Saturday, July 7, 2018

Well, I fell asleep quickly last night, got up twice during the night, the 2^nd time at 5am and finally got up at 5:45.

I checked online and Jose lost last night to the 2000 rated player but today his opponent is a girl or woman with a rating of 1530 so he should be able to win that one.

I left the apt at 7:45 with Teresa.  We took a taxi to the highway and she quickly caught a bus to the finca while I went up the stairs and took the metro.  I arrived at the chess tournament about 8:30.  Jose arrived a few minutes later.  He told me that his next opponent, a 15-year old girl, defeated a player with a 2025 rating in the first round.  She arrived about 10 minutes late.  After they got out of the opening and into the middle game I left for an hour and got a haircut.  When I returned they were in a close game until Jose found a tactic that gained him a free bishop and she resigned.

We went to lunch at Victory in the Obelisco mall.  I had stuffed peppers but I thought it would be baked and it was fried.  It also came with soup, potatoes, and vegetable slices and juice for 10,500 pesos.

Back at the tournament we were 90 minutes early for the 3pm match.

I learned from Jose: that if you have your cellphone on during a game you will be disqualified; if your opponent doesn’t show up after 30 minutes you get a forfeit win; you start the digital clocks by pushing a button in the center; you’re supposed to record your games in Spanish; and the winner of each match has to enter the game moves into a computer.

While there I ran into Edilson Enrique Bermudez the guy I gave a Chess Life magazine to last year.

Jose’s opponent never showed up so at 3:30 he got a forfeit win.  He walked me to the metro on his way home.  We’ll probably get together to resume our personal chess matches next Thursday.

On the metro I got a call from Laura.  Something about her keys not working on the apartment door.  When I got to the apt she said that her keys don’t work to lock the door from the inside.  I’ve never even tried to do that so my hurrying back to the apt was for naught.

Teresa returned about 5pm and reported that the gate has been installed and there are just some minor things that have to be taken care of on Monday or Tuesday.

I received an email from Envios Market that I have a package waiting for pickup.  If I don’t get it on Monday it might have to wait until next Saturday.

I made tentative plans to meet Jim tomorrow.  He has a defective t-shirt he wants to have fixed at the El Tesoro mall.

Laura left the apt about 8pm all dressed up.

The Colombian Peso closed for the week at 2,872 to the US Dollar.

T-shirt of the day: I live for game day.