When I was a youngster, there were 2 major comic book companies DC (Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman) and Marvel (Spiderman, Fantastic Four, Hulk). I was a DC fan for the simple reason that each DC comic was its own story while the Marvel comics would be continued over multiple issues. Since I didn’t have the means or opportunity to get comics every month, I would get a DC comic when I had a dime to spend so I would be able to read a whole story, even though the Marvel characters were quirkier and seemed like more fun. As I got to my late teens and had more money to spend on comics, I was able to buy the Marvel comics on a regular basis and appreciate them as much as DC's characters.
DC was first to get their characters to the big screen with Christopher Reeve’s Superman in the 70’s and Batman in the 80’s. Superman has struggled in the 21st century with the lackluster ‘Superman Returns’, but the Batman saga has been retold as the ‘Dark Knight’ and is a big seller yet again.
After Superman and Batman, DC Comics has struggled to have a third franchise superhero to their movie roster. Watchmen was a great movie, but didn’t lend itself to any sequels since most of the main characters die and the story does not take place in the same universe as Batman and Superman. I liked Jonah Hex a lot more than most, but it did poorly at the box office. Wonder Woman is going to be back as a TV show. I think the Flash would be a pretty cool character for the big screen since he has a great cast of villains (Mirror Master, Weather Wizard, Gorilla Grodd, Captain Boomerang...), but for their latest effort, DC decided to go with another of their main characters, the Green Lantern.
I went to see Green Lantern a couple of weeks ago. While my main pet peeve with superhero movies is that half the movie is spent retelling the origin, the Green Lantern’s origin comes with plenty of action with the Green Lantern of Earth’s corner of the galaxy Abin Sur, fighting super villain evil incarnate, Parallax, crashing to earth and while dying, sends his ring to find a man without fear to take his place. The ring finds Hal Jordan who is not the 60’s crew-cut test pilot I remember that has never smoked a cigarette, had a drink, and is saving himself for marriage, but is the 21st century Hal Jordan, a test pilot who breaks the rules, has daddy issues, gets drunk, and sleeps with the bosses daughter (among others). Jordan receives the ring, travels to the edges of the galaxy to meet all the other Green Lanterns (and their creators, the Guardians), learns the meaning of courage as he battles and defeats Parallax and saves the earth, the galaxy, the universe, and quite possibly the omniverse.
In my opinion, the Green Lantern movie was excellently made. I didn’t think there was enough of GL using the ring, but there was enough action to satisfy me since the obligatory origin story was intermixed with Green Lantern action. The other Green Lanterns looked as freaky as remembered from the comics. There are thousands of Green Lanterns and not all of them are biped humanoids. I missed seeing the Green Lantern that was nothing but a giant eyeball, but the movie focused mostly on the bird/fish like GL, brutish rock like GL, and Sinestro the red human looking GL that eventually becomes a worthy super-villain in his own right. The guardians were transformed from balding little blue midgets with red costumes and big heads looking up at everyone to wizened brains each sitting on a miles-high column with red robes that stretched down for miles as they plotted their strategies for defeating Parallax (who was a Guardian gone bad). Hector Hammond was great as the weasel scientist who is infected with the energy from Parallax and becomes a telepathic super brain even as he becomes physically deformed. I hope the movie has done well enough ($114 million after 4 weeks) to warrant a sequel since the stage has been well set for more Green Lantern adventures to come without spending half a movie on an origin.
On Friday, I went to see Captain America: The First Avenger, the newest Marvel super hero movie. Captain America was the original 1940’s Marvel comic book super hero and was revived in the 1960’s as having lost 20 years frozen in an iceberg and being revived as a man out of time who struggles to find his place in the modern world.
