Last three rounds

This is the continuation of the chess tournament that my son and I were playing in. We finished the event this evening with both of us having 2 points out of a possible 6.

My rounds:
Round 4 was lost to Andrés. I was not sure how to evaluate him as a player going into the round. I had seen him play in an earlier round. He became pretty frustrated with his opponent’s lack of attention to the game. The other player was not just up and down quite a bit throughout the game (which is not unusual), but he was goofing around with other players like he would rather be out on the playground wrestling than playing chess. The opponent was about 12 years old and I would guess Andrés to be 16 or so. He ended up tying that round. When we played I tried to get an early win with a “Mate al Pastor.” I am not sure what it is called in English, but its translation is “Shephards Mate.” It is a short 4 move checkmate. It did not work. I don’t remember much from the round other than I lost.

The fifth round was a bye. Automatic 1 point.

My opponent never showed on the sixth round. I won by forfeit. A cheap way to win, but a win none the less. Some day I will win a game on my own. Until then, I will be happy to take a hand out.

My son’s rounds:
He had a tough fourth round. I did not see much of the game, but when I looked back and saw his game on occasion, I noticed that he did not have many pieces on the board while the other player had most of his pieces left. Needless to say, my son was in material trouble throughout the game and the resultant loss was not a surprise.

Fifth round pitted him against Sarah. She was probably 10 years old and the daughter of a chess teacher. She did a good job, though sick with a cold, of winning the game. She had to think to do it, but she was confident in her moves and knew her end game strategy well.

The sixth round netted my son his second point. He won against a young boy of probably 7 or 8 years of age. Somehow the boy got my son’s queen early and really had a material advantage for a long time during the game. But little by little he lost his advantage. My son was able to get him trapped on the back row behind several of his own pieces. It only took a rook to get the mate.

Awards ceremony is Tuesday. We certainly did not place, but we will go to the event just to cheer everyone. This was a rated tournament. My son has an official rating while I do not. I am curious as to how this event will affect his number and where I will land after the event.

Ever been scared senseless?

Thursday I got sent from the kitchen at the retreat where I spent the week to tell some of the men it was time to eat. I ran down to the abandoned buildings where they were and called them back to lunch. Since I had not been in the buildings, I got curious to check out one of them.

The camp where we were has been abandoned for 10 years and was just purchased this last May. There is a 4,000 square foot house on the property, but it is one of the structures that has not been brought back to life yet. It had a beautiful fireplace that just called me in to check it out. Since there was no glass and part of the walls are missing, it was pretty open to the world.

I walked in and noticed all the ceiling fans piled up in the room next to the fireplace. I also noticed that many of the walls were black towards the top like maybe there had been a fire in the house. Not that the walls were burnt. This is México where all the walls are made of blocks and concrete. So the house will not burn, but could show smoke damage.

I began to think why there might have been a fire in the house. Maybe vandals. Then I slipped into the bizarre and started thinking about Satan worshippers. I rounded the corner of the room and saw the front door for the first time. It was big and very nice. As I was looking at the door and thinking about Satan worshippers and possible human sacrifices, the door pushed open. Not like it was just wind, but like someone was walking through the door. I was in a position that I could not see what was on the other side. Then the door pulled closed like it would after someone walked through it and closed it, kinda strong and violent.

Now I have Satan worship, human sacrifices and ghosts going through my head. I knew it had to be harmless, so I walked toward the door to investigate. About the time I got to the door to see what was up, when one of the men stepped from around the side of the wall (which was missing) right beside me. I am sure I turned totally white. I know I was ready to run back through a wall while wetting myself.

Fortunately my mind processed what was going on faster than my body reacted.

Back from Monterrey

I just got back from the large city of Monterrey in northen México. I was there from Monday evening to Friday morning. I was not actually in the city all of the time, but between the towns of Allende and Cadereytes for most of the week.

I had a conference with other missionaries and pastors working with the Deaf. Most of the attenedees have been friends of mine for a while, and all of them I knew previously. Therefore it was a great time of getting together with friends and accomplish some planning and much needed encouragment for one another.

I got to run a couple of days while I was gone. I did not run this morning since I had to be headed to the airport by 5:00 am.

Monterrey is a place where T3rry could feel right at home. It reminds me a lot of Knoxville. Except the mountains around Monterrey are more along the lines of the Rockies as opposed to the Smokies. But the way the town twists and turns with very few straight roads and nothing is flat is what will make you think of Knoxville.

