Phine Phinish In Philly!

If you read my previous post I discussed whether I could rebound mentally from playing three horrible games in a row. As you can probably guess from the title, I did indeed rebound. So how did I do it?

I decided I needed to just get away from the chess scene, so I was going to take my trashy murder mystery and go sit in the hotel restaurant and have lunch by myself. As much as I like this hotel their dining hours are rather limited. They seem to want force you into the fancy seafood place or the lobby bar. I was not in the mood for either. I spent enough time in that bar last night. (Go Giants!!) So I ran into Lilia's and Maddie's parents and they were planning to walk over to the Reading Market. Anyone who's been to Philly is probably familiar with it, and those from Boston can think Faniuel Hall (sans trendy stores) or Seattle's Pike St. Market. There's nothing like a brisk 10 block walk in freezing weather to wake up the brain! The food choices are rather overwhelming and then there's the chocolate shop. I ended out at the chocolate shop before I decided on lunch. Priorities!

Now as much as playing kids makes me crazy, I love hanging out with them, especially the girls. Maddie and Lilia were regaling us withs stories about their friends (Boys! I don't think girls do that stuff.) standing behind their friends' opponents, making faces or doing bunny ears with the opponent being clueless about what is occurring behind him. Dam I had an overwhelmimg urge to do that to Lilia's seventh round opponent, but decided it would not look good.

It was funny because walking over to the market we passed a art gallery with a like size gorrilla in the window. Damn! I wished I had my camera with me, because it was make a great visual to my next King Kong post. You know they'll be a another King Kong post in the near future. I have to keep up with Tempo with all his wonderful pictures that accompnay his well written material. King Kong will have to wait another day.

When we got back to the hotel there was still 45 minutes until the round, so I went up the the next level away from the chess players and tried to find a quiet spot to listen to something very mellow. A good piece is Ralph Vaugh William's Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis. The piece lasts about 15 minutes. It's worth a listen from the You tube link I provided. It's soothing and also being a bit on the mournful side it helps bring the hyper brain back down.

Once again I'm facing a NYC kid from a school that I direct tournaments at. Just what I need at this point. I wasn't surprised by the pairing. I too can stare at the wallchart and figure out pairings. My only hope was if there was an odd nimber in 2.5 score group that dropped down to play me. No such luck. Tomorrow I will post the game with commentary, not just the moves of game itself, but also the psychological aspects. Physchology played a big part in my vctory. Stayed tuned tomorrow for the game itself.