After 5 long months I needed a break to visit my home in Florida (FL) again. For sure! I drove straight back from Houston. There wasn’t much to see initially. After an hour or so I was in Louisiana (LA). Now that was something. I’m pretty used to the scrub brush and swampy lands like the Everglades here in Florida. Louisiana was very different but also had some of that similarity. It was beautiful driving East on I-10 over the marshy lands. Much of I-10 in LA is built above the water. Really a cool feat of engineering. I wonder if in my home game if I could incorporate some type of overland travel system that makes sense like that. Maybe some king wanted to increase the wealth of his nation so he increased taxes but also provided jobs by building a superior by-way system and employed tons of town folk to go out into the swamp and build a bridge straight through it. Then the adventuring party is hired to protect the workers as they build this thing. What type of critters and horrors might they encounter in the swamp?! Hahah well back to my update…
I stopped in the French Quarter of NOLA for some dinner and enjoyed all sorts of fried fish from a balcony up top the busy loud streets. On my way there, by a café, two men were playing chess. I stopped to watch for a good minute. There was someone getting married or having a bachelorette party. They were very drunk and throwing beads like it was Mardi Gras. It was a very mask free, party place so I mostly kept to myself. That is until on my way back when the Chess guys had finished playing and packed up. I asked to play whoever had won and Ryan, the guy who side eyed me as I was staring at them play chess said they had each took a game off each other and he had his set in the car. After the Queen’s Gambit dropped on Netflix, Chess got really popular on the streaming service twitch 6 months ago in 2020. By November I got hooked to a few personalities like GMHikaru and started playing almost every day. By January I’ve gotten my ranking up to 1000 and I’m pushing for 1500 by end of 2021.
Ryan set up the board and corrected me several times as I didn’t even know where the pieces went on the board. In my defense the chess.com app sets up the board for me perfectly every time. So I played as black and got destroyed within the first 3 moves. I found it usually takes me a good amount of time to warm up before I’m ready. I wanted to resign and try again but he wouldn’t let me. He wanted to check mate me. After he had taken all my pieces (but not won the game) I resigned. We flipped the board and I wanted to play again, this time as white. I tried to remember everything I had learned and not be nervous. I started playing chess when I was like 9 and I think I have lost every game I’ve played in person. Except once, when I played my friend George at a bar and I don’t think he was paying attention to the board at all. So I was pretty nervous to say the least. Especially with all those insecurities from the past. This time I knew it had to be different. Move 1 I was hoping to try a rook king fork by way of a bishop held knight. By move 5 or 6 I realized I hadn’t blundered any pieces away and could execute the attack. He blocked with a pawn held by 3 pieces but I realized I also had 3 pieces angled at the same pawn structure. I did the math out loud and tried to figure out who could come out on top if we all attacked the same square. Since we both had the same number of pieces angling to the same square whoever moves first is “Up a Tempo” and will have the advantage. So I struck first. He balked at losing all 3 pieces so I angled my queen to hold my other knight which then forked his queen and rook. From that point it was over. I took all his pieces and forced his king to the last rank and file. I forced my queen into the face of his king and held it with a bishop. My heart was pounding the entire time. Each move I made I was hoping I saw all possible moves and didn’t accidentally give a piece away for free. I was hoping he wouldn’t sneak out of the clinch and continue to make the most logical move to escape the attack. Eventually I said, “Um, I think that’s mate.” He said nah I don’t think so and went to move a piece. A second later it clicked. We shook hands and he left to go wash his hands. Mine were shaking. I had never won in person before and I knew for sure I could beat him if we went again. But it was getting late. I was only 4 hours into my drive and it was dark. I needed to get 10 hours in order to be home by the end of the weekend.
That night I ended up sleeping in my car at a rest stop. I got 4 hours. It was relatively safe, had armed security, well lit. I locked myself in my car and I don’t think it could have been opened with the button from the outside. Around 6 I drove over back to my uncle’s farm. My aunt made me breakfast and then they started making lunch which of course I was socially obligated to stay for. It was good to catch up with them. Plus I would have been a fool to turn down grandma’s recipe for spaghetti and meatballs.
In another 2 hours I was in North Florida, to visit Josh. We got dinner and talked. He’ll be moving soon too. When we got back to his house his parents offered me food too and what do you know it was spaghetti and meatballs. So basically, I’ve been eating and driving the entire way. After we talked for a bit I left and drove straight back home for 5 hours or so. It was quite dark and I really learned how long Palm Beach County was.
It was quite good to see my family after so long. I really look forward to seeing my friends and celebrating my birthday. On a more sober note, this trip has become a bit more expensive and my job hasn’t decided to reinstate my original pay before Covid. So staying at home for a month or two until I can plan things out better, buy more gear like a bike and a kayak. I’ve got a lot of doctors appointments and car maintenance to do.
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