Saturday, June 10, 2017

Last night we went to bed at midnight, I got up twice during the night, finally waking up at 7am and getting up at 7:45.

It’s a sunny day but the weather forecast is for only a high of 82 degrees – not bad.

I left the apt at 9am and was given a free adn newspaper outside Exito.  On an Envigado bus I looked at the paper and there was a 1-page article about the chess tournament that starts today.  Later I translated it to English (with some minor corrections):

MIND SHOCK

In Medellin the Continental Chess Championship will be held starting today.

The best chess players on the continent will be in action at the Continental Chess Championship of the Americas, to be played in the Medellin Chess League at the Antanasio Girardot Sports Unit until next June 19.

In this event will be competing, for the first time in history, the seven great Colombian masters, the only ones to reach the highest title of Grand Master: Alonso Zapata, Gildardo Garcia, Jaime Cuartas, Sergio Barrientos, Alder Escobar, David Arenas and Cristhian Ríos, who will be present in the chess competition of highest importance in the annual calendar of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) for America.

GMs Zapata and Garcia, United States residents, and GM Cuartas, who lives in Spain, arrived in Medellín to try to prove their mettle and fight for one of the six seats to the Fide World Cup that will arise from the Continental.  For his part, GM Rios, whose title still does not appear officially but who has already met the requirements (three norms, referring to performances equivalent to a GM, and an Elo, a score that measures the strength of a player, of 2500) will try to live up to his new title.

"I am very encouraged to participate in the Continental Chess Championship of the Americas Medellin 2017 because it is the most important and interesting event on my country’s annual chess calendar in the endearing city of Medellín where I have many dear friends.  I also know the quality and leadership capacity of its organizers, for that reason, I do not doubt that it will be a great event", expressed the first great master that Colombia had: Alonso Zapata.

Meanwhile, Raul Henao, an international master who will also participate in the event, spoke about the event and argued: "For us it is very important because of its strength. In addition to the seven great Colombian grand masters there will be in total 32 grand masters who come from other parts of the Americas ".

Round 1 of the Continental starts today at 4:00 p.m.

The tournament will be an 11 round Swiss system with pairings by the "Swiss Manager" program and will last 10 days.

OTHER NOTES

International master Raul Henao spoke of the participation of the seven Colombian GMs and agreed: "The good thing about chess is that there are no clashes of ideas because here the mettle is better. Although there is a physical preparation more important in this sport is the clash of minds."  Regarding the possibilities he sees for one of the Colombian GMs to get a place in the Fide World Cup, he commented: "There are great possibilities. They will be the best and the Colombians are prepared to achieve one of those spots that will the tournament will deliver."

5 thousand dollars will be awarded to the winner of the Continental Championship.

It will be streamed live.  The Continental Chess Championship of the Americas that begins today in Medellin will be broadcast and commented on international Chess 24, one of the most important chess websites in the world.

The international master David "El Divis" Martinez, the great teacher Pepe Cuenca, both Spaniards, and the FIDE teacher, the Chilean Damaris Abarca, will follow the development of the tournament.

This is the Chess 24 website: https://chess24.com.

I found the player list here http://www.chess-results.com/tnr286140.aspx?lan=1

There are 150 players with rankings from 2066 (Expert) to 2663 (GM).  Only 7 players are from the US.

I got off the bus at MBE where I picked up my Chess Life magazine for June.  (I never received one for May but I checked online and there didn’t seem to be anything real interesting in it anyway.)

I walked up to the clinic to try my luck with their Servibanca ATM.  Again I got lucky and received all small bills - 10s and 20s.  On the receptionist’s desk was a small stack of Gente newspapers so I took one.  It was the El Poblado neighborhood version and they even had a short column in English:

The Angustifolia bamboo and the termites of Parque Lineal La Frontera, the fake laurel tree and the Phoebis Philea butterfly of La Presidenta, the yarumos and the balsa trees of El Poblado park, the ping guayacan trees of La Bailarina, the ylang ylang trees and the bichofue of Ciudad del Rio are only some of the 200 species of plants, mammals, birds and insects found in El Poblado.

That is how the study presented by the Secretary of Environment can be summarized.  In the report, 205 species were identified inhabiting 8 parks of El Poblado.

“When walking conscientiously around these parks, it is not strange to perceive the aroma exuded by the flowers and the vegetation.” Says the study hired through participation budgets.  For Biologist Orfi Salgado Osorio, this investigation allows inhabitants of El Poblado to appreciate and preserve these 8 parks we have.”

I walked up to Citibank where I took out some more cash, this time almost all 50s.

I walked up to Oviedo where I looked, unsuccessfully, for a few things in the Carulla grocery store.

Back outside it was just a 5-minute wait for a Sabaneta bus.

I was back at the apt by 10:45.

After lunch we left the apt at 12:15 and arrived at Stella Duran before 12:45.  Teresa went inside for her massage and I went around the corner to the Casa Blanca Hostel.  I bought a small bottle of water (1,000 pesos) and read most of my Chess Life magazine while waiting for Teresa.  She finally came out at 2:15 and we quickly caught a taxi back to the apt.

The Colombian Peso closed for the week at 2,912 to the US Dollar.

I watched some of the chess tournament online.  It wasn’t easy to find/get to.  I even had to sign up for a Twitter account.  Imagine!  Interestingly, most of the top table (1-10) games lasted 15 moves or less (big difference in strength between a grandmaster and just a master).

T-shirt of the day: The EH team.