Aloha Tribe,
Tonight, a cold, rainy Friday night, I am studying a rare Russian chess book by A. Ilyin-Genevsky. He was a Soviet Master from in the early 1900's and is known as the father of Soviet chess. This book focuses on his route to becoming a Master chess player and begins when he was introduced to the game at the age of 10.
The book offers 50 of his greatest chess games, and, these reveal his playing style which is both cheerful and optimistic, perfect actually, for a longboarder. Especially an old-school, Classic Stylist longboarder.
So, what is this saying? Well, one can take two seemingly unrelated things, such as chess and surfing, and, find a link between them, not only historically, as I mentioned in my previous post about chess at Sunset Beach on the North Shore, but also, in playing and surfing style, and thus, in the way one lives ones life.
There is a game in the book which warrants extreme study, namely, Capablanca vs. Ilyin-Genevsky from the Moscow International Tournament of 1925. Not, unlike watching a surf movie of one of our surfing legends such as Gerry Lopez, for example. In both cases, you go to the Masters and study their style to absorb it into your own sense of style. And, since both Ilyin-Genevsky and Lopez both exemplify a laid back optimistic, mellow, style, to me, they are similar.
Tonight, on this dark, cold, rainy night, with the fire softly tickling her flames in my woodburning stove, I have out my magnetic travel chess set, the one that went to the North Pole, and, I'm playing through the game I just mentioned, and perhaps a few of the other 50 from the book, as I sip on some dark red wine, in the glow of the fire light illuminating my wooden chess board and wooden pieces.
Interestingly enough, the more I think of Russian chess, the more I think of my own Siberian/Mongolian heritage and links to Siberia, and, that makes me think of surfing in Siberia. A quest of mine. To play chess there, to slackline and tightrope there, and, of course, to surf there. Hmm, it makes me contemplate a white slackline. I think I must get one.
Bodaciously Stoked,
Lily of the Valley
Tonight, a cold, rainy Friday night, I am studying a rare Russian chess book by A. Ilyin-Genevsky. He was a Soviet Master from in the early 1900's and is known as the father of Soviet chess. This book focuses on his route to becoming a Master chess player and begins when he was introduced to the game at the age of 10.
The book offers 50 of his greatest chess games, and, these reveal his playing style which is both cheerful and optimistic, perfect actually, for a longboarder. Especially an old-school, Classic Stylist longboarder.
So, what is this saying? Well, one can take two seemingly unrelated things, such as chess and surfing, and, find a link between them, not only historically, as I mentioned in my previous post about chess at Sunset Beach on the North Shore, but also, in playing and surfing style, and thus, in the way one lives ones life.
There is a game in the book which warrants extreme study, namely, Capablanca vs. Ilyin-Genevsky from the Moscow International Tournament of 1925. Not, unlike watching a surf movie of one of our surfing legends such as Gerry Lopez, for example. In both cases, you go to the Masters and study their style to absorb it into your own sense of style. And, since both Ilyin-Genevsky and Lopez both exemplify a laid back optimistic, mellow, style, to me, they are similar.
Tonight, on this dark, cold, rainy night, with the fire softly tickling her flames in my woodburning stove, I have out my magnetic travel chess set, the one that went to the North Pole, and, I'm playing through the game I just mentioned, and perhaps a few of the other 50 from the book, as I sip on some dark red wine, in the glow of the fire light illuminating my wooden chess board and wooden pieces.
Interestingly enough, the more I think of Russian chess, the more I think of my own Siberian/Mongolian heritage and links to Siberia, and, that makes me think of surfing in Siberia. A quest of mine. To play chess there, to slackline and tightrope there, and, of course, to surf there. Hmm, it makes me contemplate a white slackline. I think I must get one.
Bodaciously Stoked,
Lily of the Valley
Legend has it true masters can play chess blindfolded.
ReplyDeleteAloha Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteThat's true. More so, surfing blindfolded greatly helps you develop a sense of balance and sensory awareness known by fewer than few. I often train this way, both while surfing and tightrope walking, for this very reason.
If surfing blindfolded sounds "scary," simply go on a night surf first. Start, perhaps, on the night of a full moon, then, progress to less and less light. Knowing, full well, that, big fish do swim around more at night, so, you simply have to weigh your odds. Then again, to live and win large, you have to be willing to bet large. So, it's all in how one looks at life and what you want to get out of the time we each have.
Bodaciously Stoked,
Lily of the Valley