The movie spends a lot of time giving showing how weak and wimpy Steve Rogers from Brooklyn is and outlines his multiple attempts to get in the army. In between Roger’s demonstration of wimpiness we are treated to some scenes of Mr. Smith from the Matrix movies as a Nazi commander capturing an ancient energy source (the Cosmic Cube) and the attempts of his bug eyed Nazi scientist to harness the power it provides. Finally Rogers is accepted into the army into a special unit headed by escaped Nazi scientist Dr. Erskine, whose task is to create a new generation of super soldiers. Rogers continues his wimpy ways but demonstrates his courage and innate goodness and is chosen to be the first to receive the super-soldier treatment. As soon as Rogers is transformed into the perfect physical specimen, Dr. Erskine is killed and Rogers is further transformed from budding superhero to a war-bond salesman. Eventually Rogers decides to rescue his childhood friend (and a few hundred others) from the clutches of a Nazi prison camp and uncovers that Mr. Smith is in reality the Red Skull who is assembling a worldwide organization of evil called Hydra. The remaining third of the movie shows Captain America leading his handpicked crew to take apart Hydra and foiling a Hydra plot to blow up the major cities of the US but at the cost of being frozen in the Artic for 60+ years.
For me the highlight of the movie was the inclusion of the Howling Commandos from the 60’s comic (set in World War II) Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos. Dum-Dum Dugan and rest of the crew look like they came straight out of the comics complete with the ‘WA-HOO’ battle cry. Left unmentioned in the movie was that the leader of the Howling Commandos was none other than Nick Fury. I also liked how Iron Man’s father, Tony Stark was integrated into the story as the US’s chief World War II scientist. Chris Evans plays Captain America and Steve Rogers like a superficial block of wood, but that is true to the comic book portrayal of the characters. The physical transformation is pretty amazing.
My pet peeve with superhero movies is when half the movie is spent retelling the character’s origin and Captain America was worse than the usual. It seemed like it took forever for the action to get started and I didn’t care too much for a gun-toting Captain America, but the fight scenes on the train crossing the Alps and the Red Skull doomsday plane were great. I think one look at the pre super-soldier Steve Rogers would have been enough to let the audience know that he was a wimp and would have provided more action time.
The surprise success of Iron Man has emboldened both DC and Marvel to cast a wide net for the next big super hero hit. Judging by the success of Captain America (100 million in a weekend and a half), Marvel has a big head start on next year’s Avengers movie. DC had the all time superhero hit in last year’s Dark Knight, but stumbled badly with Superman since 2006’s Superman Returns has been the only Superman movie in the last 25 years, while Marvel managed to restart the X-Man series this year and is restarting Spiderman next year. Restarting the series allows Marvel to kill off great villains like the Red Skull and the Green Goblin secure in the knowledge that they can be brought back in 10 years, but for someone my age, it is a little depressing to see characters I’ve known since my youth discarded and ‘rebooted’ at will.
If DC wants a big super hero movie hit, I’d suggest thinking small instead of thinking big. There is a minor super hero called The Atom, who is a scientist that can alter his size and mass, shrinking to this size of an atom and launching himself at a foe and increasing his mass at the moment of impact to simulate the effect of being hit by a pencil eraser that weighs 200 pounds. The special effects could range from the otherworldly (microscopic bacteria worlds) to technical (trying to defuse a bomb from the inside), to the sublime (giving a villain a heart attack or a stroke by entering his bloodstream and growing a bit). The only thing the Atom doesn’t have is a signature villain, but maybe one can just be made up or borrowed from another super hero.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
A Drop (Debt) Ceiling
The media has had a field day with the ongoing debate over raising the US debt ceiling from its current level of 14.3 TRILLION dollars. President Obama and House Speaker Boehner had dueling speeches on TV last night outlining their positions. As is his custom, Obama wants to get a deal done even at the expense of alienating his most ardent supporters with spending cuts but is pushing for any increase in the spending limit to be large enough to keep him from having to raise taxes or cut programs while he is seeking reelection in 2012, while Boehner wants to look tough on cutting spending while keeping the Republicans from being blamed when millions of Social Security checks aren’t delivered and hundreds of thousands civilian military employees receive their pink slips.
