One of my
absolute favourite hobbies is chess. I just love it. The strategy, the suspense
of the match, the brain work. Love it! The beauty of chess is that you don’t
have to be physically strong to do it. Brawl won’t help in this game. Ha! I
told you PE teacher I am good at a sport! Chess is a legitimate sport so it
counts! right? Fuck it, it does!
I went to England last summer for four weeks with a friend of mine. We both love chess so I brought my little glass chess set with me on the boat so we could play. I bought that set with the same guy when we visited France. We stayed in this really big hostel near Rue de Rivoli. They had woman's rooms and men's rooms so we stayed in separate rooms, for the first night at least. No funky business or anything between us, but a schizophrenic woman shouted biblical verses into the bathroom mirror at night so yeah..I felt more comfortable at his room. And in each room fitted four bunk beds so plenty of room. The first night I met this Canadian girl, Olivia and we chatted for a while. In the middle of the night we woke up because of the crazy lady screaming in the bathroom and we were like ''Holy shit what's that noise?! We first thought it was coming from the hall way, then suddenly the bathroom door opened and we looked at each other from across the room, didn’t say a word and just ducked and pretended we were sleeping. Holy hit!! That was scarily awesome. Olivia went to England the next day and I gave her my mini toothpaste, thinking she would need it more than I would this week I was staying there.
But anyway. My friend and I played chess on the boat and this English couple sat across from me, and behind him. He had to go to the loo and the guy asked about the game we were playing and asked if he could play against me. He saw me win the last four games. The guy I travelled with is 50, a lot older than me he wanted to have a go at it too and see if I could win. He didn't ! At least not the first match, the second and third he did win but only after the second he admitted being a professional player, being in a team and all. I felt kind of awesome having won from him once. When my friend came back from the loo he started talking to Nigel’s wife, the guy is called Nigel, and it turned out they own a large air-conditioning business that supplies to ships, planes and large buildings. When the three matches had been played we were already boarding.
During our stay in London we played all the time. We stayed in the London School of Economics and Political Sciences, LSE for short. Really nice place. We were there when the summer school students were there as well, so no tourist or anything. The food was excellent, and the lunch lady was also really nice. I first though she was Irish, but turned out she was Polish. My friend's in a wheelchair so we had to walk the entire thing! At least 10 km a day. I had a few places I really wanted to visit which were the natural history museum, the Sherlock Holmes museum and fleet street where Sweeney Todd used to live with misses Lovett. When we went to the Sherlock Holmes museum we had to walk the entire length of Baker street. Baker street is really awesome! I first thought there was only the Sherlock Holmes museum there, but they have a spy shop and...yeah here it comes...The bridge and Chess shop! We were in chess heaven. My friend immediately bought a new chess game for himself, one with a plastic board you can roll up. It was really cheap, only ten pounds. From then on we used that one because it is easier to play with as the pieces are bigger and not made of glass. And every time my friend would go away for the loo I would sit there with a chess game and people thought that I was challenging them. I played with an entire Italian family, at once. The son, and his little brother both were on the chess club at their school and their mom is a chemist. I almost won but they were two moves ahead of me so they could checkmate me first. It was really fun! I also played against a guy from Chile, and a guy from Sweden.
The places where my friend and I played were also awesome. We played INSIDE the Guild hall even though it was closed for public, we played next to the Lewis chess set in the British museum, and pretty much in front or inside all the famous places! We made a picture every time we finished a game at a famous place so you would see this chess board with the London Eye in the background or something. It was brilliant! We later went back to the chess shop on Baker street to buy replicas of the Lewis chess set which I now have in my room. I have a small room...Small room + big board...but hey it looks good!
I went to England last summer for four weeks with a friend of mine. We both love chess so I brought my little glass chess set with me on the boat so we could play. I bought that set with the same guy when we visited France. We stayed in this really big hostel near Rue de Rivoli. They had woman's rooms and men's rooms so we stayed in separate rooms, for the first night at least. No funky business or anything between us, but a schizophrenic woman shouted biblical verses into the bathroom mirror at night so yeah..I felt more comfortable at his room. And in each room fitted four bunk beds so plenty of room. The first night I met this Canadian girl, Olivia and we chatted for a while. In the middle of the night we woke up because of the crazy lady screaming in the bathroom and we were like ''Holy shit what's that noise?! We first thought it was coming from the hall way, then suddenly the bathroom door opened and we looked at each other from across the room, didn’t say a word and just ducked and pretended we were sleeping. Holy hit!! That was scarily awesome. Olivia went to England the next day and I gave her my mini toothpaste, thinking she would need it more than I would this week I was staying there.
But anyway. My friend and I played chess on the boat and this English couple sat across from me, and behind him. He had to go to the loo and the guy asked about the game we were playing and asked if he could play against me. He saw me win the last four games. The guy I travelled with is 50, a lot older than me he wanted to have a go at it too and see if I could win. He didn't ! At least not the first match, the second and third he did win but only after the second he admitted being a professional player, being in a team and all. I felt kind of awesome having won from him once. When my friend came back from the loo he started talking to Nigel’s wife, the guy is called Nigel, and it turned out they own a large air-conditioning business that supplies to ships, planes and large buildings. When the three matches had been played we were already boarding.
During our stay in London we played all the time. We stayed in the London School of Economics and Political Sciences, LSE for short. Really nice place. We were there when the summer school students were there as well, so no tourist or anything. The food was excellent, and the lunch lady was also really nice. I first though she was Irish, but turned out she was Polish. My friend's in a wheelchair so we had to walk the entire thing! At least 10 km a day. I had a few places I really wanted to visit which were the natural history museum, the Sherlock Holmes museum and fleet street where Sweeney Todd used to live with misses Lovett. When we went to the Sherlock Holmes museum we had to walk the entire length of Baker street. Baker street is really awesome! I first thought there was only the Sherlock Holmes museum there, but they have a spy shop and...yeah here it comes...The bridge and Chess shop! We were in chess heaven. My friend immediately bought a new chess game for himself, one with a plastic board you can roll up. It was really cheap, only ten pounds. From then on we used that one because it is easier to play with as the pieces are bigger and not made of glass. And every time my friend would go away for the loo I would sit there with a chess game and people thought that I was challenging them. I played with an entire Italian family, at once. The son, and his little brother both were on the chess club at their school and their mom is a chemist. I almost won but they were two moves ahead of me so they could checkmate me first. It was really fun! I also played against a guy from Chile, and a guy from Sweden.
The places where my friend and I played were also awesome. We played INSIDE the Guild hall even though it was closed for public, we played next to the Lewis chess set in the British museum, and pretty much in front or inside all the famous places! We made a picture every time we finished a game at a famous place so you would see this chess board with the London Eye in the background or something. It was brilliant! We later went back to the chess shop on Baker street to buy replicas of the Lewis chess set which I now have in my room. I have a small room...Small room + big board...but hey it looks good!
The term
''adventure chess'' was actually a bit of luck. We were walking home from Fleet
street and we saw two students playing chess on the street. We started talking
and we told them about our chess habit. We didn't have a proper name for it so
we just called it ''playing chess at random places and making a photo of it
afterwards'' We were just about to resume walking when the guy said ''blabla
can't remember blabala adventure chess'' Eureka! So from then on we've always
called it adventure chess. It's better than planking and fun!
Yours faithfully,
Claire Quiem
No comments:
Post a Comment