Back from Tacoma

I spent the weekend making what's become an annual Hajj to Tacoma, WA to see my good friend Mr. Hanberg. It's always a pleasure to get out there and hang with him, because it generally means an excellent few days when I get to eat good food, see good movies and play good chess. This time around the menu featured Thai food, burgers and omelets, all of which were fantastic. The schuedule featured a Mariner's game which we left when the M's were losing badly only to find out they staged a major comeback to take the game, a 3 hour play called The Steward of Christendom which was decent but probably should have been about an hour shorter, and screening of Shoot 'Em Up, King of Kong, Stranger than Fiction and several episodes of Heroes.

The King of Kong screening was notable because Steve Wiebe, who is pretty much the protagonist of the film, held a Q&A session after the movie. The movie was extremely well done, and it was nice to get a greater depth of understanding on the whole situation with the Q&A.

Erik and I also played several games of chess. This is pretty much the only time during the year that I play chess anymore, and it's something I always look forward to. I think we played somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 games this weekend. I'm the better player, and I got a couple of cheap victories when Erik didn't see an early checkmate, but he did manage to get two draws and really made me work for the last couple of victories.

The great thing about chess is that it's an equal battlefield. There are no surprise attacks, no extra forces you can call on. Your entire game plan is right there on the board for your enemy to see, and the only mistake you can make is to not consider enough of the relevant possibilities. Kudos to Mr. Hanberg for raising the level of his game and really putting the screws to me in several of our contests. And Erik, here's a link to the pawn power book that I read years ago that helped me out.

Thanks also to Mary, Erik's GF who had moved in since my last visit, for putting up with me for five days.