I don’t understand the talk about how if the debt limit isn’t raised, the government will default and won’t be able to pay its bills. Since the government will presumably still be collecting payroll and other taxes, they should be able to pay the essential bills out of that. Could it be that the government can’t even pay essential bills out of its income?
I also don’t understand the Republican and Democrat plans to increase the debt ceiling by x TRILLION DOLLARS in return for a cut in spending of x TRILLION DOLLARS times 1.1 (give or take a few HUNDRED BILLION). IF I needed to borrow a hundred dollars, but I could reduce my spending on groceries by a hundred dollars, why would I need to borrow a hundred dollars? Only if a) I was only talking about cutting my grocery spending by a hundred dollars and had no intention of really following through, b) I was living in such a hand to mouth fashion and was so far behind in my debts that I would be bankrupt without my money fix, or c) They are going to cut a TRILLION DOLLARS in spending by cutting one dollar in spending over the next TRILLION YEARS.
While every other time the debt ceiling needed to be raised some sort of face saving solution was found, this time I think the 2 parties have painted themselves into separate corners. The Republicans owe their current reign in the Congress to the financial and volunteer support of the Tea Party movement and their central tenet is to cut spending and not increase taxes, while the Democrats get their support from unions, government workers, and other groups who are part of the over 50% of the population that receive aid directly or indirectly who are loath to have their aid cut and would rather raise taxes on wealthy people to pay for the deficit.
The banking crowd has weighed in with the advice that the US should remove the debt ceiling permanently in order to preserve its AAA credit rating. This sounds like a crock to me. Why would you give an entity that has been on a runaway borrowing spree for the last 40 years (except for a few years in the late 90s) an AAA credit rating anyway? The debt ceiling is a rare device that actually holds the government somewhat accountable. Removing it would just give the politicians of all parties’ carte blanche to spend and spend and spend. By the way, the same banks that want the US to be able to borrow at will without even a perfunctory nod to raising the debt ceiling were giving mortgages to anyone who had a pulse (and sometimes not even that) just a few years ago. These guys would give alcoholics credit cards that only worked in liquor stores.
If the crises continues and the government can’t pay its bills, no one knows what will happen but I tend to think that not much will change except even more wall to wall news coverage. When the Republican Congress shut down the government in 1995, President Clinton was very inventive in finding ways to keep services going and I’m sure President Obama has that script in his desk drawer at the Oval Office.
When I was working in a fast food restaurant as a teenager in New Jersey, a store manager named Jim Kennedy would go nuts if he saw the servers putting more than one ketchup packet in the to-go bags unless they were asked for and he would go even more nuts if even one ketchup packet was placed on a tray. I asked him why once and he said that the ketchup packet cost 3 cents (in 1978 cents) and a handful of them cost about the same as all the ketchup that was in the squeeze bottle on every table that was filled each night with industrial size cans of ketchup. I didn’t care too much for this managers’ screaming and yelling style (he was an oversized volunteer high school football coach – you know the type, I’m sure), but I had to admit that he made a lot of sense about the ketchup packets. Another one of his ‘go nuts’ triggers fired if we got our free employee sodas using the disposable wax cups that the customers got instead of the small reusable employee cups. I asked about that too and was told that the cup cost almost as much as the soda that went into it. I’m not sure I believe that, but he was a good watchman over his companies’ money (except when he would have us make up a mess of chicken and roast beef sandwiches for him to take home from work).
If I knew where Jim Kennedy was, I might try convincing him to run for public office. But in the meantime, I’d like to offer my own version of his wisdom. Every day this week while driving to and from Des Moines, there has been road work on the road I use to get into and out of Marshalltown. Every time, I’ve had to wait at least 10 minutes for the pilot car to slowly make its 2 mile round trip and lead me to or away from the promised land. There are at least 2 and sometimes 3 people hanging around at the intersection holding a stop sign or waving their hands for the cars to stop and telling them that it would be quicker to turn around. Every car except me has waited a few minutes and then turned around or took the long way around. I’d like to advise the government that since no one is waiting for the pilot car they should just please close the road and save us the $400 a day that the sign holders, pilot car driver, and pilot car cost. Since the road work will take a week, we will have saved $2,000. Only 14,299,999,998,000 more dollars to go! While we’re at it, maybe the congressional cafeterias can make sure they aren’t dishing out ketchup packets. After all, you have to start somewhere!