I will give you more stories from the week in the next few days.

First three rounds down

We completed the first three rounds of a six round chess tournament this evening. This is an individual tournament, not a team event like the last one.

My rounds:
Round 1 was Saturday night against a very nice older man named Carlos. I would guess that he is probably 70+ years old. He played well and it was obvious from the outset that he was the superior player. Our round lasted almost 2 hours though. That was definitely my longest game to date. I was doing very well on an offensive tact and he seemed to just be playing Chessdefense. What I did not realize was that he was slowly getting set up. Once, I was just one move away from setting up a checkmate against him. But that is when he started his attack and forced me into some moves which blew my strategy. I held on to the end. I even made him work real hard to not stalemate me.

Round 2 was against my team captain from the last tournament. Daniel and I have played several times against one another in class. Daniel has always won. So, he had a psychological advantage going into the round this morning. He made an aggressive move early in the round putting one of his knights behind enemy lines. I knew it was a bold move for a reason, I just never could displace it or capture it. That ended up being my downfall. He sat there with that knight not really threatening me in any way, but always present. When it came time to finish the game, it was very obvious that he was in control from early on. If I get a chance to get my notation back from that game I will post it with comments.

Round 3 was this evening and I played against Andrés. He is probably 14 years old. I have seen him around some. I got one move on him that I thought was going to bust up the game in my favor. He had a bishop sitting off to the side that neither one of us considered a threat at any time in the game. When I made my stellar move, it took him about 10 minutes to find that bishop (which I never saw) and make his move. That was the end. He won.

So my record is 0-3 through 3 rounds.

My son’s rounds:
Round one was well foughtCarlos playing chess. He thought he had the win at a couple of points, but then she forced a few moves that cost him his opportunities. He lost that one.

Round two was easy. He had a bye. Somehow though, there was another boy who had a bye. After 30 minutes of enjoying his free point, the head judge came to him and asked him to play with the other boy. They sat down and started talking. I am not sure if they actually started their game or not. But their conversation was something to the affect that they both won a point for having a bye. If they play, best case scenario is that they will tie and get a half point. Or, one will lose the game and their point. They went to the judge and said they would not play. I was glad to see that.

I was quite torqued over the fact they they would be awarded a point as if they played and beat their opponent, then be told that that game did not count and they would have to play again. The Chess Association of Yucatán will be getting a letter from me concerning this. This is the second time something similar took place. Last time it was against me.

Round three had his team captain from the last tournament as his opponent. Carlos is ranked as the number 1 player in that division. My son is ranked 12th out of 18. The fact that Carlos won every game in the last tournament and that he is ranked number 1 and that my son has only ever tied against him once before, kinda spelled out a bleak ending. My son was not disappointed. He knows he will get more chances to play Carlos in class.

So that leaves us with scores of 0 for me and 1 for my son. We have three more rounds next weekend. These things are kinda fun.

“Give me a Coke!”

Today was our first day in our new church building. We finally signed the lease agreement three weeks after we first said we wanted to rent the building. That was taken care of Friday night and Saturday was spent all day in cleaning and preparing for today.

After the morning services we were eating lunch. A man walked in off the street right into the building to ask what we were doing. Well, obviously we were eating. This building is a colonial style house but has been an auto parts store for many years. So it would not be unusual for the neighbors to still see this as a public business. And, of course, we would welcome anyone into our church. So it was all fine up to that point.

I told the man that we had started a church for the Deaf and that we had services there on Sundays. He was welcome to join us. He declined saying that he goes to mass and did not want to come to our church. Then he proceeded to ask me to give him some Coke. We had a 2-liter bottle of Coke sitting on the table. And we were all sharing it, so it would not have been a big deal to give the man a Coke. But, what if someone walked into your house (he did not know until after he was in the building that it was not our house but a church) and demanded a Coke. Would you give him some?

I then asked him if he would come back and visit with us. He said, “Yes, I will come by every week to see you. Give me some Coke.” Well, if he is going to come back every week and ask me to give him some Coke, then I think I will pass on the opportunity. He then proceeded to ask one of the young men at the church to give him some Coke. I just had to laugh. Remember this is a Deaf church. He was properly ignored by the Deaf teen who was playing a game. He was not being rude, he just did not hear the fellow.