If you tried to find my round 4 game yesterday on the Mon Roi site, it wasn't there. The TD's system crashed during the round. It should be up later as will my round 3 win. I would not let him take the Round 1 & 2 games. I figure my little blog readership was enough. I don't need the entire universe seeing me suck so bad yesterday.
I think I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning because I got really annoyed with the little kid sitting next to me during this round. Usually I don't get bothered by people I'm not playing, but this kid was driving me nuts. First he was coughing and sniffling like crazy. Like I want kiddie cooties! I get exposed to enough of them during the week. He wasn't covering his mouth. I moved my tea and water to the other side of me so he would cough all over what I was drinking. I also put my iPod on so I didn't have to listen to all his cold sound effects.
My game was interesting, and both of us were using a lot of time. My opponent was using more. One of the problems I have after playing "cracktion chess" is trying to stay focused when my opponent is taking a lot of time on a move. The position was kind of cramped, and so I made some pawn pushes that opened up my pieces, but unfortunately gave his pieces even more space. I probably should have sat back longer. I think in hindsight 18. e4 was too risky.
The kid had stopped coughing, but then he has a bag of potato chips, and his crinkling the bag, and chomping on the chips really loud. I kind of let him have it, as nicely as I could. I told him it was rude to eat noisy foods at the table, and that he should leave the board if he wants to eat that stuff. He put the bag aside, and later on I noticed that he had switched to eating a piece if pound cake. I get hungry when playing a long game, but I try to stick to quiet foods, and when I have a sandwich I walk away from the board. The kid's opponent earlier on had come in with a hot dog with sauerkraut on it. Can't stand that smell! I almost said something to him, but he was sitting across from me so I didn't want to lean over. The hot dog incident was before the potato chips. The chips were the last straw.
One round left. Hopefully I don't get paired against that kid since he's been beating and drawing with 1900s. He's rated 1673 which means he's really 1873. Besides after my little "etiquette lecture" he might be extra motivated to put me in my place.
Whoever I play it would be nice to score another point. There is still the hope of gaining rating points since my bye loss in the Premier Section will be rated first, then they'll rate the under 2000 afterwards.
7 comments:
Well, i did catch the first 8 moves or so of your live game... Pretty cool watching some live action. ;)
Re: kids eating at the board.... I'm kind of disappointed that their teachers don't include basic etiquette as part their training. A lot of these kids have received thousands of dollars worth of lessons and still have no idea how to behave at the board. Why don't the teachers put aside one minute per lesson to say "Don't eat at the board," and "Here's the proper way to shake hands"? Polly, you're a teacher. Is basic etiquette part of your teaching? Why don't teachers do more of this?
Den: I put a lot of emphisis on etiquette and good sportsmanship with my students. If I play a kid in a tournament and they do something that I feel is inappropriate I will tell them. I will usually wait until the game is over, and discuss the behavior with him afterwards. Sometimes I will say something in the middle of a game if I feel it's really being annoying.
If a kid is adjusting pieces on my time, I might let it go once or two times. If he does it again I will say quietly but firmly "do not adjust pieces on your opponent's time." Afterwards I will go into the etiquette and rule issue in more detail.
Unfortunately there are are some teachers that feel gamemanship is acceptable, almost to the point of encouraging it. The win at costs mentality that pervades all aspects of life causes simple etiquette and sportsmanship to be lost.
Polly,
Believe me when I say I'm sincerely sorry. I just realised that some of your young students might visit your site and the language in the linked video might not be, should we say...appropriate for young innocent minds. I just couldn't help myself since I felt so deeply for your predicament. I hope you can find it in your pedagogic heart to forgive me my trespass in tainting the young minds under your tutelage.
-Samurai
Samurai: Apology accepted. I did delete the comment. (The contrast between the two versions was pretty funny though. LOL) Even though I haven't told my students about my blog, I'm sure sooner or later one of the more internet savvy ones will come across it. I'm not sure I'd want the parents to see that either. Some of kids do go on the USCF website and look at my results. YIKES!!!
When I'm writing I will often censor myself by using #%& symbols or substitute words like "freaking". I hear profanity a lot, and I do end out using it around adults, but I don't like using certain words in written material like this. A spoken word will pass or can be explained in context. Written words stay to be seen over and over.
If you haven't done it already, you should see the film the clip was taken from; "The Big Lebowski". I believe it was made by the Coen brothers and it's one of the funniest comedies I've ever seen.
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