I don’t understand the talk about how if the debt limit isn’t raised, the government will default and won’t be able to pay its bills. Since the government will presumably still be collecting payroll and other taxes, they should be able to pay the essential bills out of that. Could it be that the government can’t even pay essential bills out of its income?
I also don’t understand the Republican and Democrat plans to increase the debt ceiling by x TRILLION DOLLARS in return for a cut in spending of x TRILLION DOLLARS times 1.1 (give or take a few HUNDRED BILLION). IF I needed to borrow a hundred dollars, but I could reduce my spending on groceries by a hundred dollars, why would I need to borrow a hundred dollars? Only if a) I was only talking about cutting my grocery spending by a hundred dollars and had no intention of really following through, b) I was living in such a hand to mouth fashion and was so far behind in my debts that I would be bankrupt without my money fix, or c) They are going to cut a TRILLION DOLLARS in spending by cutting one dollar in spending over the next TRILLION YEARS.
While every other time the debt ceiling needed to be raised some sort of face saving solution was found, this time I think the 2 parties have painted themselves into separate corners. The Republicans owe their current reign in the Congress to the financial and volunteer support of the Tea Party movement and their central tenet is to cut spending and not increase taxes, while the Democrats get their support from unions, government workers, and other groups who are part of the over 50% of the population that receive aid directly or indirectly who are loath to have their aid cut and would rather raise taxes on wealthy people to pay for the deficit.
The banking crowd has weighed in with the advice that the US should remove the debt ceiling permanently in order to preserve its AAA credit rating. This sounds like a crock to me. Why would you give an entity that has been on a runaway borrowing spree for the last 40 years (except for a few years in the late 90s) an AAA credit rating anyway? The debt ceiling is a rare device that actually holds the government somewhat accountable. Removing it would just give the politicians of all parties’ carte blanche to spend and spend and spend. By the way, the same banks that want the US to be able to borrow at will without even a perfunctory nod to raising the debt ceiling were giving mortgages to anyone who had a pulse (and sometimes not even that) just a few years ago. These guys would give alcoholics credit cards that only worked in liquor stores.
If the crises continues and the government can’t pay its bills, no one knows what will happen but I tend to think that not much will change except even more wall to wall news coverage. When the Republican Congress shut down the government in 1995, President Clinton was very inventive in finding ways to keep services going and I’m sure President Obama has that script in his desk drawer at the Oval Office.
When I was working in a fast food restaurant as a teenager in New Jersey, a store manager named Jim Kennedy would go nuts if he saw the servers putting more than one ketchup packet in the to-go bags unless they were asked for and he would go even more nuts if even one ketchup packet was placed on a tray. I asked him why once and he said that the ketchup packet cost 3 cents (in 1978 cents) and a handful of them cost about the same as all the ketchup that was in the squeeze bottle on every table that was filled each night with industrial size cans of ketchup. I didn’t care too much for this managers’ screaming and yelling style (he was an oversized volunteer high school football coach – you know the type, I’m sure), but I had to admit that he made a lot of sense about the ketchup packets. Another one of his ‘go nuts’ triggers fired if we got our free employee sodas using the disposable wax cups that the customers got instead of the small reusable employee cups. I asked about that too and was told that the cup cost almost as much as the soda that went into it. I’m not sure I believe that, but he was a good watchman over his companies’ money (except when he would have us make up a mess of chicken and roast beef sandwiches for him to take home from work).
