Just rename it to J'adoube Street, already. . .
...because I own chess on it.San Francisco, time to rename Market Street to J'adoube Street.
I own it.
I went on my yearly trek to JavaOne this year and of course the first thing I did was trot over to 5th and Market to beat up on the local street chess hustlers.
It's not even fair. Several years ago when I first played against the San Francisco chess hustlers, I couldn't win in the cacophony of trolleys, street cars and bustle of my favorite city in North America.
Now I can't lose. I played some guy who looked to the be the best of the group - meaning he had the biggest wad of cash so I figured he was taking advantage of the average street passerby. I played white and my patented winning opening - d4.
He played a Sicilian opening. WTF? I guess these guys basically learn an opening or two and then use it no matter what. I allowed him to capture my c pawn because I knew these guys think that once they get 1 pawn up, they've won. My opponent didn't think about things like opening up files for rooks and so forth. By the end of the middle game, he was so busy trying to cling to the 1 pawn advantage, all of his pieces were completely uncoordinated and out of position. I capitalized easily, regained my pawn, then went up 1, 2, 3 pawns and then had my rook on his 7th rank (the place where rooks live!) and two pieces in the vicinity of his King.
It was so easy. I look at my game now compared to how I played a few years ago and it seems like I don't even recognize the player I was. Things are so much clearer now. Despite all the two-bit advice I got from various wanna-be chess mentors (yes, you know who you are and yes, I ignored you), I stayed the course, played lots of game, took the advice of people who actually were good chess coaches and guess what?
I got better. I realize I have a long way to go, but chess is so much more fun now that I have begun to recognize the real rules of chess play - the ones that help you win. I believe I said a long time ago in a very early posting that when I became a black belt in the Martial Arts, I quickly realized I was only at the beginning of knowledge.
I'm not saying I'm a black belt chess player now, but I'm no padawan learner anymore. . .
Oh yeah. JavaOne was a blast, but really strange. Who'd thunk Larry Ellison, The Evil One, would show up onstage at the Moscone Center for JavaOne. . .
posted by J'adoube @ 7:22 PM
2 Comments:
That's awesome, great to see you noticed a difference! For those that don't know J'adoube, you might want to take his claim that SF is his favorite city as sarcasm. :) Just a guess on my part.
Sweet! I may have to stop by J'adoube St. the next time in SF visiting my nephew. It would be interesting to have a match between the SF and NYC hustlers. I'd put my money on the NYC guys.
It's funny you mention being a black belt. On my blog I mentioned about my belt promotion test in Taekwondo. Somebody asked what an equivalent ELO rating would be for a black belt. I wasn't sure how to answer that. One person responded that he thought that a 1st dan black belt was probably equal to a 1600 player. He had a whole scale for all the color belts.
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