So it's time to catch up after a month or so. Most of my teammates are in their countries right now or playing tournaments; I'll let you know more of this soon. As for me, I went to Germany and hence the following post is about chess in Berlin.
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Actually there were two members of the UTB/TSC chess team in Berlin. Joe D. Cantu and myself along with ten students and two amazing professors were enrolled in the European Politics class that was taught abroad for the first time. The activities and lectures that Dr. Soldan and Dr. Binder prepared for us (hallo to you if you're reading this; hope you liked my paper on propaganda) didn't leave us much time as to play tournaments in one of the 57 chess clubs of the city but we did have contact with the chess world.
Okay, so you know how Germany has produced a great array of outstanding individuals who succeeded in philosophy, literature, math, sciences and various other fields. You probably also know that in chess they had Emmanuel Lasker, the only world champion to rule for 27 years. But did you know that since the turn of the century no other German chess player won a gold medal in a world tournament? This changed in 2002 when Elisabeth Paehtz owned the world ch. for girls under-18. In fact, she repeated the prowess by winning the world ch. Under-20 two years later.
Elisabeth is 24 and holds the titles of Woman Grandmaster and International Master. She met with us (us = my teammate Joe and me) in her apartment in Berlin. This was set up as an interview and hopefully you’ll read a post about this soon. Next day she had a simul at the house of Thuringia-from where she’s originally, and hence this picture:
Okay, so you know how Germany has produced a great array of outstanding individuals who succeeded in philosophy, literature, math, sciences and various other fields. You probably also know that in chess they had Emmanuel Lasker, the only world champion to rule for 27 years. But did you know that since the turn of the century no other German chess player won a gold medal in a world tournament? This changed in 2002 when Elisabeth Paehtz owned the world ch. for girls under-18. In fact, she repeated the prowess by winning the world ch. Under-20 two years later.
Elisabeth is 24 and holds the titles of Woman Grandmaster and International Master. She met with us (us = my teammate Joe and me) in her apartment in Berlin. This was set up as an interview and hopefully you’ll read a post about this soon. Next day she had a simul at the house of Thuringia-from where she’s originally, and hence this picture:
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The chess coach at Humboldt University, Carlos Garcia Hernandez, invited me to play a simul against his pupils one afternoon and I gladly accepted. Little did we know that only a miracle would make Joe and I able to be there on time. Because of school we needed to be in Cottbus that same morning. Mind you, Cottbus is a beautiful little town located about 80 miles south of Berlin. That means it takes an hour to get there by train.
Anyway, back in Berlin we walked a lot (it’s called being lost) and ringed the doors of other neighbors until we finally found the right place. Despite being late and ashamed, we were were kindly received by the Humboldt guys. It was late for playing a simul so we ended up playing some rapid games. We had a feeling that we were in front of geniuses with great potential and it would not surprise us that they come up with some theory or invention in the future. Our best regards to Carlos, Gesine, Johannes, Sabine, and all of you guys from the picture!
Anyway, back in Berlin we walked a lot (it’s called being lost) and ringed the doors of other neighbors until we finally found the right place. Despite being late and ashamed, we were were kindly received by the Humboldt guys. It was late for playing a simul so we ended up playing some rapid games. We had a feeling that we were in front of geniuses with great potential and it would not surprise us that they come up with some theory or invention in the future. Our best regards to Carlos, Gesine, Johannes, Sabine, and all of you guys from the picture!
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On a related note I love Berlin!
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Neues-Deutschland featured a super nice article about me with an annotated game written by Carlos Garcia. Muchas Gracias, Carlos!
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I'd like to thank Mr. Frank Hoppe, webmaster of the German Chess Association and the Berlin Chess Association, for letting me know the tournaments schedule. Because of him, Elisabeth and Carlos knew that we were visiting.
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Also thanks to Mr. Jens Sorgenfrei of the Zugzwang Chess Club.
Last but not least, a big thanks goes out to Mr. Gereon Kalkuhl for recommending me to Mr. Hoppe. Gereon is the author of my Wikipedia article (In German).
Kudos Luciana! you have your own wiki article......... post more pictures of your trip to Berlin ;-)
yeah post some pictures