If I knew where Jim Kennedy was, I might try convincing him to run for public office. But in the meantime, I’d like to offer my own version of his wisdom. Every day this week while driving to and from Des Moines, there has been road work on the road I use to get into and out of Marshalltown. Every time, I’ve had to wait at least 10 minutes for the pilot car to slowly make its 2 mile round trip and lead me to or away from the promised land. There are at least 2 and sometimes 3 people hanging around at the intersection holding a stop sign or waving their hands for the cars to stop and telling them that it would be quicker to turn around. Every car except me has waited a few minutes and then turned around or took the long way around. I’d like to advise the government that since no one is waiting for the pilot car they should just please close the road and save us the $400 a day that the sign holders, pilot car driver, and pilot car cost. Since the road work will take a week, we will have saved $2,000. Only 14,299,999,998,000 more dollars to go! While we’re at it, maybe the congressional cafeterias can make sure they aren’t dishing out ketchup packets. After all, you have to start somewhere!
Our tax dollars at work.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Second best
Nothing second best about these kids. They are top shelf all the way.
I had prepared by bringing plenty of fruit to eat along with Powerade and juice. I even bought some ice and duct tape at the convenience store. I wasn’t going to eat the duct tape, but I had brought some tarps to protect the shelter from sideways rain and the duct tape was for taping the tarps to the shelter posts.
A battle for first place that would have the Roman gladiators jealous.
The 21 kids and parents that played had a good time and then it was time for the afternoon cash tournament. I had 7 players including myself. I managed to win the first 2 games and was paired against 2004 state champion Dan Vasto in the third round. Unlike our previous 3 meetings where I had Black and was quickly a pawn down (managing to win one of these games), in this game I was Black and was a pawn up in the middle game. My king was trapped in the center for the pawn and I ended up giving the pawn back. I got down to 10 seconds left in and butchered a difficult ending to lose to Dan yet again. I wasn’t displeased with the game since I felt like I’d given Dan my best shot, but having come out second best in our encounter I decided to take the last round off and pack up while the other 6 players finished. If I had been playing in the last round, I could have used the duct tape for my ears when a band replete with a tuba player started practicing in the next shelter over. Amplified music is prohibited in the park, but there is no regulation against an old-school tuba and drum set.
A tuba player at a chess tournament doesn't seem like the second best option to silence...
until his drummer buddy decided to join in.
If I'm not at least second best in this contest,
I'll be the Lou Costello of chess journalism.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Stinging losses
Twice on Sunday, I got to see Americans lose chances at what passes for sports immortality.
On Sunday morning’s British Open, Phil Mickelson went 6 strokes under par over the first 10 holes to get to one shot behind the leader Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland with 8 holes left to play. But as soon as Mickelson got close to the leader, he started missing short putts and putting the ball in the rough to lose 4 stokes over the final 8 holes and finish in second place with fellow American Dustin Johnson 3 strokes behind Clarke. Johnson was only 2 strokes behind Clarke with 6 holes to play, but lost 3 strokes over the final 6 holes. Both golfers were able to come from behind, but wilted at the moment they could have put maximum pressure on the leader. Clarke’s 3 stroke margin of victory included losing 2 shots to par over the last 2 holes, when he was taking care not to have a disaster with a 4 stroke lead.
As soon as the Open finished, TV coverage on ESPN shifted to the Women’s Soccer World Cup final from Germany, where the United States was taking on Japan for the championship. The US had the best of the early action but weren’t able to score a goal and went to the half tied at zero. The US finally scored a goal with 20 minutes left to go ahead 1-0, but then stopped being aggressive and their passivity, combined with Japan’s newfound desperation quickly led to a 1-1 tie. The game went to overtime and I went to JC Penney with Kathy to replace my worn out shoes and belt. When I got back, Ben was watching the game and said the US scored in the 30 minute overtime period but the Japan team also scored to re-tie the game at 2-2. With the overtime period over, the tie was broken by a penalty kick shootout. The first 2 US players had their shots blocked by the Japanese goalie, while one of Japan's shot found the back of the goal for a 1-0 lead. Then the third US shooter kicked the ball over the goal and into the stands, which is rarely seen in a shootout situation. The next 2 Japanese players scored on their penalty kicks to win the shootout, the game, and the World Cup.
