Sunday, October 17, 2004

Sports Will Kill Me

Last night was a bit of a mad hash of everything.

There was English Premier League Soccer, with the rear end of North London hitting a 49th consecutive unbeaten game 3-1 against the other Birmingham team, and the flat end of South London blowing it against the soft end of Manchester 1-0 away. The hard end of Manchester had four strikers in play and yet had no success in opening an account in Birmingham 0-0. And Merseyside was having so much fun I thought I was 20 years younger and it was all a dream (Reds 2-4 away, Blues 1-0). All the results I liked, and yet, with much of the excitement kept for the end.

At the same time, at the Centro Dannemann, Brissago, Switzerland, a titanic struggle was underway. The penultimate game of the World Chess Championships between challenger Peter Leko and titleholder Vladimir Kramnik was in progress. Somewhere around move 16, I kibitzed at chessgames.com that Kramnik would never be able to find the half-move tempo he needed - and so it proved, although it was a close-run thing. The analysts are still out, and Leko probably made a mistake somewhere which turned out to be non-fatal. Kramnik, in frustration, played until only both naked kings were left on the board - predictably. The six-hour game will go down as one of the most instructive strategic battles of WCC history.

I'm too old for all of this.

4 Comments:

Blogger BenSohBS said...

haha perhaps doing sport is less exciting than watching sport... what sports do you still play?

Sunday, October 17, 2004 10:26:00 pm  
Blogger Trebuchet said...

For those who need to know, my old bones can only take low-impact workouts and I stopped playing football two years ago when I pulled both hamstrings in a sprint. I then realised what I should have realised a long time ago: when you are thirty-five, it takes about three times longer to warm up for about half the activity. Fortunately, the brain works fine, and sometimes better. *grin*

Monday, October 18, 2004 2:38:00 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Sir

The City of Muggers was initially what I used to describe New York. As in, the double meaning on the word 'mug', and the danger inherent in every street corner. Of course this is just my perception/impression, because when I went to visit NY as a kid, the first sight I beheld was this burglar dashing past me. He knocked me unceremoniously onto the ground. Hence, I have deeeeeep percolating emotional scars and I don't want to go there for an end of year holiday. Just kidding...

My friend and I decided to relate it to our present situation and interpret it as the City of Muggers - as in, those who bury themselves in books without a life.
I suppose silly things like that amuse you when you are buried in a conglomeration of stress, foreboding papers, and questions unable to be answered. ;)

Somewhere along the lines of City of Angels, just far more bleak and morose.

God bless.

Monday, October 18, 2004 2:56:00 am  
Blogger Geoff said...

Hum, I suppose they don't let computers into Chess Championships anymore.

Its a shame, really. It was quite humiliating for the World Chess Champion to lose to Deep Blue, but I guess that's what you get when you pit a human being vs. a logic machine.

I've not a mind for soccer/football, but I do play the occasional game of Chess, when I'm not writing or working.

Tuesday, October 19, 2004 3:03:00 am  

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