk ran out the door of the auditorium and I figured that would be the last we would see of him until the awards ceremony tomorrow. Instead he was running out to see his wife. I did not know she was here and never saw her. I just saw a press release that said she was there with us tonight and that she was waiting outside the auditorium.
He stuck around for a long time and signed books, posters, hats and just about anything else that people put in front of him. He seemed pretty personable, though I would have never guessed that from the rest of the week.
I also got Jaan Ehlvest to sign the book I bought from him yesterday. Guil Russek, a Mexican Grand Master signed a book that I have from him as well.
¡Feliz Navidad!
Sunday night we were at a local church’s Christmas program. The kids sang. The preacher preached. You know, the normal stuff.
As an aside about the preacher’s preaching, we were told it would be a short message. He preached for 50 minutes. I wonder what a normal or long message from him would be?
At the end we sang the ever popular Spanish Christmas song ¡Feliz Navidad!. You know the one:
¡Feliz Navidad! ¡Feliz Navidad!
¡Feliz Navidad! a something, something, a something dad.
Yes, that one. The second part in English says:
I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas!
I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas!
I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas!
From the bottom of my heart!
Except, instead of “from the bottom of my heart” we had the words written out, “from the button of my heart.” I am not sure where the heart button is, but it is probably somewhere close to the belly button.
“I’m Never Right”
I got this in email the other day. It is from New Tribes Mission and was written by Dena McMaster.
She stood at the edge of the crowd, appearing remote and cold. The others chatted merrily while they worked. Some were pounding grain; others were rubbing peanuts between two stones to make a delicious thick chunky peanut butter called tigamungo for the sauce.
The women glanced at the pale stranger from time to time but did not speak. They were waiting for the proper greeting from her. In their culture, the newcomer must speak first.
As she stood there seemingly aloof from all the activity, no one could see the frightened little girl that hid inside. The girl cried out, “I can’t talk to them! They always laugh! I never say anything right! I never know what to do! I’m never right!”
Finally, overcoming the fears and self degradation she called out hesitantly “Damba, Damba, Saakilibaa,” the proper tribal greeting, calling out the last names of the women present.
The women laughed and the little girl inside the cool, detached woman cringed. Outwardly she tried to smile. But she was crushed and the little girl inside began the litany of depreciation once again.
But much to her surprise one of the women approached her. “I am a Saakilibaa,” she said, “you are in my family.” The women were delighted because she tried to greet them.
They began talking animatedly. But they wanted her to do it right. So they began shouting their names back and forth in the proper Malinke way. They urged her to shout out their names. In Malinke culture the louder you greet someone the more honored they are.
But she thought, “I was brought up to never raise my voice. I can’t do this.”
Determined however to learn culture and language and to be accepted, she raised her voice and shouted with all her might, “Damba, Damba, Saakilibaa.”
Once again the women laughed. But this time she knew that they were laughing in delight at how hard she tried to be a good Malinke.
Pray for missionaries as they struggle to learn the often very difficult tribal language and culture, which is so very different from our comfortable “home culture.” Missionaries aren’t different from you. They have the same fears you do and need your prayers to bring the Gospel message to a lost and dying world.
And my cultural frustrations include people never arriving on time and businesses not making copies when they say they will.
Missionary Talks 08: Tammy Allred
Episode 8 is up! That means I have completed 2 months of this now.
I am planning on getting one of the sons of the last two missionaries to record with me. Get his take on things. Then there are other college missionary kids (MKs) home for the holidays.
Whew! I need a break. That was a lot more work than it should have been. I thought I would not have enough material for 15 minutes. Turned out, I had to chop out a lot.