These losses had to sting Mickelson, Johnson, and the soccer team. Mickelson is over 40 and probably doesn’t have many chances to win another major championship and a lot of the soccer team will be replaced by the time the next World Cup rolls around in another 4 years. Johnson is still in his 20’s but has squandered chances to win major championships twice already this year and is at risk of being labeled a choke artist. One group of Americans that had a successful weekend in international play was the Yankees, who beat the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday and Sunday (but only after getting crushed by the Jays on Thursday and Friday).
At last week’s chess camp, I told the kids that losing hurts but as long as you can learn from the defeat and become a better player it’s OK to lose since they all have at least 50 years of chess playing ahead of them. But even in youth chess a loss can be traumatic if it costs a state or national title where youth championships are age or grade based.
I got to think about stinging defeats on Monday when I lost this game of 3 minute chess on the internet that I had no business losing: When I saw I was lost, I resigned and just stared at the computer screen in disbelief. I had plenty of time to see the pawn move and win the game in fine style. I know it’s just a game, but it gave me a flashback to the worst chess loss I ever suffered.
The game happened at a team tournament in 2003. Our 4 man team was myself, Shawn Pavlik from nearby Green Mountain-Garwin, and my sons Matt (10) and Ben (7). In a team tournament, each member of your team plays their counterpart on another team and whichever team wins the most games wins the match. We were heavily outrated by the Ames team in the first round and Ben and Shawn lost their games, but Matt managed to beat one of the top high school players in the state and my opponent Tim Crouse, gave away his queen for a rook and a bishop and I already had 2 extra pawns. But I wasn’t up to the task. Warning!! After move 19, this game is not suitable for young children: I’ve never felt lower than walking out of that room and having to tell my kids and Shawn that I screwed that game up and lost. We won our next 2 matches to tie for second in the team tournament, but I couldn’t bear to even look at that game for over 3 years. Eventually, I faced up to it, but that loss still stings. Tim deserves a lot of credit for hanging around and giving me lots of chances to self-destruct.
Another stinging loss was against Gerald Hawkins in the last round of a CyChess in 2009. I was pushed around throughout, managed to win a piece....and was busted 5 moves later: I could not believe I lost that game. I was on tilt so bad that afterwards I was angrily asking the tournament director why I had gotten the black pieces for the round when I was higher rated and due the white pieces (The answer was that Hawkins had 2 points while I had 1.5 so he got the white pieces he was due).
The reason these 2 losses stick with me is that I have a self-image of myself as a chess player who makes very few mistakes, is really hard to beat, and can grind out wins (and draws against higher-rated players) just by being a pest. But in these 2 losses, all my opponents had to do to win was give me a winning game and let me choke it away.
But just to show that this can happen to anyone, here is a game I won that I had no business winning. My opponent was Rodney Olson (since deceased) and was played at the 2007 Iowa Class Championships in Ankeny.
A couple of the other players who were watching the game while they were taking a break from their own game couldn’t believe I didn’t lose. When Rodney resigned, he said ruefully, “I can’t believe I lost this game.” I could only say, “Brother, I been there.”
On Sunday morning’s British Open, Phil Mickelson went 6 strokes under par over the first 10 holes to get to one shot behind the leader Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland with 8 holes left to play. But as soon as Mickelson got close to the leader, he started missing short putts and putting the ball in the rough to lose 4 stokes over the final 8 holes and finish in second place with fellow American Dustin Johnson 3 strokes behind Clarke. Johnson was only 2 strokes behind Clarke with 6 holes to play, but lost 3 strokes over the final 6 holes. Both golfers were able to come from behind, but wilted at the moment they could have put maximum pressure on the leader. Clarke’s 3 stroke margin of victory included losing 2 shots to par over the last 2 holes, when he was taking care not to have a disaster with a 4 stroke lead.
