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.
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.
etched with acid at 1:49:00 pm
4 Comments:
haha perhaps doing sport is less exciting than watching sport... what sports do you still play?
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*
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.
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.
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