As soon as the Open finished, TV coverage on ESPN shifted to the Women’s Soccer World Cup final from Germany, where the United States was taking on Japan for the championship. The US had the best of the early action but weren’t able to score a goal and went to the half tied at zero. The US finally scored a goal with 20 minutes left to go ahead 1-0, but then stopped being aggressive and their passivity, combined with Japan’s newfound desperation quickly led to a 1-1 tie. The game went to overtime and I went to JC Penney with Kathy to replace my worn out shoes and belt. When I got back, Ben was watching the game and said the US scored in the 30 minute overtime period but the Japan team also scored to re-tie the game at 2-2. With the overtime period over, the tie was broken by a penalty kick shootout. The first 2 US players had their shots blocked by the Japanese goalie, while one of Japan's shot found the back of the goal for a 1-0 lead. Then the third US shooter kicked the ball over the goal and into the stands, which is rarely seen in a shootout situation. The next 2 Japanese players scored on their penalty kicks to win the shootout, the game, and the World Cup.
These losses had to sting Mickelson, Johnson, and the soccer team. Mickelson is over 40 and probably doesn’t have many chances to win another major championship and a lot of the soccer team will be replaced by the time the next World Cup rolls around in another 4 years. Johnson is still in his 20’s but has squandered chances to win major championships twice already this year and is at risk of being labeled a choke artist. One group of Americans that had a successful weekend in international play was the Yankees, who beat the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday and Sunday (but only after getting crushed by the Jays on Thursday and Friday).
At last week’s chess camp, I told the kids that losing hurts but as long as you can learn from the defeat and become a better player it’s OK to lose since they all have at least 50 years of chess playing ahead of them. But even in youth chess a loss can be traumatic if it costs a state or national title where youth championships are age or grade based.
I got to think about stinging defeats on Monday when I lost this game of 3 minute chess on the internet that I had no business losing: When I saw I was lost, I resigned and just stared at the computer screen in disbelief. I had plenty of time to see the pawn move and win the game in fine style. I know it’s just a game, but it gave me a flashback to the worst chess loss I ever suffered.
The game happened at a team tournament in 2003. Our 4 man team was myself, Shawn Pavlik from nearby Green Mountain-Garwin, and my sons Matt (10) and Ben (7). In a team tournament, each member of your team plays their counterpart on another team and whichever team wins the most games wins the match. We were heavily outrated by the Ames team in the first round and Ben and Shawn lost their games, but Matt managed to beat one of the top high school players in the state and my opponent Tim Crouse, gave away his queen for a rook and a bishop and I already had 2 extra pawns. But I wasn’t up to the task. Warning!! After move 19, this game is not suitable for young children: I’ve never felt lower than walking out of that room and having to tell my kids and Shawn that I screwed that game up and lost. We won our next 2 matches to tie for second in the team tournament, but I couldn’t bear to even look at that game for over 3 years. Eventually, I faced up to it, but that loss still stings. Tim deserves a lot of credit for hanging around and giving me lots of chances to self-destruct.
Another stinging loss was against Gerald Hawkins in the last round of a CyChess in 2009. I was pushed around throughout, managed to win a piece....and was busted 5 moves later: I could not believe I lost that game. I was on tilt so bad that afterwards I was angrily asking the tournament director why I had gotten the black pieces for the round when I was higher rated and due the white pieces (The answer was that Hawkins had 2 points while I had 1.5 so he got the white pieces he was due).
The reason these 2 losses stick with me is that I have a self-image of myself as a chess player who makes very few mistakes, is really hard to beat, and can grind out wins (and draws against higher-rated players) just by being a pest. But in these 2 losses, all my opponents had to do to win was give me a winning game and let me choke it away.
But just to show that this can happen to anyone, here is a game I won that I had no business winning. My opponent was Rodney Olson (since deceased) and was played at the 2007 Iowa Class Championships in Ankeny.
A couple of the other players who were watching the game while they were taking a break from their own game couldn’t believe I didn’t lose. When Rodney resigned, he said ruefully, “I can’t believe I lost this game.” I could only say, “Brother, I been there.”
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Camping out
Organizing the camp played to all of my weaknesses. When I organize and direct a chess tournament, it’s something I’ve done many times before and the only help I need is to set up the tables and boards at the start and cleaning up at the end. I know what I need to do, when I need to do it, and after having at least one tournament a month for the last 8 months, getting the tournament to come together is almost an effortless affair.
Matt Anzis is an Iowa scholastic legend to most of these kids. He went over some his best games and captivated the advanced players.
Also, tournaments I organize tend to be a solo act. I’ve had some great helpers with the 100+ participant scholastic tournaments I’ve run, but normally I like to have my fingerprints all over the events I’m associated with so I’m aware of even the smallest problem or issue and if a parent or player has a question they know that I’m the person to come to. With the camp, I needed a lot of input from Jose from everything from the course content to the schedule to the positions we were going to use to explain concepts to the kids. Not only didn’t I have my usual ‘iron fist’ control of the event, Jose was in the process of moving and I’ve been super busy at work so our opportunities for communications to finalize our decisions were minimal.
My comfort level wasn’t helped any with the massive storm that swept through Marshalltown on Monday, leaving most of the town without power. I was able to check my emails from work but wasn't nearly as responsive as I normally am. The company that was making the camp t-shirts was local and also had no power, so I had no t-shirts for the campers. And Matt was planning on printing his lesson plans during the week, so he had to make do with writing out his notes longhand.
Jose Gatica not only can get youth interested in chess, he also has a good sense for their mood.
We had 17 campers that we divided into 5 advanced players and 12 intermediate players (Matt moved 2 players into the advanced section for day 2). Jose worked with the intermediate players and Matt worked with the advanced players in the morning, while I helped Jose out and served up snacks and drinks to the kids. During the planning, Jose was insistent that we set up time for the kids to get outside and play. I figured when the kids needed a break, I’d just dish out some snacks, but the kids were having snacks during the class sessions and when they got bored, they needed to get outside and run around at the nearby playground. Jose’s experience really paid off since not only did he insist on having some recess time, he also had me bring some footballs and soccer balls, and had me ask around for a nurse to be on call in return for a reduced entry fee to the camp.
Matt was going over positions and games with the advanced players and they were getting along great, while Jose was getting along good with the intermediate players. After lunch, it was my turn to go over endings with the intermediate players. The lesson started off well, but after an hour, the kids started zoning me out and I couldn’t finish the lesson without getting outside for a touch football and playground session. I was kind of bummed but Jose reminded me that the kids don’t have the attention span to sit still for all that long. After playtime, I gave a short lesson on writing down the moves that went much better and day one finished up on a high note.
When the advanced players got a little bored, I split them into 2 teams of 3 players and made them play, but alternating moves between players and no talking. Everyone enjoyed the different kind of chess until a teammate would make a mistake.
Day 2 went even better than day one. I got to work with the advanced kids in the morning and the beginners in the afternoon. A lot of these kids only know me from running tournaments, so it was nice for me to interact with them talking about chess in a give and take atmosphere instead of just giving them a prize or telling them who they are playing next. In the afternoon, I was much more cognizant of Jose’s advice and as soon as I saw the kids zoning out, we got them outside for more playtime. We finished the camp with a short tournament, gave everyone some chess related merchandise, and took some pictures. While we were cleaning up after the camp, the building director came in and told us he was so impressed with the camp that he would let us have it there next year at a reduced rate.
I think the kids all had a great time and I hope they learned some valuable chess lessons. I got a lesson in relaxing and letting events unfold, and I learned that Jose is someone I can count on to be prepared and also someone I can learn a lot from about how kids relate to chess. I also learned that when buying snacks, kids prefer Sunny D to apple juice by a 2 to 1 margin and that cheddar cheese crackers and mixed fruit cups win hands down over pepper jack crackers and tropical fruit cups. The camp turned out to be a chess and financial success and gave me a big dose of enthusiasm as I gear up for another school year of scholastic chess tournaments after the inevitable dwindling attendance of the summer tournaments. And having gone through the planning process, I will be much better prepared for next year’s camp.
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